Modest Net Gains : CSUN Boasts Stubborn Volleyball Competitor in Unassuming Swalec

Don’t be fooled by Shelly Swalec’s bashful nature. Behind that gentle smile and peaceful spirit is a fierce competitor. If nothing else, persistence is Swalec’s trademark.

It carried her through the disappointment of being cut from the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team two years ago and it was an ally last season when Swalec made the team but was limited to a few appearances. Diplomatically, she tempered her desire to play for the good of the team, and she emerged as one of its strongest supporters.

The payoff? After a tight battle with teammate Shana Wilson, Swalec is the starting right-side hitter for the 7-4 Matadors.

“A lot of times people who are shy are viewed as not having self-confidence,” Northridge Coach Walt Ker said. “But underlying Shelly’s modesty is a deep self-confidence. Otherwise she would not have come out for the team when she wasn’t recruited and she certainly wouldn’t have come the second time. Her self-confidence meshes neatly with her modest qualities, but her neatest characteristic is that she is a positive person. She’s always been one of the hardest workers on the team. She never complains. She is just sweet and nice and amazingly funny.”

Swalec’s humor is unintentional. She is not clumsy; she just falls and runs into things more often than most people.

“It’s almost a slapstick kind of thing,” Ker said, recalling the time Swalec caught her ponytail in the net.

Usually, the 5-foot-11 sophomore is not so noticeable. In CSUN’s attack, a right-side hitter is the volleyball equivalent of a blocking fullback.

Left-side hitters, such as Northridge’s Patricia Fitzsimmons and Nancy Nicholls, are set up more often for the kill. And right-side hitters aren’t called on for the dinks and dumps executed so precisely by middle hitters such as CSUN’s Marianne and Kathleen Dixon, who stand out anyway because they are identical twins.

But Swalec is out there doing the dirty work--assisting on the block, diving after errant balls, and making the occasional dazzling spike that reminds teammates, foes and fans that she is an attacker to be dealt with.

“My biggest thing is defense,” Swalec said, “getting balls up that people think won’t get up.”

On a larger scale, making the CSUN team as a walk-on from Sterling Heights, Mich., is as improbable as some of her digs. One of only two non-Californians on the CSUN roster, Swalec was not exposed to volleyball until junior high. Unlike most Division I players, she did not have the advantage of playing club volleyball.

Consequently, she received no scholarship offers after high school. She wrote to a few schools about playing soccer but did not generate much interest.

Then Buena High Coach Steve Burkhart spoke to Ker about her. Swalec played for Burkhart in the fall of 1987 while living with her mother Suzane in Ventura. The second half of Swalec’s senior year, Suzane allowed her to return to Michigan to live with her father and graduate with the Stevenson High class that she had been with prior to moving to California.

“I didn’t want to graduate with people I didn’t know,” Swalec said. “Those (Stevenson High classmates) are the people I grew up with.”

But Swalec left them behind after graduation.

“I couldn’t live with my dad in Michigan and I had a place to live out here with my mom and I liked (CSUN) a lot,” she said. “They have an adaptive physical education program so I figured if I didn’t make the team, I’d be at a good school.”

Between working and commuting from Ventura, Swalec did not get in as much practice over the summer as she would have liked, but she thought she had a chance to make the Northridge team. That is, until official tryouts started and the intensity picked up.

“I looked around and saw how much better the other players were and I knew I wasn’t playing well,” Swalec said.

As picture day approached, Swalec had a sinking feeling. “I was hanging in there, but I knew I was going to be cut.”

The day before the team picture was shot, Ker broke the news to Swalec.

“He told me I was good, but that I wasn’t ready,” Swalec said. “He said I was welcome to come back in the spring.”

While Swalec was limited to intramurals, the Matadors took runner-up honors in the NCAA Division II championships.

That spring, Ker had the time to work with Swalec. One of the first things Ker corrected was her “goofy foot.”

“I was totally backwards,” Swalec said. “I was jumping with the wrong foot forward and taking too many steps. Once I straightened that out, I thought I had a better chance to make the team. I knew how (Ker) wanted me to pass and to hit and what he expected of me, and I knew the team better.”

The following fall, Swalec bid to become one of them.

“The hurt would have been really great if I was cut again,” she said. “I had practiced all spring and summer and I don’t know if I would be able to come out again.”

Fortunately, Swalec didn’t have to worry. Three days before cuts were announced, Ker told her she had made the team.

“I went home and called my mother and father,” Swalec said. “My mom knew how much it meant to me.”

On picture day, she proudly donned a Matador uniform and lined up with her new teammates.

Initially, Swalec didn’t mind watching from the sidelines.

“I would do anything as long as I was on the team,” she said. “But eventually I wanted to be out there. But I knew the other girls were better and I knew I could wait my turn.”

When Keira Middleton graduated, the right-side hitting position opened up and Swalec took over last spring. But over the summer, Ker recruited Wilson, a transfer from De Anza College.

“She is a scholarship player and I am a walk-on,” Swalec said. “I thought, ‘Oh, no, I’m not going to start.’ ”

In fall drills, the pair pushed each other.

“It was real close,” Swalec said. “We didn’t really know (who would start) until right before the first match. In practice I really had to go hard because she is really good. She can go in anytime for me and do a really good job, so the pressure is still there.”

Although Swalec starts, she remains a non-scholarship player.

“It’s enough to start,” she said. “I don’t care about the money. If people watch you play, they don’t say, ‘She’s on a full ride and she’s a walk-on.’ I have financial aid for school so I don’t really need a scholarship. I’d rather Walt gave it to a really great player that he is trying to recruit.”

Swalec is too kind; the financial aid doesn’t cover it. Her mom helps pay the bills and she earns money by working at the adaptive P.E. Lab and in the intramural program at CSUN.

But it is all worth it to Swalec--she almost needed to make the team.

“Where I came from I never had to try out,” she said. “I was one of the best, if not the best, in volleyball, soccer and basketball. I told myself there’s no way (being cut) could happen. It was a pride thing.”

Still, Swalec cannot believe her good fortune.

“I’m from Michigan. I was not recruited and I’m starting on a Division I team,” she said. “It’s like you could never imagine playing teams like UCLA, USC or Hawaii.”

Imagine it. USC is on tap Tuesday night.