Long Beach State’s Walls Delivers

When practice started in August for the Long Beach State women’s volleyball team, Veronica Walls had to get in playing shape like all her teammates.

But while the rest of the 49ers were trying to work off the rust from being away from the team for more than seven months, Walls had a slightly greater challenge. She was getting in shape after having had a baby less than two months earlier.

Now Walls is not only in shape, the junior outside hitter is one of the best players in the country and on the nation’s top-ranked team. Long Beach State is 32-0, only four victories from the national championship, and plays Illinois tonight at the Pyramid in the Mountain Region semifinal.

Walls is third in the nation and first in the Big West Conference in hitting percentage and made the All-Big West team for the second year in a row.

But the 21-year-old is a family woman first.

Walls lives with her daughter, Jaimeson Lee, and Jaimeson’s father, Antrone Lee of the Long Beach State basketball team. Her priorities are unlike those of most of her teammates or opponents.

Jaimeson spends about five hours a day with a baby sitter, Walls said, while she and Antrone are at practice. “Every night we pray we’ll get by the next day,” she said. “We’re living solely off of scholarship checks and our parents.”

Walls and Lee’s mothers have seen their granddaughter once since school began. The rest of their families haven’t seen her since summer.

Walls is from Austin, Texas, and Lee is from Thomson, Ga. Lee and his mother went to Austin for Jaimeson’s birth, on June 19, then returned to Georgia. Walls and Jaimeson stayed with Walls’ parents until she returned to Long Beach in August.

“I didn’t do anything until my six-week checkup,” Walls said. “After that it wasn’t much volleyball. I did a lot of running and a lot of swimming.”

But she reported to volleyball practice in good enough shape to earn a starting job on the nation’s No. 1 team.

“She is a very mature player, very physical and can jump,” Coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “She can grab a [basketball] rim with both hands.”

And her attitude has been an even bigger help to the team.

“Things don’t rile her on the court,” Gimmillaro said. “That’s critical this time of year. That maturity will be critical.”

The only thing that has held her back has been injuries. Walls has missed eight matches, one because of illness and seven because of a shoulder injury.

But she is still sixth on the team in kills and fifth in blocks.

“When she’s in the game, she brings a lot of energy, athleticism and emotion,” said Benishe Dillard, Walls’ best friend.

Dillard and the rest of the team are Walls’ family away from home.

“We’re all like her baby sitter,” Dillard said. “We love her to death. When we’re out somewhere and Jaimeson’s not there, we’re like, ‘Where’s Jaimeson? Where’s Jaimeson?’ ”

Jaimeson doesn’t miss any of her parents’ home games. Lee takes her to the volleyball matches, Walls to the basketball games.

And both Lee and Walls encounter the same problem at the games.

“Everybody on the team adores her a lot,” Lee said. “Everyone wants to see her when I take her to games.”

Said Walls: “When I go to basketball games, I don’t see her once the game starts. Everybody holds her and plays with her.”

Walls’ teammates aren’t the only ones who adore her daughter. Even Long Beach State President Robert Maxson and his wife have taken care of Jaimeson while Walls and Lee are at practice or school or on the road.

That is if Jaimeson isn’t on the road with Walls.

On the trip to North Texas and New Mexico State in late October, Walls took Jaimeson to see Walls’ mother in Texas.

And in September, Jaimeson went with the team to Pacific because Lee had an eye injury and couldn’t watch Jaimeson.

Taking her daughter on the road was something Walls tried to avoid, but Gimmillaro has been understanding.

“It’s not a distraction at all,” he said. “The only distraction has been for Veronica and how difficult it becomes at times. To be as good a volleyball player, student and mother as she is, it’s amazing.”

And with class finals going on, the regional finals starting and her baby’s first Christmas around the corner, Walls is in the middle of her biggest balancing act yet.

And while she is always a mother first, she does have her eyes on something else.

“We’re practicing for the regional final,” she said. “But our goal has been not to get to the Final Four, but to win it.”