Winning Ways Michelle Etter Has Helped The Shadle Highlanders Volleyball Team Get Past A Disappointing Two Years

Shadle Park volleyball player Michelle Etter isn’t much into comparisons.

“When I was little, people always said I was going to be the next Wendy Wilson,” Etter said.

Instead, she told them, “I know I’m going to be the next Michelle Etter.”

The junior middle hitter does, indeed, bear some resemblance to Wilson, the 1991 North Central graduate and former Gonzaga University star.

But Etter has made her own impression this year while helping the Highlanders get past a two-year volleyball funk.

Last week’s victories over Gonzaga Prep, and Lewis and Clark left Shadle alone in third place with a 7-2 record midway through the Greater Spokane League season.

“This is the most competitive team we’ve had for a few years,” said coach Linda Sheridan.

The Highlanders had won a total of nine league matches the previous two seasons and finished out of the playoffs.

Etter has been a major reason for the turnaround in her third varsity season.

She has averaged more than 16 kills per match. Included were four matches - Rogers, North Central, Gonzaga and LC - in which she averaged 23.

“She’s done a lot on her own to prepare for competition,” said Sheridan. “Others on the team have stepped up to compliment Michelle and have given her permission to be as good as she is.”

Shadle Park’s volleyball program is legendary. The school has won 256 of 316 league matches, 12 league titles including eight in a row between 1984 and 1991, and five state titles.

When Etter came aboard as a freshman in 1995, the bottom fell out.

“We were disappointed,” she said. “But we never felt it was our fault or that we weren’t working hard enough.”

The fans, she said, never deserted the team in its time of trial. Sheridan constantly revamped the lineup. Only two players, Brooke Olzendam and Etter, remain from the 1995 team.

Olzendam is one of only two seniors. The team has seven returnees and five newcomers, including a pair of freshmen. The outcome has been encouraging.

Etter comes from an athletic family. Her father Mike and uncle Ging played sports at Gonzaga Prep in the 1960s. Their cousin, Bill, quarterbacked football at LC and at Notre Dame.

So it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Etter, who took to volleyball in fourth grade, made varsity as a 5-foot-10 Shadle freshman.

“It was a big deal and nerve-wracking at the same time,” she said. “I was never really intimidated, but excited because it was an opportunity.”

She made second team all-GSL as a sophomore. This year, Etter said, “I pretty much decided before the season started that this is my junior year and I better get it done.”

Last summer she played with varsity athletes from Ferris, Mead, University and LC on a club team, Spokane Splash New Balance. It finished fourth among 332 teams in a volleyball festival in Sacramento, Calif., which was the highest finish for a Northwest team in the tourney’s 14-year history.

Success has carried over with the Highlander team.

“We’re still young, but this year they’re feeling confident we’ll return to our winning ways,” said Sheridan.

With Michelle Etter pounding the ball, so far it has been the case.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo