Henry Shows Star Qualities

From Pomeroy, Wash., to Memphis, Tenn.

Middle blocker Jessica Henry helped put Pomeroy on the map, and the Memphis Tigers came up winners in the Henry sweepstakes.

“They recruited me through a friend of my dad’s,” the 6-foot-2 Henry said during a break from practice for tonight’s Washington State Volleyball Coaches Association All-State series. “They contacted me and I visited the school the spring of my junior year. I fell in love with it, it was the total school for me, and I committed to them in August before my senior year.”

Memphis won out over Portland, Montana, Gonzaga and Oregon.

Henry said the coaches, the players, the school and the secondary English education program lured her East.

That came after the Pirates found the way to Spokane.

Henry’s father, John, was a policeman in Spokane before returning to his home of Pomeroy to become the Garfield County prosecuting attorney when Jessica was in third grade.

When Henry helped the Pirates reach the State B tournament in Spokane as a junior, John Sullivan came to watch his friend’s daughter and came away suitably impressed - and he had the contacts to share his excitement.

In the 1980s, Sullivan’s daughter played club volleyball for Carrie Couturier Yerty and Kristen Hovde Miller, former Washington State players now coaching at Memphis.

Just like that, Pomeroy became a recruiting destination for Memphis.

Henry admitted there is a sliver of concern about going so far from home, but she is looking forward to the challenge.

Volleyball has been a challenge for Henry the last six years, especially the last four when she made the Pirates’ varsity as a 5-10 freshman.

“Basketball used to be my favorite … but when I made the varsity, I fell in love with (volleyball),” Henry said.

She continued to play basketball, but only during the season. Volleyball became an obsession, with camps and club ball in the Tri-Cities and Lewiston.

“The basketball coach said if I worked as hard at my basketball as I did at my volleyball, I probably could have played,” Henry said. “It just never appealed to me to play college basketball.”

The realization that her future was in volleyball came in the spring of her sophomore year, when she played for a club team in Lewiston coached by Lewis Clark State coach Kip Yoshimura.

“He made me realize I was a good player and I could go out and compete with all these really good players,” she said.

Along with five classmates, that translated into a state berth and a fourth-place finish that fall, but that wasn’t enough.

“We set a goal that we were going to win it the next year,” Henry said. “We said, ‘Nobody’s going to take it away from us,’ and we did it.”

Despite the odds, that is.

Bi-County teams had won every state title since 1986 and 17 of 18. But even coach Jim Green, who had coached at Reardan in the Bi-County, didn’t need to caution or motivate his players.

“He didn’t really tell us anything we had to do, we did it on our own,” she said. “We had a team meeting and said, ‘We’re going to win it and this is what we have to do.’ We went to team camp and played summer league.”

The Pirates went 34-2, losing to Troy, Idaho, which won a state title, and league rival DeSales.

“We were pretty steady the whole way through,” Henry said. “(The DeSales loss) taught us we couldn’t take anybody for granted, we had to come out ready to play. I think it humbled us.”

Shortly thereafter, Pomeroy had its first state championship in school history and name recognition in Memphis.

Spikes and digs

The East vs. West format at North Central has three games: 2A/A/B at 4 p.m., 3A at 6 and 4A at 8… . Tickets are $3 for adults and $2 for students with 12 and under free… . The series moves to Fife for a tripleheader on Saturday… . Last year was the first in the 12-year history that the games on the West Side outdrew those in Spokane.