Silent assassin? Hardly

Wood junior Emily Shannon doesn’t enjoy interviews, but she has no problem making noise on the court

By David Selig
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — At Liberty University’s volleyball camp this past offseason, the first team to serve each match was decided not by a traditional coin flip or rock-paper-scissors, but usually a dance contest between representatives of the two teams.

Led by Emily Shannon and Megan Crabtree, James Wood had no problem winning those, even when it came to matching the defending Group AA champs from Loudoun County.

In fact, once teams saw Wood’s ridiculous routines, most would quit without even trying.

This is the same Shannon who when asked to conduct an interview gets fidgety, visibly nervous, and admits with a smile, “I don’t know what to say.”

“She’s comfortable in any situation you put her in,” James Wood coach Jill Lester said of the junior outside hitter. “Except for an interview, I think.”

Luckily, Shannon’s work on the court usually tells the story itself.

Last season she led the area with 323 kills. Last Thursday, she set a new James Wood single-match record with 25 of them in a five-set win over Fauquier.

Shannon’s vicious spikes are even so impressive that in warmups before a match at Hedgesville (W.Va.) earlier this season, fans of the other team began cheering her every hit. “Their whole student section was like, ‘Ohhh,’” Lester said. “They weren’t heckling us, they were like celebrating the fact that Emily was pounding the ball, because it is fun to watch.”

Shannon’s performance that match led Hedgesville’s players to compare her to Erica Manor, the Musselman (W.Va.) outside hitter who was named Gatorade Player of the Year in her state last season.

It’s a comparison Shannon never would have expected to receive two years ago.

As a freshman on James Wood’s varsity team, Shannon started at middle hitter, the position she took up in middle school.

But after one look at Shannon’s stroke at her first camp as Colonels coach last year, Lester realized she needed to make a change.

“I had seen her play her freshman year, but she didn’t stand out to me when I came to watch,” Lester said. “When I started coaching the team and we went to Liberty, that was the first time I got to see kids play. The very first ball I saw her hit, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. We’ve got to get this kid on the outside. We’ve got to feed her the ball more often.’”

So, how did Shannon take that news?

“I was like, ‘Are you crazy? The outside?’” Shannon recalled in one of those dreaded interviews earlier this week. “Obviously it was kind of uncomfortable [at first], but since I’ve been playing this position I feel a lot more comfortable.”

The change of positions was more than getting used to a new spot to stand on the floor.

Lester said Shannon needed to “start from scratch” and learn new footwork and a different arm swing.

Luckily, Shannon is one of the hardest working players on the team, and she was more than happy to stay after practices to take additional reps with the other outside hitters.

Even now, when she’s established in the position, Shannon treats each workout like a five-setter in the postseason.

“Every day at the end of practice — and this is no exaggeration — every day the kid is dripping with sweat,” Lester said. “You always know what ball Emily just touched, because it’s wet with her sweat. She’s a very hard-working kid.”

With all the torque she puts into her attacks and serves, Shannon has suffered from nagging shoulder and lower back injuries this season and still isn’t at full strength.

She had to sit out the Sept. 12 tournament at Loudoun County, where the Colonels (7-4, 1-0 Northwestern District) dropped matches to the host Raiders, Flint Hill and Robinson.

Shannon was so vocal on the bench during those losses that at one point an official turned to Lester and said, “Tell your assistant coach to settle down a little bit.”

While Shannon wasn’t happy to be sidelined, the idea was to keep her fresh for key late-season matches — like tonight’s home district tilt against Millbrook — and it seems to have worked.

After tying the school record for kills in a match with 24 at Kettle Run last season, Shannon broke it by one last Thursday. (Shannon didn’t realize she had set a new record until she was surprised by a text message from Lester right before she went to bed late that night.)

Shannon came back and slammed down another 15 in a sweep of Martinsburg (W.Va.) Tuesday, raising her total to 126 kills heading into tonight.

“I know when we’re in a tight game I can always trust her,” Colonels setter Carly Mullin said. “In my mind, I’m always thinking of who I can set, and when I see Emily in the front row it makes me less stressful.”

Keeping teammates less stressful is also Shannon’s role off the court, where she and Crabtree, also a junior outside hitter, usually lead the dancing and joking.

“I feel like we work very well together, and we care about each other,” Shannon said of her team. “And I love that.”

Shannon’s goal is to play in college, and she says she wants to one day become a registered nurse.

At 5-foot-10 with that wicked attack and unwavering work ethic, Lester said Shannon has all the tools to play at the next level.

The interviews?

They’re still a work in progress.

But as long as that nervousness doesn’t show up on the floor, Lester knows her star hitter will be fine.

“Emily is a pretty oblivious kid on the court,” Lester said. “She just goes out there and does her thing. She doesn’t factor in the crowd. She doesn’t factor in the pressure. She just goes out there and plays.”

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