Winchester Star Girls’ Athlete of the Year

Houser ‘Does What It Takes’ On Court And Track
Posted: June 29, 2013
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — At match point, with a trip to the Region II finals and a state playoff berth on the line, everybody in the gym knew where the ball would go.

All season long the James Wood volleyball team had turned to its sophomore outside hitter when it needed a big point and all season long she had delivered.

So when her final spike fell for the match-clinching kill — her season-high 35th of the night — to send visiting Potomac Falls packing and the Colonels on to states for the first time in a decade, it was just another defining moment in a year full of them for James Wood’s Katie Houser.

“Opponents know where we’re going when we need a kill,” said James Wood coach Jill Couturiaux. “Against Potomac Falls, we had match point and there was no surprise on where the ball was going to. But it doesn’t matter. Even when other teams know she’s going to get it, they still are not able to stop her. Katie is going to find a way to get it done.”

It would be hard to find a more apt description for an athlete who has made a habit of excelling at whatever she puts her mind to.

Houser is The Winchester Star Girls’ Athlete of the Year for her performance not only on the volleyball court, where she was the Northwestern District Player of the Year, an All-Region II first team selection and an All-Group AA honorable mention, but also on the track, where she placed second in the high jump at the Group AA and Region II meets and was the district champion in the high jump and the triple jump. 

A natural athlete whose first love was gymnastics before she outgrew the sport, the 5-foot, 11-inch Houser burst onto the scene as a freshman, totaling a team-high 271 kills in volleyball and placing fourth in the high jump at the Group AA meet in track and field.

That she was so good, so fast may have surprised some, but the fact that she then turned around and did even better this year shouldn’t have.

“She’s very intelligent and coachable and it helps that she’s an exceptional athlete, but what separates Katie is her unparalleled competitiveness,” said James Wood jumps coach Ryan Whittle. “She’s got a killer instinct that most people her age don’t have. She’s always looking to improve, always looking to get better. She’s never satisfied.”

Whittle saw first-hand the kind of drive and determination Houser possesses this season.

Having already played a full season of volleyball for the Colonels, Houser joined the elite Metro American 18’s club team based in Washington, D.C., in November and also competed for James Wood’s indoor track and field team.

Juggling practices as many as three times a week in Washington and traveling to tournaments almost every weekend, along with school work and indoor track obligations and trying to be a typical 16-year-old girl, it would have been understandable if Houser had chosen not to compete in the outdoor track season.

But taking it easy has never really been in her nature.

“This was by far the busiest and hardest time of my life athletically,” Houser said. “It was exhausting, I didn’t sleep, but it definitely taught me that you can always work harder.

“I’ve always worked hard, but I didn’t know what it meant to be truly committed and to love something that you do. Some people say they’ll do whatever it takes, but I literally did whatever it took this year.”

A prime example of that effort was her showing in the high jump this spring.

Having only picked up the event a year earlier, Houser cleared a personal best 5 feet, 6 inches at the Handley Invitational in April that ranked her first overall in the state on va.milestat.com.

After winning district titles in the high jump and the triple jump, an event Whittle believes she could dominate as well if she wanted to, Houser appeared to be in position to win a Region II high jump title a week later before feeling a pain in her foot.

“At regionals I felt it go at 5 feet,” said Houser, who blamed overuse for the injury. “I jumped again and I was kind of pushing myself too much. I probably should have just called it then and tried to rest it, but that’s not really who I am. I still tried to win.”

She would finish second with a mark of 5-2 and eight days later cleared 5-5 in what Whittle said was her best effort of the season to earn her runner-up finish at the Group AA meet despite competing on what would later be diagnosed as a navicular stress fracture in her left foot.

“What I tell my jumpers is that you won’t always be feeling 100 percent, but you have to go out and compete and Katie always did that,” Whittle said. “We sat down and talked about goals at the beginning of the year and she wanted to go out and win a state championship. She didn’t want to finish second, she gave everything she had.”

Houser said she doesn’t use her injury as an excuse — she is scheduled to get her cast off at the end of July — and has no plans of missing her junior season of volleyball.

James Wood must replace a number of key seniors from last season’s squad and opponents will no doubt focus their defense on stopping the rising junior — who registered an area-best 451 kills to go with a team-high 84 aces and 220 digs as a sophomore. But new challenges have never been a problem for Houser.

“Katie is her own biggest motivator,” Couturiaux said. “She’s a rare athlete in the sense that she’s never going to settle. There’s always more that can be done, more that she can contribute, always that next level she wants to take her game to.

“She’s constantly pushing herself to be as good of an athlete as she can be. And she knows the kind of work that is needed to get where she wants to be. What she’s doing now is putting her time in to hopefully reap the benefits later.”

Houser has visited a number of Division 1 volleyball programs, including Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Auburn, and has received interest from many more.

She would like to check out some schools on the West Coast, she’s interested in playing on sand as well as hard court volleyball in college, but won’t have to make a decision for a while.

For now she’s focused on getting healthy and getting better.

The Colonels will return a solid nucleus to the volleyball team and the taste of the state playoffs will only fuel their desire to return, and a state championship in track and field is still waiting out there.

Houser admitted that she must be smarter about how hard she pushes herself in order to avoid injuries, but she won’t stop giving her all.

“I’m not going to regret things; I think that’s unhealthy,” she said. “I’m glad I got to accomplish all that I did, and you learn about yourself and your limits and what you can and can’t do.

“I wanted to give our [track and field] team the best shot at districts and I’m happy I did it, especially for our seniors. And beating Potomac Falls [in volleyball] to qualify for state was my favorite moment, even over clearing 5-6 or taking second at state [in the long jump], because of how hard we all worked and the attention it brought to our team and our school. It was a great year.”

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