The Volleyball Player
Kristen Larrick
Senior, Walter Johnson High School
Kristen Larrick’s mother calls her daughter a human “pogo stick.”
Kristen’s explosive vertical leap—her record is 10 feet, 4 inches, meaning her fingertips were able to reach four inches above a regulation-height basketball hoop—helped the 6-foot-1-inch Walter Johnson senior average 5.1 kills and 4.6 digs per set during the 2012 volleyball season. That earned the 17-year-old Bethesda resident first-team All-Met and All-Gazette recognition, along with a scholarship to The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., where she will play volleyball in the fall.
Walter Johnson volleyball coach Bill Morris first noticed Kristen’s superior speed, power and agility five years ago, when he happened upon one of her North Bethesda Middle School basketball practices.
Morris invited Kristen to his summer volleyball camp. She’d never played the sport, but “she was already by far better than anyone at the camp,” Morris says. “She just picked things up naturally.”
Morris encouraged Kristen to try out for Walter Johnson’s varsity team as a freshman, and she has been his go-to player for her entire high-school career. Making her all the more impressive is the fact that she also plays volleyball year-round with the highly competitive Metro American Volleyball Club’s travel team, and that she has balanced those practices with playing on Walter Johnson’s varsity basketball team.
Often, Kristen’s busy schedule has had her attending basketball practice for two hours after school; eating a quick dinner before a three-hour Metro American volleyball practice; getting home and eating another dinner at 11 p.m.; starting her homework around midnight; then going to bed at 1 or 2 a.m. before waking up at 5:45 a.m. to start all over again.
Kristen also plays the flute in Walter Johnson’s wind ensemble, has an extensive modeling portfolio and appears regularly on the honor roll.
“I live on power naps,” she says. “There are so many pictures of me at tournaments, sleeping in the corner under a jacket.”
Kristen plans to study math or science at William & Mary, but her biggest challenge might be limiting herself to one sport.
“Kristen is not just like this in volleyball,” Morris says. “The track coach would have liked her to come out for track. She can do almost anything athletically—it’s just a matter of what she likes best.”
