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Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
Becky Ellgen came off the volleyball court Aug. 18 at the annual alumni game and flopped into a chair on the bench next to former Metro volleyball head coach and current Metro athletic director Joan McDermott. Ellgen looked as if she just finished a long day of practices, just like the ones she had to endure in 2000 when current Metro head coach Debbie Hendricks pushed her through two-a-days.
But Ellgen is just as competitive now as she was seven years ago, as the alumni team, who lost three in a row in a best of five series with the 2007 squad, screamed for one more chance at the younger athletes. Ellgen and the rest of the ageless former volleyball players took full advantage by defeating the younger squad 30-22.
"It's great to win that fourth one, because we love being able to say that we still have what it takes to come out and play like that after not training," Ellgen said.
Ellgen only played two years as a setter for Metro's volleyball team, but witnessed a transformation that saw her team go from a 10-31 record in her junior year to posting a 21-9 record in her senior year - under a first-year head coach - returning only four players and competing for a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship.
"It was definitely hard," Ellgen said on adjusting from one coach to another in two seasons. "I started out with Jenelle Duvall as my coach, and in my senior year Debbie Hendricks came in, and that was fantastic. She really turned the program around and (my senior year) ended on a very good note. I just remember it being very intense, very hard and very fun."
One game that stands out in Ellgen's mind comes from the 2000 season, when her unranked Roadrunners defeated 10th-ranked University of Northern Colorado, before it became a Division I team.
"I think we dropped the first two games, and then we won the last three," Ellgen said. "I just remember it being just phenomenal, being my senior year. That is when everyone jumped off the stands and they just went crazy. But it was a lot of fun."
Hendricks said Ellgen was one of those players who was necessary for the team to succeed under a coaching change, while learning a new system and having to be a leader, even though she wasn't a starter.
"Becky was strong in her mentalities, and she brought the right mentality to the spring as we kind of developed a system," Hendricks said. "Becky did not end up winning the starting spot. She lost it to Devon (Herron), who was a freshman, but she had the best work ethic and challenged the other side of the floor at every practice."
Herron, who also was a setter, later became one of the all-time great Metro volleyball players, winning All-American honors in 2002 and 2003.
After Ellgen graduated with a marketing degree in 2000, she found a job with an advertising agency and then went into marketing for a software company called JD Edwards. After a few companies acquired JD Edwards, Ellgen went from marketing software to publishing.
"I work for a magazine called Colorado Biz Magazine," Ellgen said. "I do all the events, the marketing and I do the video for them as well. So, I still use my degree which is really rare."
Ellgen is in her second year of marriage and has two step children who are seven and nine years old. Ellgen said she loves returning to Auraria Courts for the annual alumni game; she gets a kick out of seeing old players and putting what's left of her skills to the test.
Ellgen is only one player out of many talented volleyball stars that have graced Metro's campus, but that setter, who had to play behind an All-American in her senior year, encapsulated what a team athlete should have in her game, according to Hendricks.
"I think she is what we all would want to have in every athlete as far as her work ethic, commitment, loyalty and dedication to the team, and not just for her personal agenda," Hendricks said.
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