The place, of all places in America to have a revelation, was Albion.

The sport was volleyball, and the date was Aug. 20, 1998, and Tippecanoe Valley coach Jon Parker just knew he could have a special team.

Parker pulled Tiffany Cunningham, the team leader in serve reception, to the side.

"I grabbed a couple of our girls after the first two matches this season," he says. "I'll never forget it. I grabbed Tiffany Cunningham over there by the shoulders. The second match of the season, against Central Noble. She played so well. I said, 'What's the difference?' She looked me in the eye and said, 'Coach, we want it bad this year. We know we can do it.'

"I knew right then we would be a team to be reckoned with."

The Vikings were. They are. And Parker hopes they will be in the sectional.

"After a few matches, we saw how well we played," Cunningham, a senior back row specialist, says. "It kind of shocked us at first, but then we knew we could do it."

For the second straight year Valley smashed the team record for wins. The Vikings won 16 last year, which beat the previous records of 10, set in 1977 and 1988.

They won 22 this year.

Valley's ascent can be traced back three years ago, when Parker was named coach in 1996.

The Vikings went 7-14 in Parker's first year. Then 16-16. Now 22-8.

But this may be the best testament to what Parker has meant to the program. From 1990-1995, the Vikings won zero TRC matches. Not a one. The big 0-42. In 1994, Valley won no matches at all. In 1995, the Vikings won five.

A team that was winless in the TRC up until 1995 goes 22-8 overall and 4-3 in the TRC in 1998. Before this year, the Vikings had one other winning season. That was 1976, when they went 9-8.

What happened? Numbers. Numbers happened.

When Parker took over in 1996, he assessed the program this way: "Just not a lot of excitement from the girls. Very little offseason play. No one played spring volleyball. I knew that was one of the things we needed to get going right away. Play spring ball. Come into open gyms. Start loving the sport a little bit.

"The year before I coached, my daughter Andria was the only one who ever played spring ball. The first year I coached, we had four in spring volleyball. Then we had 13 the second year, then 29 the last year, which is tremendous. We'll have even more next year."

In 1996, Valley had to cancel its freshman season. In 1997, Valley had just enough girls to fill out freshman through varsity.

Now Parker has to turn girls away for the first time.

"We ended up with more than 40," he said, "and we kept 31 girls.

"Things started snowballing. A couple played who told others how much they loved it. The next year, we had all kinds who tried out.

"I don't kill 'em. They got to the point where they wanted to start practicing more."

Indeed. The day of this interview, Parker sits in a chair over in the corner of the gym. He hasn't talked to his team. But the girls start their warmups. Then they start drills.

All without any coaxing from the coach. He never says a word to them from his seat.

Says Brooke Fisher, a senior outside hitter who leads the team with 187 kills and serves as co-captain with Cunningham:"(Parker) makes it fun, but he's still a good teacher. What's the word I'm looking for? Motivator. He's a motivator."

The only thing Parker has not been able to motivate Valley to do is win a sectional match, but fate in the form of bad luck has overruled Parker here. The Vikings drew a good Columbia City team in the first round in 1996 and followed that by drawing an Elmhurst team with 25 wins in 1997.

Asked if Valley has ever won a sectional match, Parker said: "Not in my three years. I don't know if they ever have."

To win their first sectional match means they would have to beat 26-5 Elmhurst, their first 1998 sectional opponent.

"We did it again this year," Parker said. Valley has lost sectional matches. Parker has not lost his dry sense of humor

The Vikings enter the sectional having lost their last three regular-season matches. They lost to 25-7 Rochester 15-9, 16-14; lost to a veteran Whitko team 15-10, 15-13; then lost to a 26-6 Southwood team 15-7, 15-11.

Now Elmhurst.

"I wonder," Parker said, "how many teams in Indiana played three teams with 25 wins three out of their last four matches. That's a rough way to end. Rochester was ranked as high as fifth in 2A, and Southwood is 8th. Elmhurst wasn't ranked, but they should be."

To prepare for Elmhurst, Parker and every player on the team scouted the Trojans Tuesday. Each Viking scribbled notes on Elmhurst players who will be across the net from them.

"(Elmhurst) is favored, yeah," Parker said. "They have great athletes. They have no weak spots. Their setter is the first-team all-conference setter in the SAC. There is no way to attack them. Blocking them up front will be one of the big keys. They were tough last year. They lost only one senior from that team. They are even better this year.

"I think we have a good chance. The fourth match of the season, we beat Pioneer, and they had four 6-footers. They were a good team. We played really well that night. Since that night, I believe we can play with anyone."

Valley has been hindered since the second play of the Rochester match. That's when junior Jennifer Studebaker sprained her ankle. She missed the Whitko match, then saw three plays in the Southwood match. That's when she sprained her other ankle.

Studebaker's hobbled. Parker calls her questionable for the Elmhurst match, but if she can prop herself upright, you get the idea she will play.

What, you ask, does Studebaker mean to the team? She means this: She set school records for kills with 151 and kill percentage at .210.

"Our biggest obstacle right now," Parker said, "is Jennifer Studebaker's ankles."

In a recent phone call to promote Valley's volleyball team, Viking Athletic Director Duane Burkhart said, "Volleyball's the sport everyone is talking about around here."

Considering Valley's football tradition, powerful words. Asked if Burkhart's words were hype or reality, Parker revisited the Rochester match. Valley was 4-0 in the TRC at the time, while Rochester had only one loss. Then you mix in the county rivalry between the schools.

Valley plays its home matches in its auxiliary gym, which has bleachers down one side of the gym.

These bleachers were not enough for a volleyball match.

"We had to add 50 chairs to the other side of the gym," Parker said. "It was packed. Screaming and yelling. It's the neatest volleyball experience I've ever been around at any school. Not just Valley.

"It was an experience the girls will never forget."

Said Cunningham: "Everybody's coming now because we're winning. That's the only reason." [[In-content Ad]]