Fritz was right fit in Medical Lake

When Taylor Fritz arrived for the first day of volleyball practice at Medical Lake High School Cardinals' new head coach Kari Knowlton knew she had a special addition to the team.

Knowlton just wasn't sure how special.

Fritz not only brought the skills, but more importantly leadership that Knowlton termed, "Essential to our program this year."

Fritz, whose father, Matthew is a colonel and a vice commander with the 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base, had landed in Medical Lake after having spent the previous year in Albuquerque, N.M.

Not only had Fritz come from one of the largest high schools in the state, she played on one of the powers in the 6A classification. And she was coming to a volleyball program that has struggled for years.

"For her to come to a program that had struggled so long and to just be composed, confident in her ability to knowing that she could take what she had and help other people as well was essential to us this year," Knowlton said.

The welcome feeling went both ways.

"Honestly this is one of the most accepting communities I've been to," Fritz said. And Fritz ought to know as she's moved 14 or 15 times in her 17 years. "I lost count after a couple of them."

Having attended three high schools, the senior was not only happy to make the team, but was taken back when she was named team captain. Most schools she was familiar with required a year in the program before one could make varsity.

Fritz said she started playing volleyball in sixth grade and began club play in seventh grade. Her club team once finished No. 16 in the nation.

For Fritz, coming from successful volleyball programs to Medical Lake where the sport has struggled has not been as bad a deal as one might think. The Cardinals finished 2-12 and missed the playoffs.

"It wasn't necessarily tough, it was a growing experience for me," Fritz said. "When I first walked into the gym (head coach) Kari (Knowlton) told me it was a 'developing program.'"

Fritz said she had no idea what that meant, but she observed how the skills of her teammates improved from the beginning of the season.

"Every single girl, they've taken what Kari has to say and they've taken what everyone else has to say about volleyball and they've just exploded with their talent."

Fritz has put her volleyball acumen to work in helping coach at the middle school.

While Fritz misses Albuquerque, she does so not because of having to part ways with friends but because of the green chilies and great food. "That was a little bit of an adjustment coming up here (because) you don't have any good Mexican food," Fritz said.

Before Medical Lake the Fritz family had been stationed at bases in Ohio, Illinois and California to name a few.

Moves are just a way of life for the children of military families, Fritz explained. "You might as well get used to it and embrace the small things in it."

Military families as a whole get used to not having one of their parents home at any given time, Fritz said. Her dad had a full year's deployment recently.

"That was a rough one, especially when you're in the middle of high school and you have things that you're accomplishing," Fritz said. "Either you hate it the rest of your life or like it."

Fritz said the upside has been sampling all the different cultural experiences she has been afforded. "I'm only 17 years old and I've been everywhere," Fritz said. Those duty stations have all been in the U.S.

"My dad was looking at an overseas deployment this year instead of coming to Fairchild," Fritz said. "But we figured with college applications that would not have been good."

Along with her father, a 20-year service veteran, who she plans to follow with a career in the Air Force, Fritz's mother, Stacy, has been her stabilizer on the home front. Fritz has a 12-year-old brother, Matthew.

Stacy Fritz was a teacher until it got too hard to move schools. "She's just been at home helping me do everything, teaching me the basics of school to teaching me the basics of life," Fritz said. "She's there for everything."

While Fritz plans a military career, she wants to do it a little differently than her father and has applied to the Air Force Academy. To cover the bases she also just completed applications to Annapolis (Navy) and West Point academies, too. Air Force is of course her first choice because, "I bleed blue," she said with excitement.

Knowlton, too, is excited and fortunate, to have had her life and program touched by Fritz.

"To see someone who has that much passion, and to coach someone with that much passion for the game is almost like an epiphany because you see yourself in her, almost," Knowlton said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].