Arizona StarNet

Arizona StarNet- Tucson Volleyball, February 2001
By: Corky Simpson

Rita Johnson came from a neighborhood of broken streets and busted dreams, where children wear old and worried faces, where tomorrow looks hopeless and despairing. Her father died in a hail of bullets, the slayer never caught. Her mother turned to drugs. Her grandmother's house where the kid went to live burned down, and at 18 Rita was on her own. But she escaped from the meanest streets of Cleveland, and Sport was her opportunity, volleyball the window.

Now the associate head coach of the University of Arizona volleyball team, Rita, at 28, wants to help build windows for other inner city girls. She has volunteered as an adviser to Doug Clark, Byron Shewman and others who're preparing the groundwork for a "Starlings" program in Tucson. Starlings Volleyball Clubs, USA, that's the official name. The organization provides an opportunity for girls from the inner city to train and compete in a great sport and develop positive life skills. UA head coach Dave Rubio will hold a free youth volleyball clinic Feb. 25 and April 1 in McKale Center, and expects that event to produce enough enthusiastic muppets to people a Starlings program. There are three divisions: Little Starlings, ages 9-12; Junior Starlings, 13-14 and Starlings, 15-18.

Shewman, who now lives in Poway, Calif., is the executive director of the Starlings national organization. He was a star player and coach for the old Tucson Sky of the International Volleyball Association. Clark, highly respected Tucson attorney, was the principal owner of the Sky, and has had a lifelong love affair with volleyball. "We have about 1,000 girls in the San Diego area participating in Starlings," Shewman said. "And we've been helped by state funding through the 'after hours' project for young people. "Most sports programs for the inner city are intended for boys. Girls don't have anything, and the key to using sports as a springboard to a better life is simply to get them involved." There are seven programs in Phoenix, as well as Starlings teams in Tuba City and Ganado on the Navajo Reservation. At the school level, volleyball is not an expensive sport. But it can be pricey at the club level, where girls develop off-season skills under advanced coaching. Starlings programs provide that club-level training at next-to-nothing fees.

"I played in high school and never heard of a club team,'' said Johnson. She came to Arizona when Roseanne Wegrich was the coach, redshirted in 1990 and played from 1991-94 at UA, the last three years under Rubio. "I grew up in the projects in Cleveland,'' she said. "I was 10 when my father was killed. He was shot four times. "Later my mother got a boyfriend and a drug habit. My brother, Charles Jr., left home at 15, and my junior year we were evicted from our home. That's when I went to live with my grandmother. Then her house burned down. "My senior year, at 18, I lived on my own and somehow made it." She'd take a brown grocery bag from door to door in her neighborhood and "borrow" food. But through all of this, Rita somehow managed to excel in the classroom and on the volleyball court. John Adams High School in Cleveland was 99 percent black. Rita had great coaches and teachers and was the valedictorian of her graduating class. She struggled adapting to UA and Tucson, having grown up in an all-black society. Rubio kicked her off the team once, in her sophomore year. "It was a cultural thing, having nothing to do with the team," Rubio said. Said Rita: "It was 'attitude.' Eventually I changed ? I had no choice." Rubio added, "Rita and I had some real battles, but it was worth it. She's a great person." Which explains why he chose her as his top assistant. Rita earned bachelor's and masters degrees as well as a teaching certificate at UA in five years. She will help as an adviser to the five UA volleyball players who'll coach the Starlings teams: Dana Burkholder, Jill Talbot, Lisa Rutledge, Stephanie Saragosa and (cq) Shannon Torregrosa. "We want to get involved in the grass roots in Tucson," Rubio said of his UA program. "The more people we can get taking part in volleyball, the stronger our support will be. "And Rita is the perfect person to help us reach out to inner city girls." Shewman said the Starlings program has placed 25 girls into collegiate programs across the country. Said Clark, who agreed to serve as the Starlings director in Tucson: "Not only does it give girls a chance to work hard and earn a college scholarship, volleyball is a sport they can play all their lives." Rita, who majored in political science at UA and wants someday to be an athletic director at an NCAA Division I school, said: "I came from a terrible situation in the projects and earned a college education because of volleyball. I owe everything to the sport." And that, said Rubio, "is why Rita is so willing to give back to other girls."

April 24, 2008