Club Background and History
The Highlands Volleyball Club was founded in 2001 by volleyball enthusiasts Randy and Inger Condit. The ongoing focus is to provide talented athletic girls the opportunity for outstanding training with a group of the finest coaches available to the area. Inger is a Physical Education Teacher at St. Therese School and Randy is a Consultant with the National Research Center for College and University Admissions.
As Co-Director and Director of Coaching, Inger brings many years of playing and coaching experience to the club. Known for her energy and positive attitude on or around the court Inger served as head coach at St. Pius X HS for 14 years and St. Mary College for three years. At St. Pius "Coach" held legendary status in a career spanning 19 years beginning in 1989 through 2007 with the college head coaching position fit in during the mid-1990s. At St. Pius her teams displayed an exciting, fast and tenacious style of play helping to win nearly 350 matches to include 8 trips to the Missouri State Quarterfinals, three times making the Final Four - winning one State Championship in 2006 and the 2nd Place trophy in 2001. During these years Inger was blessed to coach many outstanding athletes including several being recognized as All-State, All-Region, All-District and All-Metro, with one player named MVP of the MO-KAN All Star Match.
Randy become immersed in the world of competitive volleyball when dating Inger a Park University volleyball player. His whole work career has involved working directly with the college admissions process including 11 years serving Park University as an admissions officer and Director of Admissions. Since leaving Park in 1997 Randy has worked as a vice president of marketing for Target Marketing a college recruitment marketing firm directly supporting college and university Admissions and Athletic offices in their recruitment efforts. Beginning in 1999 Randy joined the National Research Center for College & University Admissions serving as a Consultant for this vital organization that helps millions of students each year across the country in the high school to college process. Over these years Randy has been on hundreds of college and university campuses helping them identify and recruit their new freshman class each year.
The Highlands VBC Logo features the cross centered within a volleyball, often prompting people to ask if we are a Christian club? The club founders share a philosophy of life which values and embodies Christian beliefs. The opportunities provided through Highlands VBC are a great way to live joyfully and in service to others within our community.
Highlands VBC has grown from 20 girls and four coaches in our first year to over 125 girls and 20 coaches as we move into our eighth year. Two individuals deserve special mention for helping to create and strengthen the framework for the club - Rose Brady for providing much needed administrative support in managing the club’s finances and Tony Visintine for taking a lead in running our outstanding training program and in assisting our coaches on many fronts - they are both invaluable. Highlands VBC and Highlands VISTA are both operated through the umbrella of KC North Volleyball LLC, established in 2004.
2006/07 - Two teams played in the Junior Olympic Nationals in Minneapolis this year! Highlands 12-1 Red Hots finished 3rd at the Regional Championships and Highlands 15 National placed 4th at HOA Power League earning their bids and spot among the finest teams in the country. Both teams represented the club and HOA with honor. We also had a tournament champion at American Volleyball Challenge and a several additional tournament championships. An exciting developments which will be pursued more fully this year involves the notice that players from several of our high school age teams received from college coaches, including NCAA D1s and other smaller schools. Again we placed three teams is the HOA Region top 10 final rankings and we are very excited about the future of the club. One last very exciting piece of news from 2006/07 was the training provided by Park University Men's Head Coach, Cory Frederick. And as the summer progressed Cory agreed to join with the club to provide training for our elite athletes.
2005/06 - We qualified our first team, 14-1 from Highlands VBC, to attend the Junior Olympic National Championships this year. This was also the first team in our five year history to reach the Gold Bracket of a Junior National Qualifier - at Colorado Crossroads 2006. Other outstanding accomplishments include placing 3 teams in the final top 10 rankings for the Heart of America Region (HOA) and several tournament championships. One other significant move this year involved formally establishing the Skills Training Program for our high school age girls headed by Tony Visintine.
2004/05 – Plans were laid for a significant expansion again nearly doubling the girls teams in the club from 5 to 9 teams and the groundwork for a year around program. This would mean many more coaches and players would be involved with Highlands VBC. New coaches included Tony Visintine, a former Juniors All-American and collegiate standout, Brick Owens, one of the original TEAM KC coaches and a well known face in the KC area juniors volleyball world, Lisa Kear, a former collegiate teammate of Inger’s and Ryan Johnson, Jenny Dorsey and Karl Mendenhall among others who brought us their strong volleyball backgrounds and enthusiasm. The teams these coaches led along with our teams from the previous years provided some outstanding results in a growth year. Each of the three Gold teams at 14s, 15s, and 16s which we sent to the HOA Power League qualified for Power League to play with the best of the Region. Our girls played all around the KC Metro and traveled Denver, Omaha, Springfield and Minneapolis in search of the competitive opportunities and experiences that would continue to mold and develop them as elite volleyball players and teams.
Several of the girls who initially joined the club have played together all four years. Numerous girls who have been a part of the club are now playing for their high school Varsity and JV teams across the Kansas City Northland. In 2004/05 we established Highlands VISTA, a skills training academy focused on providing a true volleyball development program for the young athlete beginning as early as 8 and 9 years old. The future prospects for our teams and development of players is very exciting!
2003/04 – Highlands VBC doubled in size from 3 to 6 teams. Two teams 12s, one Gold one Silver, one 13s Gold, one 14s Gold, one 15s Gold, one boys 14s. Club coaches were Lisa Lawrence, Heather Jacques, Inger and Randy Condit, Joe Tarantino, Cheryl Churchman, Janne Peltonen, Dave Lawrence, Sugglis Chinchilla, Veronica Mobley, Sarah Hake, Mark and Martha Wolf. Each of the gold teams played very competitively their results showed them among the top teams ranging from 6th for 13s to 12th for 15s and 16th for 14s in the HOA rankings and the Clubs first ever HOA Regional Championship by the boys. Highlights were the addition of several new coaches adding to the talented base and setting the stage for a stronger presence in the HOA Region and in the Kansas City area. The club continued to show well in many tournaments across the Region and the 13s had the first trip to a Junior National Qualifier outside Kansas City traveling to Indianapolis to play in the Mid East JNQ.
2002/03 – Our teams were one 12s Silver, one 13s Silver and one 14s Gold. The coaches were Lisa Lawrence, Liz Sharp, Kathleen Wessinger, Randy Condit and Meghan Mueller. The 14s finished the year ranked 5th in HOA rankings and T-5th at Regionals. Highlights were the finishing 2nd at Gold Heart Challenge winning 9 straight matches until falling in the final. Also the girls earned several more 2nds and another tournament championship and had our first ventures into playing in a National Qualifer at Crossroads with both the 14s and 13s in action at Bartle Hall.
2001/02 – Highlands VBC was founded by Randy and Inger Condit with 2 teams one 12s Silver and one 13s Gold with coaches Lisa Lawrence, Glenn Garrison, Randy and Inger Condit. Highlights were the 13s finishing second at three HOA tournaments and the 12s winning the first tournament championship for the club and gaining some respect and notice as a new club in Kansas City.
