Recently named by the Sun Belt Conference coaches as the league’s preseason player of the year, Schiff has obviously established herself as one of the best players in the Sun Belt. A two-time all-SBC first team selection, she has become WKU’s go-to offensive force the last two seasons, totalling 949 kills and close to a .350 hitting percentage.
Those totals become even more remarkable when you consider the path Schiff has taken to get where she is now. A role player at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, she played alongside a pair of prep All-Americans and was never looked at to carry a team. Then, upon her arrival at Western she found herself on an upperclass-dominated squad, and suffered a stress fracture that sidelined her for much of the 2001 season.
Western went on to win its second straight Sun Belt championship and advanced to the finals of the conference tournament, but then graduated its entire offensive unit. With a lot of unanswered questions, Schiff regards the following spring as the turning point in her career.
“I was in the gym a lot that spring,” remembered Schiff. “I really owe everything to Travis. He worked with me every day, and knew how to push me and make me understand what I needed to get done to improve.”
“I told everybody in our program that spring that Amanda had what it took to be a great player,” added Hudson. “She had all the physical gifts to be a great player, but having never been in the role of a major contributor, I had to work on her just as much mentally as I did physically that spring to get her to step forward.”
The payoff from that spring of work was obvious as Schiff came back in 2002 to lead the Lady Toppers in kills, and was at the top of the Sun Belt Conference rankings in hitting percentage. A virtual unknown entering the season, Schiff emerged to become a first-team all-league selection and led the Lady Toppers to their first ever Sun Belt Conference Tournament title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Proving not to be a flash in the pan, Schiff came back last season to led the Lady Toppers in seven offensive categories and earn another spot on the all-Sun Belt Conference first team. She also made history on Nov. 10, 2003, when she became the first player in Sun Belt history to be named National Player of the Week by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
While the spring of 2002 was a landmark in the collegiate career of Amanda Schiff, the groundwork for her development was laid a few years earlier. To be exact, it started when Hudson first saw her play and started to talk about bringing her to Bowling Green.
“Sometimes recruiting is about seeing a kid into the future as opposed to seeing where they are,” said Hudson. “From the very first time I saw Amanda play, I couldn’t find anything in my mind that would keep her from being a terrific player. Even though she had been a role player in high school, and played on a number-two club team, when we signed her I couldn’t believe that nobody else was seeing that potential.”
“I didn’t have a whole lot of (scholarship) offers coming out of high school,” added Schiff. “Once I came down here, I loved it. I loved the visit, I loved the team, and I knew once I was here that Western Kentucky was where I wanted to play.”
Not only was the lure of a quality program and a beautiful campus key in Schiff’s decision, but Hudson’s ability to develop high-quality middle hitters proved to be a strong selling point.
“Travis told me that middles were a big priority here,” remembered Schiff. “And even though I didn’t think I was that good at the time, his enthusiasm got me excited about coming to Western.”
“(Schiff) was a kid that needed a lot of development as a middle hitter, and we had a history of developing all-conference middle hitters here,” said Hudson. “Not only that, but our offense is designed to get the ball to our middles a great deal. So that makes for a very attractive combination in recruiting.”
Not only has Schiff developed, she has thrived in Western’s system to the point where the Sun Belt coaches selected her as the preseason player of the year entering the 2004 campaign.
“(Being preseason player of the year) is an honor, but I really think we have four or five players on this team that are worthy of the award,” said Schiff. “I made it a goal of mine last spring that I wanted to go out and play well enough to win the player of the year this season, but I’ll be able to live without that if it means we’re going out there and winning while playing as a team.”
Hudson echoes those sentiments. “The biggest thing for her is to not get caught up in what’s happened the last two years, and instead go out and play her game. She proved last year that she can still put up great numbers with all the attention, but with the talent we have this year, we may not need her to carry the same load she has in the past because we have so many weapons offensively.”
The words of her coach seem to have set in through the first weekend of the season. In the opening match against Drake, Schiff finished with a match-high 18 kills, and in the process became just the 10th Lady Topper in school history to go over 1,000 kills for her career. She would go on to finish the event with a team-high 38 kills, six blocks and five service aces in leading WKU to the Marquette Challenge championship while earning Most Valuable Player honors.
Only looking at the stat sheet does not tell the entire story of Amanda Schiff in Hudson’s eyes, however. If you ask, she would rather see success come to her teammates rather than getting the accolades herself.
“Her humbleness as a great player stems from the fact that she has been on the other side,” explained Hudson. “She is probably as unheralded a big-time player as you can ever possibly have. She is not the kind of player that jumps out at you with what she does on any particular play, but when you look at the stat sheet, she is the reason you got beat.”
So while there is still a long season, and the expectations of big things on the horizon, what are the plans for Amanda Schiff when her playing career ends?
“I’ve got one more year to go since I’m a double major, and then after that I hope to go to law school.”
And while four years has proven to make a world of difference in her athletic career, Hudson has no reason to believe that Amanda Schiff won’t be successful in whatever she puts her mind to in life.
“I think her life may be defined by doing things that she may not know she is capable of doing.”
