“Jaqui’s one of a kind,” junior Miley Massey said. “You don’t come across her a lot.”

Junior Jacqueline McClain is an outside hitter for the Varsity Volleyball team. McClain came to Azle her sophomore year, and since then has broken the previous records for aces in a match with 8, kills in one season with 540, and most career kills with 968, as of this writing.

Recently, McClain was offered a full scholarship to the University of North Texas, an NCAA D1 volleyball team.

McClain met the UNT recruiting coordinator at her club volleyball’s tryouts where he invited her to come to a recruiting camp.

“[After the camp], he gave me his number, and he was like ‘We’ll set up a date for an official tour,” McClain said. “It took a while to get the tour set up because they’re in season and I’m in season, so it’s, like, crazy. I took off a day from school for it.”

At this tour, McClain said she got to go to a brunch, tour the campus, take photos with the jerseys, talk with the Dean and the team’s psychiatrist, watch the team’s practice, meet a lot of the players and talk with the team’s head coach.

“It was so funny,” McClain said. “The whole time we had no hint, like ‘are we getting an offer or no?’ There were no hints at all. And then, the last five minutes, he was like ‘Oh, by the way, it would be a full ride.’ And it was, like, ‘Thank you so much for telling me, this whole time I wish I would have known.’”

McClain first started her volleyball journey in elementary school.

“I started playing volleyball in second grade, at the YMCA,” McClain said. “I was only interested at first because my best friend played. As I got older, I started getting more competitive. It’s what made me happy, and I saw a future in it. [Playing volleyball in college] is something I wanted to do since I was 10 years old.”

Anyone who puts years into perfecting their craft goes through ups and downs, but for McClain, what has kept her going, she said, was remembering all the time she put in and how it has paid off.

“When I was younger, just being able to tell my younger self it will all pay off,” McClain said. “Because, like, obviously you go through little burnouts and you go through ‘Oh, I just wish I had time to myself and stuff’. But, looking back, it all paid off. You just didn’t do this all for nothing.”

Massey, the setter for the varsity team, said she has known McClain her whole life. She and McClain started their varsity career their sophomore year, and since then, have both broken records. Massey’s record is for career assists.

“She’s someone who is very mentally tough, but at the same time, mentally driven,” Massey said. “She finds a way to maintain that while still being a good teammate; she’s never snappy at you. I can safely say that I think a lot of my success, [I owe] not only to [head] coach [Kenley Buckholt], but to Jaqui. Because, I mean, if it weren’t for her amazing kills, I wouldn’t have the stats I have today.”

Massey isn’t the only one who knew McClain before high school. Buckholt said she first met McClain well before she came to AHS.

“I originally met her through the club volleyball world,” Buckholt said. “I actually coached her when she was 12 and 13. At the time she didn’t go to Azle ISD schools, she went to private school, so I was allowed to coach her. And then in her sophomore year, she decided to go back to public school, so she came to Azle High School. [McClain] has always been kind of a goofy kid, real outgoing, and always fun to coach.”

Buckholt said she has enjoyed watching McClain come into her own over the last two years.

“Last year as a sophomore, she was kind of the new kid, even though she knew a couple of the volleyball girls already because she grew up in Azle,” Buckholt said. ”But [she] quickly started earning her spot. It’s been really fun to see her become a leader this year and step up for our team. My other girls definitely follow her, my underclassmen look up to her, and so I want to continue to see her take on more of that leadership role.”

Not only did Buckholt recognize McClain’s skills, but so did the University of North Texas, offering her a full scholarship to attend their school.

“She’s had big goals for volleyball for as long as I’ve known her,” Buckholt said. “She’s always been the one who knew college was the goal. She knew she wanted to go somewhere big, you know, division one kind of caliber team. So for her to get [the offer] was a really, really big moment for all of us. Those of us who have helped her grow, it’s definitely a blessing for her family, and I think it reaffirmed for her that she’s on the right path. She’s doing what she needs to be doing, and it’s all been worth it.”

After years of hard work and dedication, McClain said that she is grateful that her hardest moments were worth it.

“It’s just a weight off my shoulders,” McClain said. “I don’t have to worry about college anymore. Like next year, I feel like everyone’s stressing out about college stuff next year and I just won’t. And it’s just so exciting to see, like, that’s going to be me. I’m just so excited to play on a deeper level. It makes me look forward to going to college. [Getting that offer] makes me more confident in myself and what I can do in the court now. Because obviously, there’s something there.”

This story was originally published on The Sting on November 4, 2024.