Aurora
In volleyball, good walls have ears.
They also have long arms, great instincts and quick feet.
Grandview has one of the best in the state in middle blocker Katie Mills, a 6-foot-4 senior bound for UCLA who has been tabbed as one of the top dozen players in the nation by one publication.
While much of the glory in volleyball goes to the high fliers and super spikers, Mills is the kind of player who lives to wreck those moments. Sure, she can throw down with the best of them. She can slam the ball off a quick-set and practically put a dent in the floor.
But her blocks are a personal party.
“It’s just like you get an adrenaline rush,” Mills said of stuffing an opponent at the net. “Your whole heart kind of stops.”
Different? You don’t know the half of it.
Katerina Mills could be just like any girl warming up before a volleyball match. She has the bubbly personality that seems a requirement for every player in the sport. She walks into the gym with headphones stuck in her ears and chomps on gum.
When the warmup music blares, she’ll take time out of a passing drill to bust a little dance move with her teammates. When asked later, she’ll swear that she can’t dance to save her life.
And when the game begins, the happy-go-lucky Mills will celebrate, congratulate and scream after every point, according to ancient volleyball custom.
Yes, Mills could be just like anybody. But, of course, she isn’t, and probably never will be.
Those tunes on her iPod? You can bet it’s Three Days Grace, whose most memorable song remains the fiery single “I Hate Everything About You.”
When it comes to movies, Mills would rather watch a car chase than a romantic kiss.
With her muscular physique, Mills will probably never slink into a gymnasium unnoticed. Certainly not this season, as the Wolves (9-1) are in the hunt for their third consecutive Class 5A state championship, a feat that has not been matched at the big-school level since Evergreen won eight straight from 1978 to 1985.
For Mills, another title in November would only be her second since she transferred to Grandview from Steamboat Springs after her sophomore season.
Contrary to snap judgment, Mills didn’t make her family move all the way to Aurora just so she could join a championship team on the rise. She came for the academics, to be closer to her Front Range club team and to be closer to Parker, where she was riding horses competitively. Her family came so they could be closer to DIA for her father’s travel.
Naturally, word of Mills’ transfer to Grandview was met with all kinds of rolling eyes and suspicions cleverly disguised as jokes.
Wolves coach Patty Childress said she never knew what Mills looked like until all-Colorado hitter Lindsey Licht introduced the two – after Mills had enrolled at Grandview.
Childress wouldn’t see Mills in action until much later. Not that she’ll forget the moment.
“The first day in practice and the first time she hit a ball, we stood there with our mouths open and said, ‘Oh, my goodness,”‘ Childress said. “We were just amazed at how high she was.”
Once Mills settled in, the next thing she remembers wanting was to experience what the Wolves had in 2004.
“I just wanted to know what it was like,” she said. “You could tell when we had team meetings and we’d talk about goals, the seniors would talk and I’d just sit there wide-eyed, hoping I got that feeling.”
Mills was a big reason the Wolves got to experience another championship last season. She battled throughout the final with Chaparral standout Sarah Ammerman, a relentless player known to attack from all angles.
Mills’ vertical is around 26 inches, which means she can touch an inch above a basketball rim. When rushing to the side to join a block with the 6-5 Licht (bound for Nebraska), the two become one of the most intimidating walls in the state.
“We’re kind of tall, just a little bit,” Mills said.
Good walls must also have a sense of humor.
