SACCO: Guy was ‘The Program’

Think what you want.

Say she’s the best volleyball player this area has seen.

Say there’s been better.

Have a short memory and tab Kala Guy.

Decide to dig deep and find Augusta County volleyball names that might as well be written in hieroglyphics.

Either way, don’t deny that for four years you watched one of the more exciting volleyball players this area has produced.

Not since Waynesboro’s Cynthia Atkins pockmarked the floor and intimidated opponents was a frontline hitter as fun to watch as Guy.

That’s why Wilson coach Kim Claytor, talking about her star pupil’s commitment to attend Virginia Wesleyan, put it oh, so plainly and oh, so simply when she tried to describe the future Marlin.

“Oh, gosh,” Claytor said. “What can I say?”

Then she figured it out.

“The golden child.”

“The program.”

The kind of player that brought the Wilson Memorial volleyball program back to where it needed to be.

“And brought her teammates with her,” Claytor said.

The kind of girl who had no problem strapping a team to her back if need be. In her senior season, she didn’t need to do it often, yet she never lost an ounce of her game even as those around her improved.

On a team full of snipers, she was the Howitzer, leaving craters on the gym floor to prove it.

And she was also the calming force in an emotional sport. With one glance toward her coach, each knew exactly what the other was thinking. Bonds like that are formed only every few years or so on the sidelines, if they are at all.

“We had a rough relationship my freshman year because I was young and emotional,” Guy said.

And she had her older sister, Candice, on the team with her. When Candice graduated after Kala’s sophomore season, the younger Guy burst out of her shadow during what was supposed to be a “rebuilding year.” A “rebuilding year” that turned into a Region B berth.

“She blossomed,” Claytor said, “into the true player she needed to be.”

The pair’s relationship followed suit. Every good general needs a floor captain and Kala Guy was exactly that for the Hornets.

Guy leaving the program won’t be easy for Claytor, a coach who has had the volleyball net set up during gym class during the school year’s waning days. Guy, of course, asks if she can play.

“It’s just like old times,” Claytor said.

“I love her to death and hate to see her go,” she said. “I used to tease her that I was going to flunk her so I could keep her a few more years.”

No such luck, coach.

So, please, go head and believe what you wish. Argue away.

Say she was the best.

Say she wasn’t.

But, as a junior, Guy was charged with leading the team. She succeeded and took it to the state level in her final campaign.

That’s not a task worthy of a high school student.

That’s a task worthy of superhero. A task that was completed.

And Guy has the Superman pillowcase and blanket to prove it.