ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
B.J. Willard intended from the beginning to go to the Olympics.
And she had no intention of paying for a ticket.
You might say it's pretty brash to plan an Olympic crash. Willard had an even cheekier plot than that, though. She was counting on going to the world muscle fest in Atlanta next summer by invitation only.
But that's getting a little ahead of the story of how Willard was chosen to be an Olympic volleyball official. Willard had her unwavering gaze set on the Olympic torch back when she was a long-legged hurdler of above-average skill and ambition at Christiansburg High.
``People would try to be nice by saying, `You keep this up and you can go to the Olympics,''' she says now.
But other events intervened.
``If it hadn't been for puberty ... ,'' she said.
Years went by and her sporting attention turned to volleyball. The game took her to two years on the team at East Tennessee State and two more at Virginia Tech, where volleyball was still a club (non-scholarship) sport.
On those days when she was occupied swatting balls at high speeds and bruising her extremities trying to dig opposing shots out of the hardwood of a gym floor, she may not have seen her Olympic potential so clearly. Nor would she when she began officiating matches instead of playing in them.
But the day she heard that the 1996 Games would be in Atlanta, just hours down the interstate highway from her home in Christiansburg, the 40-year-old Willard starting dreaming big time.
``So I started bugging people,'' she said. ``What do I have to do to go to the Olympics?''
The short answer: Have your certifications in order and be real impressive when your work is being examined by the proper authorities.
Willard earned her certification as a United States Volleyball Association official, the first requirement, then passed through cuts at two U.S. Open tournaments in 1994 and last spring and finally the Centennial Cup, the dress rehearsal for the Olympics, in Atlanta this past August. She was a line judge (the post she will occupy at the Games next summer) in men's matches. A strong showing there sealed it for her.
``She was very, very confident when we went down there,'' said Barry Willard, a fellow Christiansburg High graduate and her husband of 18 years. ``I would have thought she would have been real nervous, but she wanted us to be there with her.''
The family entourage included sons Travis, 8, and John, 3. Both boys had seen their mother do the striped shirt and whistle gig numerous times.
``I owe a lot to my family,'' she said. ``My parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Lester of Christiansburg, have gone with me to clinics and matches so the boys could be there for me and I for them when they were babies.
``And Barry has always supported me. He's had to do most of the parenting when I'm doing college matches during the fall.''
Barry Willard, an assistant manager at Wade's grocery story, is happy to oblige.
``We're proud of her,'' he said. ``I'm proud of her.''
It's been all college matches for Willard for a while now, but it wasn't always so. Once she did high school matches. That sort of work has its own challenges.
``I remember crying all the way home from Narrows one night because I either had a lousy match or somebody with a lousy understanding of the rules had jumped on me, or both,'' she said.
Willard is a perfectionist when it comes to volleyball. Part of what would eventually grow into her intense frustration with the high school level of the sport developed because she found others in the game, officials and coaches both, lacked her attention to detail.
Ultimately, after playing the game herself at the high school level, then coaching it for a season each at schools such as Blacksburg, Nelson County, and Auburn, then finally officiating it, she walked away from the high school game.
``I decided it just wasn't worth the stress,'' she said.
Stress was plentiful, even though many of her peanut gallery critics knew about as much about volleyball as they did about quantum chromodynamics.
What pulled her through?
``Faith in God,'' she said.
A different set of challenges accompanies the game at the college and national level, a substantial part of it coming with the learning process.
``There were the old days of sleeping on floors and piling into vans to go to tournaments,'' said Janet Blue of Roanoke, a volleyball scorekeeper who has known Willard for years.
Janet Blue's husband, Tom, is an international official - the highest level - and a assistant vice president of the USVB National Referee Commission. Willard calls him ``my mentor.'' He was instrumental in guiding her through the maze of the selection process for the Olympics.
Tom Blue was in Tokyo for a tournament and could not be reached.
Willard perfected her craft at every clinic within driving distance. She was tireless in her labor to improve her skills. She was always ready to toot a whistle.
``She amazes me how much energy she has,'' Barry said.
In addition to her boys, in addition to the volleyball, in addition to a career as a administrator at Radford Community Hospital, she finds a few minutes here and there to play a little golf, go to a Roanoke Express hockey game with the family, or strap on some skis and swoop down a snowy West Virginia mountainside.
``She's a talented person,'' said Barry, who does not share her enthusiasm for wintertime sports. ``When she goes skiing, the 3-year-old and I hit the Jacuzzi while she and the 8-year-old hit the slopes.''
Those activities present considerably less pressure than she faced at the final Olympic tryout in Atlanta in August.
``I had a bunch of close calls, but nobody contested anything,'' she said.
From Janet Blue's seat, there did not appear to be much to contest.
``She did an excellent job,'' Blue said. ``She was one of the top performers there and I wasn't the only one who thought that.''
In less than a year, Willard's talents will be under the scrutiny of a wider audience.
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. B.J. Willard watches through the netby CNBas she officiates at a volleyball match at Radford University. She's
been chosen to referee at the 1996 Olympic Games this summer in
Atlanta. color. To get to the Olympics, B.J. Willard had to earn a
certification as a United States Volleyball Association official,
then passed through cuts at two U.S. Open tournaments in 1994 and
last spring. The final step was the Centennial Cup, the dress
rehearsal for the Olympics, in Atlanta this past August.