THE FINAL SPIKE: Humboldt’s Middleton prepares for her final year of volleyball

Sheri Middleton sat at home during Christmas break in 2015 and waited.
The Humboldt native had just finished a year and a half at Fort Scott Community College where she played for the Greyhound volleyball team for two fairly successful seasons.
Middleton had made the short trip east to Fort Scott with promise from head coach Lindsay Hill that when she was done, she would find a place for her on a team at a four-year school.
The 6-3 middle blocker who always had a penchant for broadening her horizons told her coach she’d be open to going just about anywhere.
Offers came in, but nothing really caught her attention. Middleton graduated that fall and needed to find a landing spot for the spring. She was running out of time.
That’s when the call came.
“A couple weeks before Christmas I was afraid that I wasn’t going to find anything,” Middleton said. “Then I got the call from (Bridgeport University head coach Gary Mullen) and I was really excited about what he was doing there. He told me what he was doing and why he wanted me there and then I had just a couple of days to decide.”
After thinking it over the decision became clear, Middleton was heading east for Bridgeport, Conn., to become a Purple Knight.
“I told myself these were the last two years that I’d be able to play competitively and I was going to make the most of it,” Middleton said. “Because that’s all you get and you never know when it will end.”
Connecticut was a transition for Middleton who lived her entire life in southeast Kansas up to that point. After growing up landlocked, with Kansas City and Wichita as her examples of a big city, Middleton moved to a campus with the ocean just across the street and the Big Apple an hour away.
“It was crazy different,” Middleton said. “I was the only one from this area. The culture of Bridgeport is different. It was a big city and I wasn’t used to that. But the people were really welcoming and it was easy to fit in.”
Middleton had the entire spring semester to adjust to her new team which included international students from Sweden, Brazil, Serbia and France.
“It’s so funny because I don’t know anyone from Kansas there but I know at least five Serbians,” Middleton said. “It’s interesting to see how different countries play the same sport. They’re all super competitive, which is great, because I am, too.”
While East Coast living still required some accommodation, Middleton had zero trouble adjusting on the volleyball court.
Middleton led her team in blocks and attack percentage and was top five in the East Coast Conference in multiple categories after her junior season. The jump from junior college to Division II proved to be no more than a hop.
“The Jayhawk Conference (home of Allen County and Fort Scott Community Colleges) is very competitive,” Middleton said. “So jumping up to Division II, the quality of volleyball was very much on the same level. In JUCO we were expected to play at our best so there really wasn’t a big jump which was really nice. Even though I was transitioning to a new area, volleyball was something that stayed consistent.”
Bridgeport weathered injuries and a very young roster to finish 14-13 in 2016 while going 9-1 at home. Middleton hopes for an improved senior season for both herself and her team.
“My goal is just to have fun and do the best I can,” Middleton said. “It’s my last year and I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I want us to get to the NCAA tournament because we didn’t make it last year and that was our first year not making it in a while. And I’d like to win conference.”
After the spring semester, Middleton returned to southeast Kansas this summer to intern at Thrive Allen County working as a Communications Intern.
Middleton is majoring in mass communications with a focus in public relations and international communications at Bridgeport. She was able to use that this summer to design Thrive’s first new brochure since they opened in 2007 and design a brochure for the trails.
“It was really exciting,” Middleton said. “I had always admired Thrive because of all of things they’ve been doing. They just want to help the community and you can feel that in their office. Everyone is really passionate about what they’re doing and they really just want to make Allen County better and I’m all for that because I’m from here and I’ve lived here my whole life.”
As far as life after college and volleyball, Middleton still isn’t too sure. She still very much is the same person that she was around Christmas 2015: open to anything and ready for her next adventure.
“Kind of like when Coach Hill asked me where I wanted to play, I’m pretty open to whatever when I graduate,” Middleton said. “I’d like to go abroad.”