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Comfort of the court traded for California dream

Volleyball often was a refuge of sorts for Joy Henry, but the Crystal River grad will focus solely on her studies as a biology major at Stanford.

By BRIAN SUMERS
Published June 30, 2006

The first thing a visitor notices is the bright yellow signs.

"No Trespassing," one reads. "Violators will be prosecuted after being shot."

This is the Henry home, a modest trailer in Inglis that was burglarized once. This also is where Joy Henry, perhaps the most driven scholar and athlete in the Crystal River High class of 2005, lives.

It is not luxurious. Not even close.

It can be noisy. So loud, Henry studied in high school by listening to classical music.

And not long ago, when four children and two parents shared it, Henry and a sister bunked in a cramped room.

Henry always believed her home made her different.

"You see the house your friends live in, and you can't bring them here," she said. "They'd be uncomfortable."

Stanford, though, will be better.

Elite. Academically rigorous. Beautiful.

California is Joy Henry's next stop. Not to play volleyball - she did that in high school, as Crystal River's main libero - but to be a student.

The same one who was named "outstanding senior in science," a plaque she shows off at home. And the one who was named "most likely to take over the world" by her classmates.

Some gloss over her athletic achievements because she never was a superstar and played just one sport, but she was plenty good.

And though she stands just 4 feet 11, Henry could have played volleyball at Williams College, an elite private liberal arts college in Massachusetts.

But once the thick envelope came from Stanford, she gave up the sport she loved, the one that helped her cope with a sometimes difficult high school experience.

Volleyball comforted her near the end of 2004, when her father, Melvin, smashed his left leg in a motorcycle accident, forcing doctors to insert two rods and use skin grafts.

The family feared he might not walk again. Even more, they wondered when he would be able to return to work.

"She took it hard," said her mother, Karen Henry. "She still worries a lot. It's hard for both of us."

Melvin Henry is mostly healed now, but it was a scare. And in the year after it happened, volleyball became less of a priority.

At 17, Henry became an adult.

That meant taking a job at K-Mart. Henry started at $6 per hour.

"I felt bold asking for more," she said.

She considered giving up volleyball, but it was the only thing keeping her sane.

During last fall, she worked only on weekends. Other times, during the year she toiled there, she was at K-Mart 25-30 hours each week.

One of her first jobs: donning an elf suit during the Christmas season.

Once, another employee even made her cry.

"I'm setting my dream to go to Stanford ...and I'm working with pregnant 18-year-olds and high school dropouts," she said.

But she worked on her terms.

When Henry became more comfortable, she sat on the counter in the store's garden section and read - just out of the purview of the store's security camera. No one ever caught her.

Her favorite book: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

"It was endless hours of thinking 'I'm going to lose my mind,' " Henry said. "Sometimes the urge would be so strong to just leave the cash register and run for the door."

But she couldn't. She needed the money.

Of her pay checks, which were usually between $115 and $170, she would give about $80 to her parents. The rest of the money went for food and her Volkswagen.

Her parents, she said, were one paycheck from "financial disaster."

"What are you going to do?" she said. "It's your family."

Still, she found time to sneak volleyball into her schedule, though she thought about quitting after the accident.

It helped her cope.

"You need something you like doing so that you don't go crazy," Henry said.

So Henry helped lead the 2005 team into the state playoffs, relishing her time on the court, time when she did not have to worry.

But she knew she was not like her teammates. Henry didn't share in too many of their off-court endeavors.

She was either studying or working.

"It's hard," she said. "It seems like everyone else can tell that you're different. They sense it. But I'm a nice person.

"A lot of the girls were into things that I don't have time for."

Though Henry tried to remain as normal as possible, the work and the worrying bothered her.

Her volleyball coach, Briget Boshell, knew she couldn't yell at Henry, or she might break down.

"There were times I didn't think she would make it," Boshell said. "She was so exhausted."

Henry knows she placed plenty of pressure on herself.

Neither of her parents graduated from a four-year college, though her father went to technical school and her mother briefly attending the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

So when it came time to apply to college, Henry took books from the library about how to get into college and how to write essays.

It worked: She was accepted at every school she applied to, including Duke, Amherst and Dartmouth.

For Henry, success has come everywhere.

She received just one B at Crystal River, and it came in Drawing I, a class she took at Central Florida Community College.

Henry is smart. And not afraid to show it.

She loves evolution and considers herself an atheist, even though she grew up going to church and her name is permanently etched on a concrete slab in front of the house that says "Jesus Saves."

That was in the past, she said. In the future, she hopes to become a neurosurgeon.

No one will be surprised when it happens.

"It's just a well-known fact," Boshell said. "Joy Henry is smart."

Next year, she'll be at Stanford studying biology.

Not bad for a small-town girl from Inglis.

And though her official days as an athlete are over, look for her on the intramural volleyball court.

She can't give up the sport yet.

Brian Sumers can be reached at 352 564-3628 or bsumers@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 29, 2006, 23:34:14]