The RoundHouse | 10/10/2019 1:48:00 PM

Where are they now?
 
Sara (Lungren) Walkup – volleyball (2003-07)
 
Walkup came to Wichita State as a raw talent who took to coaching and worked to grow into a star. Now a high school volleyball coach, she sees a bit of her journey in many of her athletes.
 
That is why she loves coaching at Cheney High School.
 
"I had this thought that it would really cool to help other girls who were like me – from a small town, but a good athlete," she said. "Expose them to the bigger volleyball world, rather than just get lost in the middle of the country. How can I help people do that? I may not have a bunch of girls that are going to go (NCAA) Division I, but I can help them get better. Maybe I can help some of them have a college experience."
 
Walkup is in her 11^thseason at Cheney, a tenure highlighted by two Class 3A runner-up finishes. She majored in elementary education at Wichita State and teaches social studies, physical education and health for sixth graders at Cheney Middle School. 
 
After a redshirt season at Wichita State, she moved quickly to the top of Shocker history, topped by her 2013 induction into the Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame. 
 
In 2007, she earned honorable mention All-American. That added to a list that included Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year honors in 2006 and 2007 as an outside hitter. She claimed MVC All-Academic honors three times, twice on the first team.
 
Walkup ranks seventh on Wichita State's career list with 1,269 kills. Her averages of .491 points and 4.10 kills a set in 2006 both rank second on the school's season list. 
 
Family: Husband, Casey Walkup; daughters Blakely (5), Brogan (2)
 
Feels like home -  Walkup's experience as coach and teacher in Cheney reminds her of growing up on a farm and attending Caldwell High School. She values the small-school life, for herself and her family. 
 
"Cheney was my first job and they kind of gave me the head coaching job without any experience," she said. "The community has become home for my whole family now. People look out for each other. I know the teachers that teach my kids. I've built all these relationships with all these girls (at Cheney) and it's fun."
 
Walkup said she is occasionally asked about coaching at a bigger school that might offer a bigger pool of talent. 
 
"That's not me," she said. "That was never me. I didn't come from that. The girls I'm coaching right now, I think, are more advanced than I ever was in volleyball in high school."
 
She enjoys staying in touch with her former athletes and is touched when they tell her how much they learned about the sport.
 
"It's cool to see, now that I've gotten 10 years in, people coming back and telling me how much they learned and how much I've affected them," she said. "I just wanted to share the love of the game. You don't realize how much you're affecting people until years later."
 
Been there – Cheney finished second in Class 3A in 2013 and 2017 and third in 2016. Cheney also placed third in Class 4A in 2009.
 
At Caldwell, her team finished second in the 2002 Class 1A tournament.
 
"I'm still hungry for that," she said. "I want it so badly, for me, yes, but these girls are so awesome that I want them to go have success. You get so close and then 'Uuh.'"
 
Stay busy – Walkup played volleyball and basketball at Caldwell and ran on the track team. In the summer, she played softball. She did not play club volleyball, a rarity in NCAA Division I.
 
She strongly favors multi-sport athletes in an age when many specialize in one sport. For example, she appreciates the toughness that finishing a distance race can develop.
 
"So many girls . . . they didn't understand how to push themselves when they were tired," she said. "It makes you a better teammate, all around. You just have an appreciation for all the different moving parts in sports when you go through different kinds of sporting events."
 
Start of something big – Walkup played on Wichita State's first NCAA Tournament team, the 2004 group that went 25-6 and won the MVC Tournament in Koch Arena.
 
The Shockers won 25 or more matches in her four seasons of play and played in two NCAA Tournaments. They went 67-5 in MVC play and won three regular-season titles. 
 
Most of her memories are from bus trips and fun moments on the road with her friends. Playing at Nebraska in the 2004 and 2007 NCAAs remains a highlight.
 
She uses many drills borrowed from coach Chris Lamb. She finds herself using other sports to explain volleyball, as Lamb often does with baseball and football. She uses a scavenger hunt, as Lamb does, for a bonding exercise.
 
"I've used a lot of the activities he used," she said. "Back then . . . he had us drive around Wichita finding these different things. My girls run around town."