Scott Swanson
After a stellar volleyball career at Sweet Home High School, Ally Tow signed a letter of intent last week to play for Linn-Benton Community College in the fall.
Tow, a 5-11 front-row player, was an all-league first-team selection after leading the Huskies to a 15-5 record and second place in the Sky-Em League with an 8-2 record, three of those losses coming at the hands of eventual state champion Sisters.
Tow, who said she got interest from “a couple of Washington schools,” and her coaches all noted that a big reason for her choice was a chance to play for LBCC Coach Jayme Frazier, who led the Roadrunners to a 34-10 overall record and second in the NWAACC South Region, at 13-2, last season, one game behind eventual conference champion Chemeketa, which won its fourth-straight title.
“I really, really like the coach at Linn-Benton,” said Tow, who noted that she has enough credits already at LBCC to earn an associate’s degree in “less than two years.
“She’s awesome. She gave me a pretty good scholarship to play there. Starting at a smaller school like that, she knows so many coaches. After my two years are up, I can transfer somewhere else and play. She can give me a really good recommendation.”
Tow comes to Frazier with a reference from her own mother, Michelle Tow, who played for Frazier at LBCC during the coach’s first two years at the school, 1993-94.
“Jayme’s amazing,” Michelle Tow said.
Ally Tow said she would eventually like to play at the NCAA Division I or II level.
High school Coach Mary Hutchins said Tow, who has played for her since she was a seventh-grader, in high school team and on club teams, has a “tenacious, fighter spirit.”
“She’s great to have in practice, because every day she gives everything she has, even when you don’t want her to, because you’re getting ready for a playoff game and she’s flinging herself against the wall to get a ball and you go, ‘Maybe you don’t want to go for that one.’
“She has been a joy to have,” Hutchins told a crowd of family and friends who crowded the library for the signing. “I’m going to miss her a lot. I don’t know what the gym’s going to be like without her. So somebody else is going to have to come in all wild and crazy. It’s going to be a lot quieter.”
Hutchins said Tow developed this year as a team player and leader.
She “really helped the other girls know what it looks like and what it should look like and how to lead a team and how to support your team and bring them together and make them want to be on the same page,” Hutchins said.
Dave Kellar, coach of DSK Volleyball Club of Corvallis, said Tow has played for him since he called her up one day to ask if she’d be willing to fill a spot on his team.
“Three years later she’s still with me,” he said.
“She’s the most amazing, energetic, all-around athletic player you’ll meet. (In club) she’s surrounded by a phenomenal group of girls who really showcase her talent and everybody else’s. She’s great for her high school, but when you see her in club, she takes it to whole new level.
“I think Jayme Frazier is by far one of the best coaches in the valley, who can not only transition a player into the next level after, but as far as player development, she’s by far the best – I would recommend anybody going to see her.”
Tow said she hasn’t decided on a major yet.
“My plan at LB is to do a transfer program. Hopefully, once I get to a four-year school, I’ll know what I want to do.”