The enduring image of Katie Swoboda is of her sprawled out on the floor at McArthur Court, diving for a volleyball. No matter how hard the ball was hit or no matter who was in the way, she would dive for the ball.
And she would dig it.
That’s the thing about Swoboda. She could, as head coach Jim Moore so fondly put it, “dig everything under the sun.” There wasn’t a ball she couldn’t get up off the floor. She was the last defense between continuing the rally or losing the point.
“Katie’s fearless,” Moore said. “Playing defense in volleyball is about guts. You lead with your face towards the floor and you constantly take hits.”
But that was Swoboda’s personality. She would give herself up for the good of the team, and she became so proficient at coming up with digs that she ended her fourth year at the University ranked first in school history in career digs with 2,198. That total also gives her the second most in Pacific-10 Conference history.
All those digs didn’t come without a price, however. Gym floor burn is the badge of a libero in volleyball, but Swoboda wore it with pride. Moore laughs that the times that she finished practice without blood on her uniform probably were fewer than the times that she was bloodied.
Moore’s favorite Swoboda moment came during this year’s Arizona match at home where she dove for a ball and smacked her chin on the floor. In typical Swoboda fashion, she went to the locker room for a few stitches and immediately came back up on the floor to finish out the game.
“That poor kid had a lot of concussions,” Moore said. “She was the toughest player I’ve ever known.”
Now Swoboda has moved on and removed the badge of fearless defender in favor of a more traditional one: graduate. She is finishing up her last two classes and is set to graduate this spring with a degree in history. For her, it signifies the end of four very successful years at Oregon.
“It was nice to have the break, but it is bittersweet,” Swoboda said. “It was nice to be a regular student for once, but I definitely miss the girls the most. You don’t really notice it at first, but being gone from it is tough. It is sad, but it reminds you how great of an experience it was when you step back from it.”
It’s especially tough, considering that Swoboda’s coach cites her as the reason Oregon volleyball is no longer a cellar-dweller in the Pac-10. Her first year in the program the Ducks went 2-17 in league play. By her senior year Oregon was just completing its second straight trip to the Sweet 16 and it was ranked ninth at the end of the year.
“Katie has meant a tremendous amount to this program,” Moore said. “She almost single-handedly changed the outlook of Oregon volleyball with her commitment to defense. I tried to recruit her at Northern Michigan, but as soon as we got here we knew we had to get Katie Swoboda.”
“I’m just so happy that I was able to be a part of it and change the program around,” Swoboda said. We came from dead last in the Pac-10 to a top-10 finisher in the nation. I can’t ask for anything more. It was amazing. I can’t thank anyone but the entire coaching staff. They found players who were willing to sacrifice a lot.”
Her oldest remaining friend on the team, junior Sonja Newcombe, has been there with Swoboda for most of that time, and she says Swoboda’s presence on the court was reassuring and calming.
“It was her selflessness. She would do anything, almost to a fault, to help you on and off the court,” Newcombe said. “That’s something not everyone saw. She made me feel important and made me felt like I had a job to do.”
Whether it was a quirky smile or her knack for tripping over things in the weight room, Swoboda is happy for what the future holds. This summer she will coach volleyball camps as a part of All-American Volleyball Camps. The AAVC is a company that holds sessions throughout Oregon, Washington and Alaska, and Swoboda looks forward to traveling the Northwest and teaching volleyball.
“It will be fun and a good experience for me,” she said. “I enjoy coaching and teaching.”
In the fall Swoboda will move back home to Portland, to the area by Reynolds High School in southeast Portland where she grew up. She was offered a job to coach the freshman JV volleyball team.
“Then I’m planning on hopefully getting my master’s degree in education,” she said. “That’s the tentative plan. We’ll see how it goes.”
Moore thinks Swoboda will be a good teacher and coach, too.
“She will be a great coach,” he said. “Katie is a great person with wonderful qualities and no matter what she plans on doing she will do great things. She was one of the best ever in the Pac-10 and it was an honor coaching her.”
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