How Valley Center’s Ellie Shank became a national champion beach volleyball player at LSU

Ellie Shank realizes how crazy it sounds for a girl who grew up in Valley Center, 10 hours away from the nearest beach, to be a national champion in beach volleyball.

It’s been a whirlwind experience for Shank, a junior on the LSU women’s beach volleyball team, since her and her teammate, Kylie Deberg, won the Fall AVCA Pairs National Championship this past weekend in Huntsville, Ala.

The invitation-only tournament featured 64 pairs from some of the top programs in the country.

“I don’t think it really ever hit me and I don’t know if it still has hit me,” Shank said. “All I know is that afterward I couldn’t stop smiling.”

Shank actually grew up with goals of being a college basketball player. That is until she was introduced to the game of beach volleyball around the age of 12 by Scott Larkin, co-director of Shockwave Volleyball Academy.

Larkin’s daughter, Ella, was around the same age as Shank and was interested in giving beach volleyball a try, so the pair started training in indoor sand courts in Wichita and traveling to bigger cities to compete in tournaments. They were both skilled indoor volleyball players but discovered their well-rounded skill set translated even better to beach volleyball, where they had to pass, set and hit constantly.

“Ella is a fantastic athlete who grew up playing basketball, volleyball and softball, and I think she would have been great at whatever she chose to do in college,” Larkin said. “That athleticism and the skill level she has makes her the prototypical little beach volleyball player. She can pass, set, hit and serve well, so that’s why I think you’re seeing her blossoming and thriving as a beach volleyball player.”

Once Shank and Ella Larkin began to have success in beach volleyball, Scott Larkin decided to start Wichita’s first beach volleyball club: No Coast Beach Volleyball at the Wichita Sports Forum.

In the decade since, Larkin said the club has as many as 150 kids from the Wichita area who train with him for beach volleyball.

“My training at No Coast absolutely made a ton of difference,” Shank said. “Wichita didn’t have much (in beach volleyball) when we first started, but I can say I had the best training I could possibly imagine. Having a resource like Scott in Wichita and then the chance he had a daughter who was my age and was super-skilled, it was basically the stars aligning for my beach volleyball progression.”

Shank has also enjoyed continuing her beach volleyball career with Ella Larkin, who is a sophomore on the LSU women’s beach volleyball team. Shank earned AVCA Top-Flight honors on Court 5 with a 15-3 record this past spring.

Before Shank’s national success, the only Wichita-related success in the beach volleyball world was former Shocker standout Emily Stockman, who has become one of the top AVP Beach Volleyball players in the world.

Shank hopes her national title can help inspire others from the Wichita area to give beach volleyball a chance.

“I think it’s a testament that will hopefully start breaking down the stigma (that) you have to be from the West Coast and grow up playing on the beach every day,” Shank said. “You just have to work hard at it and then someone has to take a chance on you.”