Hampshire tradition continues with Whitehouse leading way

Hampshire High School is growing by leaps and bounds and getting ready to move into a new building next year with double its current enrollment.

But that's next year.

For now, Hampshire is still a quaint little school with possibly the best overall athletic tradition of any school in the area.

That tradition, which began with the 1976 Class 1A state football championship, continues today when the Whip-Purs' girls volleyball team takes on Chicago Christian in the Class 2A state semifinals at Redbird Arena in Normal.

And Karen Whitehouse joins a select group of Hampshire coaches -- Ron Ellett, Dan Cavanaugh, Milt Awe, Sue Ellett and Patrick O'Brien -- to lead a Hampshire program to a state final tournament.

When Whitehouse took over the Hampshire volleyball program three years ago, this was her goal -- to take the Whips to state. She's accomplished the goal not only with a superb group of hard-working athletes, but by coaching the old-fashioned way --- tough, yet sensitive.

"I've always enjoyed volleyball; it's my passion," said Whitehouse, who as Karen Liss was a pretty fine 3-sport athlete at Cary-Grove in the late 1990s before becoming a standout volleyball player at Eastern Illinois.

"I thought as a coach that if I could make it as enjoyable for the players as it is for me that we could have success."

Hit that nail on the head there, Karen.

"She taught us confidence and made us believe that if we had confidence in ourselves we could go as far as we wanted to," said Whips' senior co-captain Jena Karkos, one of four seniors who has been on Whitehouse's varsity since the 6-foot sparkplug first walked into Hampshire. "We put trust in her because she's taught us so much and she has so much experience."

Kim Kartheiser, the Whips' other captain, doesn't believe Hampshire would be playing at state today without Whitehouse.

"There's no way we would have come this far without her," Kartheiser said. "She's an awesome coach and she's just taught us so much."

Whitehouse's first chore when she moved from Dundee-Crown -- where she spent her first year teaching while also coaching girls basketball and swimming -- to Hampshire in the summer of 2005 was to install an offense that would allow the Whip-Purs to become a more aggressive team.

"From day one we changed the offense," said Whitehouse. "It was a very slow offense and from experience and seeing the other teams we were playing we knew we had to speed up the offense.

"I couldn't have asked for a better group and I'm extremely fortunate to have the players here I do. I put my trust into them and they in turn had to put their trust into me. I think that's why we have such a great cohesiveness."

Whitehouse says her coaching style was formed at an early age when she played soccer, softball, volleyball and basketball with her dad, William, coaching her in many of her sports. Her high school volleyball coach, Cary-Grove's Patty Langanis, is one of the best and most respected volleyball coaches around. Whitehouse also played for and coached with, among others, Wayne King, now the director of Club Fusion.

"I've been so lucky to have great coaches," said Whitehouse, who is assisted by Steve Bruhn and Andrew Linley. "That's played such a role with my coaching style. I've taken things from each of them."

Karkos wasn't sure about Whitehouse at the beginning, but it didn't take long to be convinced that this was the coach Hampshire volleyball needed.

"She told us if we worked for it we could achieve it," Karkos said. "It was kind of hard to trust her at first, being new and all. But we had a real special bond as a team and we started believing."

Said Kartheiser: "She's always told us if we work hard we could get this far. It's just awesome. She knows exactly what she's talking about and she's always willing to help us. It's been a great experience."

Anytime a team goes to state, it needs support, and not just from family and classmates, but from other programs within the school. No worries there when it comes to Hampshire. The school has a little experience at this state thing, especially recently in girls basketball and girls soccer.

"The attitude at Hampshire has always been to reach for the stars and don't let good be good enough," said Whips' girls basketball coach Sue Ellett, who was an assistant for Awe on the school's first two state teams before taking over as head coach and leading the Whips to a state runner-up finish in 2004.

Whitehouse, a physical education teacher at the school, has that attitude and that makes things a lot more harmonious within the two programs. She doesn't demand -- as some coaches do -- that her players put volleyball ahead of other sports and that attitude has earned her respect.

"She tells her kids if they're playing basketball, fine, but if not she wants them in club (volleyball)," said Ellett, who loves it when Whitehouse comes into the gym and works out with the basketball team (never hurts to have a 6-footer in practice). "Karen is very hard-working and knowledgeable and respected by the kids. She demands respect at practice and the kids look up to her. Karen is everything you'd want your daughter to grow up to be and the kids gravitate to that. She's building young ladies that Hampshire High School can be proud of.

"I'm extremely excited for her and the program. Anytime kids at Hampshire High School succeed I'm happy and I don't care what program it is."

This is success Ellett would like to see continue into the winter season. Her basketball team should be as good as it's been in the last couple of years and with a couple of her players, including 3-year starter Jackie Clai, playing volleyball at Redbird this weekend, Ellett hopes this is just the beginning of a banner year for girls sports around the Purple Palace. Her entire team will be at Redbird today cheering on the basketball team, and Ellett hopes they gain some education as well.

"I told them when you go down there this weekend to get used to the place," she said. "Look around, check out the lights and take it all in. It's a destination we should strive for."

There's no telling what will happen to Hampshire's athletic success when the new school opens next fall and the Whip-Purs jump up in class.

But for now, everyone at Hampshire should savor this weekend, strive for more, and be very glad Karen Whitehouse is wearing purple and white.