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Salem’s Amy Scullion is an All-Ohioan in both basketball and volleyball.
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The Vindicator's Athletes of the Year: Corey Linsley and Amy Scullion
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Salem’s Amy Scullion is an All-Ohioan in both basketball and volleyball.
By Joe Scalzo
Vindicator sports staff
When Amy Scullion was a freshman — and when Salem High girls basketball coach Jeff Andres was still being surprised by things Scullion could do — he was running a practice when a basketball got stuck between the rim and the backboard.
“With guys, they just jump up and tip it out, but with girls, they head over to the ball rack and hit it down,” Andres said. “Next thing I know, she goes flying through the air and hits it out.
“I think that’s when my eyes opened the widest.”
When Scullion plays, it’s best to keep them open. An All-Ohioan in both basketball and volleyball, she has spent the last three years dominating area competition, due to a rare combination of athleticism, tenacity and work ethic.
The junior standout has already verbally committed to play basketball at Ohio State — and that’s her second-best sport.
“She’s a coach’s dream, both attitude-wise and athleticism-wise” said her Junior Olympic volleyball coach Curt Conser, whose father, Don, coaches Salem’s varsity volleyball team. “She knows she’s better than almost everyone in the gym, but you would never get that from her.”
Scullion started playing basketball soon after she learned how to walk — her father played college basketball at Mount Union — and after a six-year flirtation with swimming, she turned to volleyball in the seventh grade, mainly because her older sister, Katie, was playing.
“Whatever my sister did, I did the same,” Scullion said.
Scullion’s parents approached Conser for private lessons at the local community center and he was immediately struck by Scullion’s athleticism and coordination.
“She had never really touched a volleyball before, but she was just so coachable,” said Conser, the head volleyball coach at Geneva College the past 12 years. “You’d show her how to do something and she could almost immediately perform the skill.”
The 5-foot-11 Scullion made a smooth transition to high school, starting varsity in both sports and earning first team all-conference honors in each and honorable mention All-Ohio in volleyball. (She was a first teamer in that sport the past two years.)
“Her freshman year, she broke her hand down the stretch and didn’t play the last three or four games,” Andres said. “But she still came to every practice, even though it was likely she wasn’t going to play. She was still out there doing our defensive slides, doing the sprints.
“That’s the type of kid she is. She was cheering her teammates on. She wanted to be out there.”
The following fall, she led the Quaker volleyball team to the Division II state semifinals, falling in five sets to eventual champion Toledo Central Catholic. Months later, she led Salem to the district basketball final, despite juggling J.O. volleyball practices with her basketball responsibilities.
Despite losing her sister to graduation, the Quakers won another district title in volleyball last fall and again advanced to the district basketball final.
She’s still got one more year, but already Conser considers her the best volleyball player in Mahoning Valley history. (He said her only competition is Girard’s Tealle Hunkus, who later played at Duke.) Andres considers her the best female athlete in Salem history.
“She’s the best I’ve ever seen come through,” he said.
Although she’s been blessed with terrific athleticism — she can grab a basketball rim and Conser said he’s never coached a player with her court coverage — what sets Scullion apart is her work ethic and her willingness to play the “superstar” role. That latter quality is not always embraced by elite female athletes.
“There’s never been a practice in the five years I’ve coached when she hasn’t been the hardest-working kid in the gym,” he said. “She’s only got one speed.”
Scullion often asks Andres to unlock the gym doors on Sunday afternoons so she can shoot and says he can usually find her in the gym in the spring, even though J.O. season stretches into May.
Still, most people expected her to play volleyball in college — she was a member of the United States Juniors Team last summer and had offers from schools across the country, including Duke — but her desire to go to Ohio State influenced her decision to play basketball. Her parents both graduated from OSU’s optometry school and Katie just finished her freshman year at the school.
“It was the school I wanted to be at,” she said.
(When told he missed the chance to bring her to Geneva, Conser chuckled and said, “Believe me, the offer is out there.”)
Because she hasn’t spent as much time on her basketball skills in high school, Andres feels she’s still scratching the surface of her potential. Still, she averaged 17 points per game this winter and led the Quakers in rebounds, assists and scoring.
“She’s a lot like LeBron [James],” he said. “She could average a triple-double if she wanted.
“She has a lot of work to do on her game, but I think she embraces that challenge. She can probably improve a lot more in basketball than volleyball. Once she gets down there [to Columbus], I think she’ll shine.”
In the meantime, she has unfinished business. Scullion said she’d like to win a state title in both volleyball and basketball next year.
“I don’t want to leave high school without one,” said Scullion, who plans to major in psychology in college. “I think we have a legitimate chance in both.”
And while Conser would have loved to see her play volleyball at the next level, he understands her decision. For one thing, he didn’t want to see her get burned out in college and lose her love for the game. For another, he’s still hopeful she’ll pursue beach volleyball when it becomes a collegiate sport in two years.
“She was going to be an impact Division I volleyball player wherever she ended up,” said Conser, who then quipped: “But that [Ohio State] is a pretty legit program, from what I hear.
“I’m really, really happy for her. The volleyball community’s loss is the basketball community’s gain.”
scalzo@vindy.com