The most popular post was one that I wrote more than 10 years ago on November 1, 2004, the 10th anniversary of former Webb City and Diamond High School volleyball and basketball standout Kelli Dorsey;s death in an automobile accident.
Since it was not the anniversary of her death, I wondered why people were suddenly reading that post. A couple of hours later, I received an e-mail from one of Kelli's former Webb City teammates, Jennifer Lawrence, who thanked me for what I had written a decade earlier and said that today would have been Kelli's 38th birthday.
The post is reprinted below:
Three little points.
Those three points were all that stood between the Diamond High School volleyball team and the 1994 Class 2A District championship. Coach Bill Presley's Wildcats were the top seed in the district tournament at East Newton High School and received a first-round bye. In the semi-final round, the Wildcats played unheralded Marionville. After splitting the first two games, Diamond took a 12-7 lead in game three. The 12th point came on a sight Wildcat fans had grown accustomed to that season...a pinpoint LeAnn Hottel set and a soaring Kelli Dorsey spike.
Three more points and the team that everyone expected to go to state would be well on its way.
The three points never came.
Marionville scored the final eight points and Diamond's dreams...maybe even expectations... of a state volleyball championship came to an end.
Diamond had a good team, a championship-caliber team, even before Kelli Dorsey transferred to Diamond from Webb City for her senior year, but she was the final piece, a near six-footer with magnificent athletic ability and strong leadership skills. With Kelli on the team, Diamond breezed through its regular season and appeared unstoppable.
I remember watching Kelli Dorsey that night in October 1994. I had seen that anguished look on her face a few months earlier when her Webb City High School basketball team was beaten in the district championship game at Aurora on a fluke shot by Monett with six seconds left. I can still picture her standing in the middle of the court, looking toward the ceiling.
Kelli had one more opportunity for a high school championship. Basketball would begin the next week and maybe she would finally claim the gold. And there were college scouts salivating to add Kelli to their teams.
While Kelli was adjusting to the premature end of a special volleyball season, the Sarcoxie volleyball team beat host East Newton in the other semi-final, then beat Marionville for the championship. Many of those Sarcoxie players were friends of Kelli's. She was happy for them, but she still wished that it was she who was going to be heading for state.
The following weekend, Coach Dennis Drumm's Sarcoxie squad won two more matches to reach the Final Four. A special sendoff was planned for the team the following Thursday. A pep rally was held in the school gymnasium and the team received a police escort out of the city.
But it was a strangely subdued pep rally. Early that morning, the word had spread like wildfire around Sarcoxie High School. Kelli Dorsey had died the night before in a car accident, just 11 days short of her 18th birthday.
The atmosphere was even more subdued at Diamond High School and Webb City High School.
I talked with Tim Doss, her Webb City basketball coach the day after Kelli's death. "She was a great kid to be around," he said. "She had a lot of athletic ability and she always did what you asked her to do. She had a lot of things going for her. She was always a joy to be around. This is just a sad thing to have happen."
Tomorrow (Nov. 2) will mark 10 years since Kelli Dorsey's death. I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to interview her a number of times, both at Webb City and at Diamond. I can also remember a few times after Webb City basketball games, I would talk to Coach Doss and his assistant, Elaine Shewmake, then head to McDonald's for a Coke. Usually Kelli was already there with some teammates. She would always wave me over, whether the team had won or lost and start telling me about the things she didn't do right. She wasn't berating herself. She would always tell me exactly what she was going to do the next time to get things right. Her teammates thought it was funny because she had nearly always outplayed most of the players on the court. She was always looking to improve herself.
I wonder what Kelli would be doing today if not for that untimely accident. Whatever it is, I know she would have been successful. She would never have settled for anything less.
***
For sale in e-book format, a collection of some of my best Sports Talk feature columns from the 1980s and 1990s about athletes from Carthage, Joplin, Webb City, Lamar, Jasper, Sarcoxie, Lockwood and other communities, as well as writing about the St. Louis Cardinals and old time minor league baseball.
12 comments:
A lovely tribute, Mr. Turner. I well remember the wonderful writing you did when you were with the Carthage Press. I have already subscribed to the Turner Report and I hope many others are doing the same. This area needs the Turner Report. Thank you for what you do.
I'm thinking her mom was a teacher or sub? Sound right to anyone?
Her mother taught business classes at Diamond High School.
Beautifully said. I will never forget that morning at Webb City High School. We all just sat quietly in the cafeteria waiting to go to class. It was the most silent the school had ever been or would ever be again. Boys who had been taught not to cry had tears streaming down their faces. The girls were just a mess. Thank you for remembering such a bright star and keeping her light shining.
Thank you Randy for responding to my email in such a beautiful way.
I remember that day in Webb City as well. It was heartbreaking. Thank you for publishing this!
I was one of Kelly's teachers. She was a great student and a delight to have in class. I remember her well and even recall one of the projects she did for class.
She was truly amazing, everyone forgets she was a state class thrower in track as well!! Such a bright star!
My daughter Stacey mcmeen loved and missed her terribly. At least now they are together love and miss these great girls
I remember the halls of the hospital ..... was full of her friends ..... they just couldn't grasp what had happen... hoping that it wasn't true.. . Holding on to maybe she would pull thu .. but the truly beautiful inside an out this friend to all didn't .... Thinking of her mom today an every year
She was truly beautiful inside and out and was a friend to everyone!she is greatly missed by all.
I was a police officer in Diamond and approximately 2 weeks before her fatal accident I stopped her for speeding. I knew that her mother was a school teacher, and as I recall, her father was a highway patrolman. I made a deal with Kelli: I would not give her a ticket if she would tell her mother that she had been stopped for speeding. I felt that her mother and father would have done more good than a $20 speeding ticket. I would do "deals" like this from time to time when teenagers were involved and would sometimes contact the parent to see if they were aware of the "deal." I felt terrible when I read about her fatal accident. I wondered if the speeding ticket might have caused her to slow down.
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