Due Western: Kelley headed to M-W

POLSON - No doubt, the Frontier Conference will learn about

Breanne Kelley just like the Northwestern A Conference did when she

played three different sports for Polson and excelled at all of

them. This, and she also earned valedictorian honors at Polson's

graduation last week.

POLSON - No doubt, the Frontier Conference will learn about Breanne Kelley just like the Northwestern A Conference did when she played three different sports for Polson and excelled at all of them. This, and she also earned valedictorian honors at Polson's graduation last week.

Kelley signed on to play volleyball for the University of Montana-Western on a full-ride scholarship.

"She was always our go-to girl," Polson volleyball head coach Jan Toth said to the Leader earlier in the school year. "There's not a moment during the game where she questions whether she can win."

Both Kelley's parents went to the school, meaning that they're no strangers to the Dillon campus.

"I was thinking about going out of state so I think they're excited to be able to come and watch me play and I'll be able to go home too," Kelley said.

Montana-Western, which has over 1,300 students em-ploys an "Experience One" curriculum where a student has four, month-long, learning blocks where they focus on one course over 18 instructional days.

"With that, it just seems like it will be a lot easier to do sports with school," Kelley, who is also thinking about walking onto the basketball team, said. "But I might just stick with volleyball, two sports might be too much."

Kelley was originally going to go to Carroll College before she learned that she had received a full-ride scholarship to Montana-Western.

"I'm excited that I don't have to take out a student loan," she said.

The all-state athlete for Polson was a key part in Toth's turnaround of the volleyball program, which had just one win Kelley's freshman year and then made the state tournament for three straight years, including a fourth place finish in 2009.

"I never, at practice, have to worry about her working hard or learning something," Toth said in an earlier article. "Ninety-nine percent of the time, I was the one telling her to leave."

Kelley was also coached by her father Randy in basketball at Polson.

"I've enjoyed it," Randy said in an earlier Leader article. "I've always coached her, her mother coached her. It's been nice to see her grow as an athlete and as a student."

She added that while she hasn't met the Western coach or her teammates in person, and she's nervous about being away from her family for the first time, she's sure she'll get along in her new surroundings.