Sophomore middle attacker Jon Clawson once thought he wouldn’t play volleyball after his senior season at Center Grove High School, but two years later he found himself in the last place he thought he would be.
Clawson played in all three sets in Ball State’s 3-0 over Barton on Saturday, recording six kills and one service ace to help his team stay unbeaten to maintain the program’s best start since the 2006 season.
His statistics for the match weren’t All-American caliber numbers, but they were another step in his journey to play volleyball at the Divison I level, and ultimately become a starter for Ball State.
THE BEGINNING
Sitting in his homeroom his junior year of high school, Clawson was asked by a classmate, Isaac Cartwright, to play for the school’s volleyball team in the spring. Immediately, Clawson was reluctant to play.
Although one of his teachers and the volleyball coach at Center Grove, Katie Rice, had tried to get Clawson to use his 6’6” frame on the volleyball court his freshman and sophomore years, Clawson had always brushed off the requests, because he didn’t even know guys played volleyball.
While attempting trick basketball shots in the backyard their junior year, Clawson’s best friend Andrew Smeathers suggested he try out for Center Grove’s basketball team their senior year. While Smeathers went on to play again for the Trojan basketball team the next winter, and now plays at Butler, Clawson never made it to tryouts.
Then Cartwright brought up that Clawson could play volleyball in the spring to maintain his fitness level and if he didn’t like it he could always quit.
“[Cartwright] kind of talked me into it, and I haven’t really looked back since,” Clawson said.
Clawson spent a majority of his first season of organized volleyball on the junior varsity team, but his natural athleticism and adaptation to the game made it impossible to keep him off the varsity roster by the time the state tournament began.
The Trojans ended up finishing fifth in the state that year.
Coupling his athleticism with a rapidly expanding knowledge of the game, Clawson’s senior campaign saw him make the Indiana All-Star team as a middle hitter and led his team to third place in the state tournament.
FROM CLUB TO VARSITY
After his last high school match, Clawson was approached by Ball State’s men’s volleyball coach Joel Walton, who expressed informal interest in him.
“We knew about Jon because he had come to some of our summer camps and is a very good athlete,” Walton said.
Walton didn’t offer any type of scholarship to Clawson, but invited him to the team’s open gym sessions in the preseason. Still new in the volleyball world, Clawson didn’t give much thought on Walton’s offer and didn’t think he was going to play volleyball, other than for leisure, again.
“It wasn’t an official offer or anything, and I kind of brushed it off,” Clawson said.
His freshman year at Ball State, Clawson was asked again by someone from his high school to give volleyball another shot. Phil Daprile, a 2009 Center Grove graduate who was on the Trojans’ 2009 state champion volleyball team, asked Clawson if he would play on the club team that year.
Clawson decided try out, made the A-team and was back to playing volleyball.
“He was a little rusty and a little raw,” Daprile said. “But he is a great blocker and is unbelievably athletic.”
As the only freshman on the A-team, Clawson helped the club team make it to Kansas City, Mo., to capture the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation’s DI-AA Silver National Championship for the first time in Ball State’s history. His play in Kansas City didn’t go ignored in Muncie as he got the attention of Ball State’s varsity program.
The team had dismissed a middle hitter and had not found a viable replacement in the recruiting process. Needing to fill the spot, word spread quickly about what Clawson had done in his first season at the club level. Before he knew it, Clawson “had Jamion Hartley showing up at my front door.”
“Some of our guys had heard that he played very well with the club team, and that they had finished well at a national tournament,” Walton said. “And that he was the only freshman competing with the juniors and seniors.”
Hartley showed up to convince Clawson to play for the varsity team. Clawson said he was interested, which Hartley relayed to Walton.
It took a few months, but eventually Walton extended an official offer. Within two days, Clawson was on the court practicing with the varsity team.
“I called him near the end of July, and said, ‘Jon, we really want you to play for the varsity this year,’” Walton said. “He’s quick, he’s hard working and he was really a good find for us.”
NOT A TEAM, BUT FAMILY
After Hartley showed up to convince Clawson, he took time to talk over the offer with his family, especially his brother.
“My brother was a big influence when I started playing volleyball because I wanted to get to the level he was at,” Clawson said with a smile. “You always want to match up with your siblings.”
Clawson remembers his whole extended family getting together to watch his brother’s games and said it was something he wanted to emulate and get the chance to experience.
“Everybody in my family always seemed to have fun coming up and watching him,” Clawson said. “So you know it’s a cool thing to be able to do … making your family happy.”
The Clawsons had already made it to Muncie on a few occasions, such as the alumni match Jan. 5 and the St. Francis match Jan. 12. Joey was in attendance for the St. Francis match and saw his brother put on the Cardinal uniform for the first time. Six years ago on Nov. 20, 2007, the roles were reversed, and Jon watched Joey’s first basketball game.
Walton has repeatedly said that Ball State men’s volleyball is more like a family than a team. And the players have seemed to open up and embrace Clawson as a brother on the team.
“I’m close with everybody on the team,” Clawson said. “We’re together five, six, now sometimes seven days of the week. You would think people would get sick of each other, and sometimes we bicker like a family, but in the end we are all in it together.”
Being in that family atmosphere lumps Clawson right back into the sibling rivalries he is so accustomed to already. Clawson played fellow middle attacker Kevin Owens’ team during his junior year of high school. Clawson and Owens met at the net several times, but one play in particular sticks out to the pair.
“I went up, I had a perfect block set on him, I thought, ‘I got him right here,’” Clawson said while laughing. “And he just tipped it right over me.”
Freshman outside hitter Jack Lesure is always sure to remind Clawson about his Carmel team beating Center Grove in the state semifinals Clawson’s senior year as well.
STILL YOUNG
Even though Clawson is the oldest sophomore on the team, he is easily the youngest in volleyball years; the 2013 season is only his fourth year of playing organized volleyball. The club team plays without a coach.
Right now Clawson’s role on the team is to challenge guys everyday in practice and to keep the energy level on the sideline high. But every practice, every match and every day he’s learning and picking up the little nuisances in the game of volleyball.
“He’s already doing a lot of things really well, like learning our footwork,” Walton said. “It’s really up to Jon [on how good he can be].”
Even when it’s not a formal instruction from a coach, Clawson makes sure to listen to and watch the other guys at his position, like All-Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association middle hitter Matt Leske. Clawson is getting help from all other teammates, especially on how to pass.
“When I was in high school and on the club team, I never had to pass much,” Clawson said. “But now in warm-ups or practice our outsides, setters, liberos, everyone is helping me learn because if I’m better, the team is better.”
Because of NCAA regulations, the year Clawson played on the club team counts for a year of eligibility. With his remaining years, Clawson hopes to eventually move into a more crucial role and have a bigger impact on matches.
“It’s been a wild ride these last couple years,” Clawson said. “But if you would have told me in my homeroom four years ago I’d be playing Division I volleyball, I would have told you, ‘You’re crazy.’”
