Barcus will play again … at Iowa

PULLMAN – Jen Barcus knew long ago that this was her last year at Washington State University. What she didn’t know until recently is that her volleyball career still has another year.

Tired of WSU and playing for the Cougars, Barcus decided near the season’s end that she would move on after the 2005 season, not a problem as she graduates today.

But recently, the itch to play another season struck, and Barcus called none other than former WSU coach Cindy Frederick, now at Iowa.

“She was like, ‘Why are you calling me? You’re a senior,’ ” Barcus said, hours before taking her last final exam. “And I said, ‘You redshirted me, remember?’ “

Not even a natural disaster could dissuade Barcus from going to Iowa. She arrived in Iowa City just hours after a major tornado had caused millions of dollars of damage in the college town, but Barcus didn’t care.

“We got to look at all the wreckage,” she recalled. “I knew if my only option was Washington State I probably wasn’t going to play again. I’m pretty burnt out on the school and the program’s a lot different than when I came into it. The expectations, the style of play.”

Barcus arrived at WSU before Frederick’s penultimate season on the Palouse, and she was just about the last person left in the program from Frederick’s tenure under second-year head coach Brian Heffernan in the fall.

Barcus had developed into one of the Cougars’ best players, and Heffernan said when Barcus originally decided to leave the sport and the school that her loss would be significant. She led the 9-22 Cougars in kills and blocks last season.

“We didn’t always see eye-to-eye on things,” Barcus said of Heffernan. “When you get recruited into a program, expectations are set at a certain level. When he got here, his expectations were at a completely different level. We didn’t work well together. I don’t resent him. I don’t dislike him. But it just wasn’t a good fit any more. The program is going in a direction I didn’t want to be a part of.”

Both Heffernan and Frederick did not return phone calls seeking a comment.

Barcus, who grew up in Nine Mile Falls, Wash., will pursue a second major at Iowa. She added that there was another advantage to playing another season of volleyball.

“I didn’t want to put in a 40- or 60-hour week right now,” she said, “when I could go play and have fun.”