‘It kept my fire burning’: Kim Exner-Rosenbach was unsure if she would make it past her freshman season with Eastern Washington volleyball, now she is set to enter the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame

Simply put, to be one of 28 legends amid 60 years of history in the Big Sky Conference is humbling for Kim Exner-Rosenbach.

After all, the former Eastern Washington University volleyball great was deathly afraid of getting cut as a freshman and losing her starting spot as a sophomore. That’s not exactly a common rationale for a player who would win a pair of player of the year honors in the league and become its all-time leader in kills.

Exner, along with 13 other individuals including former Eagle football player Michael Roos, will be inducted into the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame on SaturdayJuly 22 at Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights. The event, which is taking place just 12 miles from the EWU campus in Cheney where she played from 1995-98, begins at 6:30 p.m. This year’s 14-member class was announced on March 30. The inaugural class of 14 was officially inducted in summer of 2022 after it was delayed two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s a select group of 28 individuals (20 athletes, eight coaches/administrators) and Exner is the league’s first volleyball player to be inducted. She and Roos are the initial Eastern representatives in the Hall of Fame, and Exner knows a large contingent of former Eagles are planning to be on hand for the celebration.

“There will be a lot of faces I haven’t seen in quite awhile,” she says. “That will be nice.”

Back in 1995, when she came from Vernon, British Columbia, to join the highly-successful EWU program under Pamela Parks, just making the team was her main goal.

“I was so green and really knew nothing about the process,” she recalls now. “All through preseason my freshman year I was terrified I was going to get cut and sent home. It didn’t register to me that they brought me down on scholarship, but it was always on my mind every single practice.”

“It pushed me. Pretty hard.”

She earned Big Sky co-newcomer of the year honors that season, but as a sophomore she feared she would lose her starting spot with a new group of talented recruits in the fold.

“It was kind of that stress and anxiety all over again,” said Exner, who turned 46 on Sunday. “It kept my fire burning, I guess.”

That fire would eventually lead her to three first team All-Big Sky selections, and league player of the year honors in 1997 and 1998 when she also earned American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Region VIII accolades. She finished her four-year career with a Big Sky Conference record 1,860 kills, and among the seven school records she broke was the single-season kills mark with 561 in 1998.

Also an outstanding student, she was a second team selection on the CoSIDA All-District VIII Academic team in 1998. Exner was the 1998 Inland Northwest Amateur Athlete of the Year as selected by the Spokane Sportswriters and Broadcasters.

In the 2013-14 school year, she was picked by the league No. 12 as one of the top 25 women’s athletes in league history. Along with Parks, Exner was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007, and the 1998 Eagle squad was inducted in 2018, along with the 1999 team and Exner’s setter for three seasons, Kim Maxwell.

“You kind of get further and further away from it, and in your own mind you remember the great time it was in your life,” Exner says. “But then something like this pops up, and it’s, ‘Wow, you remember me, and what I accomplished has held up.’ It’s just really neat that it’s still important to people in some circles.”

Beyond the accolades, Eastern had a 46-12 record in Exner’s final two seasons as an Eagle, with a Big Sky Conference regular season title in 1997 and an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament in 1998.

Ever since, most of the players from those teams gather together regularly, and they are as close of friends now as when they were teammates.

“Our team was very tight,” Exner explained. “We have about 10 of us and we see each other often. We reminisce, so it’s not too far from our brains.”

Exner received her bachelor of science degree in education in 1999, and started a professional career that included two years in Belgium, one year in France and one in Germany. She was also a member of the Canadian National Team in 2000 and 2002.

Little did she realize then that her life of moving city to city was going to continue as the wife of a college football coach.

“I was a nomad to start with,” she says of her days as a pro. “It’s funny, I lived on the same block in Vernon until I was 18. After that it seemed like it was two moves a year.”

In 2001, while she recovered from foot surgery, she helped coach at EWU. It was Parks who introduced her to an Eagle assistant coach at the time, Timm Rosenbach, who was offensive coordinator for the Eagles under Paul Wulff. They were married in 2004, and by that time had moved to Pullman, where Rosenbach coached quarterbacks at Washington State, his alma mater.

Stops at New Mexico State, Montana, UNLV and Adams State followed, as well as a short stint at Weber State. Eventually, Rosenbach returned to the Grizzlies in 2018, and they’ve been there ever since with their two daughters, Reece Tammy and Lane.

Although the spelling is different, Reece is named after Reese Court where Exner played, and her middle name came from Wulff’s late wife, Tammy. Lane is Rosenbach’s middle name. The girls were born in Pullman and Las Cruces, New Mexico, respectively.

“When the kids were young, we always looked at it as an adventure,” Exner says. “You get to live in a new place, meet new friends and do new things.”

Now, they hope to remain in Missoula for at least for the time being so that Reece can finish out her last two years of high school. She excels in soccer, while Lane – an eighth-grader this fall – is a volleyball player like her mother. She’s 6-foot already at age 13.

Some of Rosenbach’s high school years were spent in Missoula, but living in the land of the Griz does have its disadvantages for a former Eagle. The rivalry between the two schools is always intense in all sports.

“I hear it all the time – ‘You look better in red,’ ” she laughs. “When it’s Eastern against Montana, you kind of choke on that one a little bit for sure. Especially when (Montana head coach) Bobby Hauck is in your ear all the time.”

Rosenbach also spent one year away from football learning how to become a fly-fishing guide, and then he did that as a job in 2010 and 2011 in Livingston, Montana. Kim served as an executive director of a senior citizens center there.

“It’s good for me to have it on paper too so I can remember,” she says while re-hashing all the places they’ve lived. “As time goes on, I forget where I’ve been sometimes.”

“You kind of have to piece stuff together with this life,” she adds.

Exner has spent much of her time as a stay-at-home mom, but currently she is a case manager for veteran’s services in Missoula, working with individuals for up to two years helping them maintain and sustain housing, employment and life in general.

“They can start to plan what happens next,” she explains of her role. “It’s a step-through program where we get them at their lowest, but give them wrap-around services for two to three years. Then we let them leave the nest.”

While in Pullman, she was a community relations director for a senior living center.

“I do like helping seniors and the older populations,” she said. “I like their stories and their character. I’m helping people through something that they’ve maybe never been through, and we figure out the best way to get them through it.”

Now, as Exner re-lives her previous life as an Eagle, she recalls a time as a freshman – not long after her fear of being cut had subsided. It was then that her confidence exploded – for better or for worse.

“In the second half of the season I was pretty cocky, and I ran my mouth quite a bit,” she explained. “I think my team enjoyed it, but I don’t think the other teams and the refs did. It was before the taunting rules were in place I think, but they were added shortly after that.”

“As you mature and get wiser, and your game gets sharper, you let your play do the talking,” she added. “I didn’t need as much bravado. But my freshman year I came in a little hot after I got comfortable.”

She credits her parents, Randy and Chris, for a great amount of confidence and support, saying, “they really put the miles on to see me play.” And she gives kudos to her coach at Clarence Fulton Secondary, Sharon Shaigec, for providing her a great base of volleyball skills.

But it was Parks and assistant coach Wade Benson who Exner says guided her towards so much personal and team success at EWU.

“Our team was so special, and we had so much support,” she said. “I’ve received a lot of accolades, but I’ve always said it was always about being a team. We always meshed. Pam and Wade found the right pieces to fit together. It was truly, truly special.”

Exner says she liked statistics but was never into the massive accumulative numbers she compiled. She says she has always lived in the moment, which is why her long list of accomplishments – and especially the honor she’ll receive on July 22nd – is still so mind-boggling to her.

“I remember getting to 1,000 kills, and they presented me a game ball,” she remembered. “I never really tracked that and had much awareness to it.

“Even today I’m not really a great forward thinker,” she adds, noting that in the days before the induction Lane will attend a volleyball camp at EWU and Reece will be at soccer clinic at Gonzaga. “But with kids you have to be at least three days ahead, which is still a lot for me.”

EWU’s Kim Exner digs a ball next to team mate Lacey Coover during Thursday night’s match against Weber State, which the Eagles won easily 3-0.

Kim Exner-Rosenbach, left, poses for a photo with her husband Timm Rosenbach and two children Lane and Reece Tammy.