ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Central Washington University has announced its 2023 Hall of Fame class to be inducted on May 6
th in the SURC Ballroom. To purchase tickets for the Gala click
HERE
Among those being inducted is former Wildcat Volleyball player Carolyn (Mires) Pemberton.
Mires was an outside hitter for the Wildcat volleyball team for the 1999 through 2002 seasons. During her tenure with the Wildcats Mires earned Second Team All-GNAC selections in 2001 and 2002, GNAC All-Academic Team in 2001 and 2002, and PacWest All-Academic Selection in 2000. Mires was also named to the CWU 2000's all-decade volleyball team, which included fellow hall of famers Kate Reome-Ridnour and LeAnne McGahuey.
Mires is currently the Central Washington volleyball team all-time leader in kills with 1,265, which ranks 17
th all-time in GNAC history. Mires also owns the GNAC record for kills in a three-set match with 21. She also ranks third in all-time CWU top 10 for kills per set with 3.55, third in attack attempts 3,388, third in service aces 123, 10
th in service aces per set with 0.35, second in total points 1,472, and third in points per set with 4.13. Mires at the time set the program record for kills in a single season with 395 kills in the 2002 season, and that total currently ranks sixth all-time. Mires 3.91 kills per set that she achieved in the 2000 season at the time ranked second in program history, and currently ranks eighth.
Below is a Q&A with Carolyn about her time, thoughts, and memories with CWU Athletics and community.
Q: What was your reaction to being informed you were being inducted to the CWU Athletics Hall of Fame?
Carolyn Pemberton: I'm very honored, thrilled, and honestly a little surprised because it's been a long time since I've been in college, and I've seen what Mario (Andaya) has done with that team and the girls that have come out of that team. I played with LeAnne McGahuey and Kate Reome-Ridnour and they are younger than me and they've been honored, that teams been honored, and just to be in that group feels really special. To be recognized after having played so long ago and still having my name as a piece of their history, it just means a lot.
Q: Looking through the volleyball records your name still pops up in the top 10 all over the place, highlighted by being the all-time leader in kills with 1,265, how does it feel still seeing your name and everything you've done at CWU still being so prominent in the volleyball teams' history?
Pemberton: I was so lucky because Mario and Brad Ackerman came to my house in Walla Walla and recruited me and I got to play as a freshman. Mario at the time was still a relatively new coach, so he was still building the program and has continued to build it, and that program is incredible. I was lucky enough as a part of that building program that I got to play a lot as a freshman, which I'm well aware that I got a lot of time, four whole years to be able to set that record, which a lot of the girls now coming in don't get to play as much as freshman because they've got incredible girls ahead of them that they have to learn from. I also have to give so much credit to Mario for believing in me, like I had some rough games and he kept his faith in me that I could learn from those rough games and make myself better. I was lucky to play with Katie (Orgill) Hinckley who is a year older than me and absolutely incredible, she was such a big help to me, and led me the entire time we played together my freshman year, her sophomore year until she graduated. She was just someone that I looked up to and she just kept pulling me along. Like I was not good in the back row, I was not good on defense, basically if it was anything but blocking or hitting I wasn't that good, and Katie was just like "you can do this," so a lot of it was her giving me that confidence. I excelled at being by the net, but as an outside hitter, you have to be an all-around person, so I credit her, Mario, and Brad because they were all those voices in my head always telling me you can do this. I still remember the game it was my very last game when I broke the record and just going into it knowing how many kills I had to have, and I did it, and my whole team was just so excited for me which still thinking about it makes me emotional because I just remember that exact moment and the people in the stands, and I still have the picture after with Mario we took after the game, and when I look at it I just remember that that's the game I broke the record. My setter Kari St. Martin was so huge because she was older, and she gave me that ball because she knew I could put it away and she trusted me enough despite my inexperience to give me those opportunities too. It's so cool that I still hold the record for it, but I am very aware that I was given an opportunity to play so much that most people don't normally get.
Q: What do you miss most about your time at Central?
Pemberton: Definitely my teammates. There was a group of us that we ended up living together my last two years. We lived together, we played together, it was the best experience of probably my life. We experienced everything together, we went to Hawaii together, which again we were that building program still so we didn't get to go a lot of places, but we did get to do Alaska and we did get to do Hawaii. Our first Hawaii trip was super memorable. Going to Alaska we got to see whales one time which is incredible, we got to go in September. We went back the following year in November trekking through a snowstorm staying in these little cottages when we were playing Fairbanks. We stayed in these little cottages that weren't even a hotel, they were like individual cottages and it was a huge snowstorm, so we were trying to trek through the snow to get back to our vans and its dark at like 3 in the afternoon so it's fun memories like that. Hands down it was my teammates, all the road trips. Julie (Roberts) Price, Randi Rogers, Jessica (Scott) Chase, and Courtney Axelson, the five of us all lived in a house together, and the memories we made are what I miss the most. Shortly after graduating we would all rent a place in like Chelan or somewhere like that for a little bit each summer and get all of our families together, or us as couples in the beginning, which I miss because it just created a lifelong friendship for me. Volleyball was super fun and everything around it, but really the friendships I created are what made my time special.
Q: How did you end up at Central?
Pemberton: This is a funny story. I was playing volleyball and all throughout high school I thought that I wanted to play college basketball, and somewhere around my junior year I started getting involved with volleyball and found some success in it. Then I kind of switched from playing college basketball to playing college volleyball, so my mom and I started sending out the videotapes and some letters and got some interest here and there but one of the contacts was from Mario. So, I had a volleyball tournament in Spokane and my mom was like "we need to go and visit Central," and I told her that "I do not want to go visit Central like I do not want to go there mom," and she was like "well you need to go look, you talked to the coach so it doesn't hurt to go look at the campus." I was irritated because I was supposed to be playing in this volleyball tournament in Spokane and all this extra driving and my mom was just like "come on lets just do it we'll take a day off school and go." So, we drive to Central and I've driven to Seattle a ton from Walla Walla and you go through Ellensburg on the way so I've been on that route so many times. I just remember getting to the top right before you start heading into Kittitas Valley and I just remember it was this beautiful fall day and just everything was green in the whole valley and my mom goes "this is Ellensburg" and I'm just shocked and say "this is Ellensburg?!" She was like "yeah" and I'm like "this is farm country," and she just goes "I know" and I'm like "it's beautiful!" She just goes "you've been through here before" and I'm like "well apparently I have different eyes now mom." So, we got onto campus and Katie Orgill was one of the ones that walked me around when I got there and then Brad and Mario let me talk to the team and the staff and let me tell you Central did not look like what it looks like now, like the campus now is absolutely beautiful! So, anyways after doing everything, touring, meeting everyone we drive to Spokane for the tournament and I look at my mom and I said "that's where I want to go." She just looks at me and is like "well okay, aren't you glad we went?" I just fell in love with team instantly, the girls were so welcoming, I was so nervous meeting them too, but they were so open and welcoming. Mario and Brad were such an incredible team, they just knew how to make you feel comfortable and at home. I remember Katie showing me where I wanted to live on campus and where I didn't want to live, so she was already talking to me like I was already going there, which honestly was what shifted my thinking about going to Central. It wasn't much longer after that that Brad and Mario came to my house to offer me a scholarship to come play at Central. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Q: What advice would you give to current and future Central students?
Pemberton: Don't think you have to have it all figured out by day one. I'm a very type A person, and I would wrap myself up in this one little class and get so out of sorts and anxious about this one little class, one little player, one little game and when I look back on my four years there, there were so many good and bad things that happened, but every bad thing or thing I thought didn't go my way actually ended up turning into something better. I'll never forget my senior year, and during my senior year, I was gun-ho I worked out harder than I ever have in my life because we were coming into a season where we were going to be a contender because we had the athletes, and I felt like I was one of the leaders. I remember we had a great preseason and practices and policies we had as a team, everyone was on top of them. So, we get down to California to play in this tournament and it doesn't go very well, and I was angry and upset and honestly probably pouting as how Mario saw it. So, Mario pulls me aside after that and he says "I know the games didn't go how we wanted it to, how I wanted it to, but you have to realize that even when it doesn't go well you still need to be encouraging, you still need to put on the face of like we got this because everybody is looking towards you for that." That was what I needed because he was right, that's not how you handle a loss, people lose we lose all the time, but you learn from that. Like I said that was my senior year! I think that's something even now I look back on from graduation to getting married to getting a job to moving to getting a different job to having kids and all these things, like you don't have to have it all planned out from day one. Enjoy the experience while you're there because that's what I was doing at that tournament was I wasn't enjoying it solely because I was ticked off we were losing and I was missing the little things that we could've used like okay we lost this but here's what we did wrong, lets go back and fix it, it's the mindset of taking what you did that wasn't okay or wasn't correct and fixing it and later learning from it. Also, to just take the time and have fun, like I took volleyball seriously and so I have no regrets with the time and energy I put into that, but other things I look back on and I'm like I could've said yes to that, but instead it was like oh no I have to do this. So, for sure figure out and have your priorities, but then also remember to have fun, because in the end that's how you create those memories that'll last a lifetime.
Q: Did you ever imagine when you started at Central that you'd become a hall of famer?
Pemberton: No. Like I said about my freshman year, it was rough. A funny thing, my dad was a former college football player and high school football coach, so I grew up with him as a coach, so he was just one of my biggest supporters, but also was hard on my sister and I, we were expected to work hard and tow the line, but all in love. I always felt so supported by him. A couple times over the last eight or nine years he would say "when are you going to be in that hall of fame?" I'd be like "dad," and he was like "no, like you still hold that record!" I'd just be like "Yeah dad I don't know" and then I'd make the joke "I can't get in front of all those people anyways dad." Sadly, my dad passed away about a year ago, so when I got the call from Dennis, my first thought was "I wish my dad was here." I mentioned that to Mario and Mario said "It would be great if he was here, but you have to remember that he was at everything, he saw the legacy that you left at Central. He was there for the important stuff, he might've missed this but he was there to watch you make that history, and now it's just being acknowledged." So, no I didn't really imagine it, in fact I was just more like I don't really need that type of recognition, but when I mentioned that to Mario, the words he said back to me, I was just like "you're right, he was there when it mattered," like this doesn't matter in that aspect because I broke that record regardless, my life went on regardless, but the honors nice like it's sweet to still be recognized after so many years, but what honestly what makes this the most special is that Mario is still there and he still thinks of me as one of his players that deserves this. I have so much respect for him, I loved my four years playing with him, and I've loved watching what he's done with this team, and he has just been somebody that's always been there for me even though we don't see each other or talk as much, when I need an encouraging word or something, he's always the one that sends that text or makes that phone call.
