Headed to her senior year at Bishop Miege in the fall of 1994, Laura Gorr (Bokenkroger), was about to get some unexpected news.

A defensive specialist for the reigning Class 5A state champion volleyball team, Gorr knew the Stags graduated a talented senior class, but she didn't really anticipate her role changing much.
Her coach, Gwenn Pike, had other ideas.

"She sat me down before the season, when I was a senior, and said, 'I need you to set,'" Gorr said. "I hadn't set, even in club, but I said, 'OK, I'll do what you need me to do.' "

Gorr went home that evening a little perplexed. How was she going to handle this, being the setter for one of the state's marquee volleyball programs? This was, after all, a program that had won the last three 5A titles.

"I went home and told my mom that I didn't want to let the team down," Gorr said. "My mom told me, 'Gwenn Pike wouldn't ask you to do that if she didn't think you could do it."

Like so often times in life, mom was right.

The Stags went 38-4 during Gorr's senior season, capping off the season with a two-set sweep of rival St. Thomas Aquinas in securing the state championship.

The kind of challenge Pike presented before the 1994 season, asking players to step out of their comfort zone, is one of the biggest things Pike enjoyed about her illustrious and unmatched high school coaching career.
During her time at Miege, Pike's Stags won 21 state titles and had a record of 1,224-239.

"Molding teams, that's what I love about coaching," said Pike, who retired from coaching Miege after guiding the Stags to the 2015 Class 4A championship. "Those little details are something I feel like I had an eye for. Like with Laura, I know a setter has to be a leader. She was the one I thought could get the job done."

Volleyball was still a relatively new high school sport when Pike played at Shawnee Heights, where she graduated in 1976. In 1971, KSHSAA had its first sanctioned state volleyball tournaments. The next year, Title IX became a Federal civil rights law.

"Volleyball was so vague to me," Pike said about playing in high school. "But I was a competitive person. It was fun for me and I loved it."

Pike began at Miege as an assistant volleyball and basketball coach. The head girls basketball coach then was a young man named Terry English who likewise would build a mammoth program. Pike also coached the swim team.

Pike took over a soaring Miege volleyball program in 1980, a program that had already won three state titles. The Stags continued an era of dominance under Pike by winning state titles from 1980-1983.

"I wasn't thinking about building as much as whatever year I was in, I wanted to win all the games I could," Pike said. "I expected everyone to be as competitive as I was."

Pike's success has landed her in various halls of fame, including the National High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame, and the Kansas Volleyball Coaches Hall of Fame.

In March, during Women's History Month, Pike was selected as the best Kansas female coach in Kansas high school history by Maxpreps.

Pike has stayed in volleyball since leaving Miege, as she coaches with the KC Power club.

When Pike thinks about how far volleyball has come since she was helping Shawnee Heights win third place in 1975, she points out the club volleyball scene.

No longer just something to keep volleyball players active in the sport for a bit in the winter, spring or summer, club volleyball is now a year-round behemoth, in Kansas City and beyond.

The quality of volleyball is so deep now compared to when Gorr played, that Gorr likes to say that the sub-varsity teams at Mill Valley High School, where she has a daughter who plays, would beat the state champion teams Gorr played on.

While many volleyball clubs are gigantic, Pike prefers a smaller club. But don't let that fool you. KC Power still helps send players to major NCAA Division 1 programs.

"My club is small.We focus on the quality of coaches and players so we can concentrate on the players," Pike said. "I'm most proud of the young ladies I get to work with. Seeing them, getting to work with them, and creating positive relationships is what I enjoy."

That relationship is what Gorr holds onto, as much if not more than the state titles she helped Miege win.

"(Pike) was an important figure in shaping me, not just as an athlete but also as a person," Gorr said. "She's by far the coach who I learned the most from, and the coach I played the hardest for. She wasn't there to be your friend. She was there to push you to be a better person and better player."