Before the start of this school year, Amanda Cline had to make a tough decision.

Cline completed her junior volleyball campaign leading Tonganoxie with 273 kills and 67 blocks, giving her the seventh most in the Frontier League while finishing with a 29.3% hitting percentage that ranked fourth.

Instead of returning for her senior season, Cline chose not to play this year as she shifted her focus to music performance and other art-based interests.

“I really liked (playing) clarinet, but I never would give it enough focus,” Cline said. “It was just always volleyball. Volleyball tournaments, volleyball practices, that’s what we were focused on.”

Cline said that she and her twin sister Olivia have played together since elementary school. It’s what they both have always enjoyed and been good at. 

But last year, Cline’s efforts to improve at playing clarinet finally reached a level that has changed her outlook. That’s not just for her senior year, but for her future after high school.

Cline, this week's Capitol Federal True Blue® Student of the Week, auditioned and was selected for multiple all-state concert bands, including Kansas Music Educators Association All-State Concert Band as the principal clarinet, first chair. She found out about her biggest honor in the summer when she was selected for the National Association of Music Education’s All-National Concert Band.

Cline was surprised when she received the news for the last one, which also comes with a chance to perform in the NAME All-National Honors Program this fall.

“I had no idea,” Cline said. “Since I go to a 4A school and this was the first time I had gone up against 5A, 6A schools, I wasn’t really sure how that was going to go.”

It also was not something her family, who have much more experience with volleyball matches than band activities, knew was possible either.

“We didn’t realize how good she actually was,” Cline’s mother Pam. “She obviously practices a lot and it didn’t bother us. I mean, it wasn’t noise. It sounded good.”

Cline and her family just didn’t realize how good she was until the awards started rolling in last year. Her improvement likely took them by surprise because Cline’s decision to play any instrument started on a whim.

“Nobody in our family is really musical at all,” Cline said. “There was not much help in choosing an instrument. My mom had played the clarinet when she was in middle school, so that’s many, many years ago. That was really the only instrument anybody played.

“I was like, ‘Oh, she did it. I’ll just go with that one.’”

Cline would also ultimately learn how to play the alto saxophone. She prefers the classical musical she plays with the clarinet to the jazz numbers she’s started learning. Cline’s sister also gave the sax a shot, although Olivia liked it even less.

“She blew on the saxophone once and was like ‘No, no, not going to do that,’” Cline said.

Cline said volleyball was about the only activity the sisters have really done together. It wasn’t until high school that Cline really gravitated to the arts, which includes painting. For the second year, she will have a booth at Tongie Days where she sells rocks and canvasses adorned with Mandala patterns painted onto them. 

The Mandala patterns require a little less freestyle and a lot more structure, similar to the classical music that Cline prefers. She enjoys the structure found in songs like the Mozart piece she performed in auditions for districts, which was also a new experience for her.

“I was so clueless,” Cline said. “My teacher said 'Who wants to sign up for districts?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t what that is, but sure.’”

It was not until she reached that level that she realized how many of her peers there were taking private lessons outside of high school band courses.

“I just needed some guidance because I wasn’t progressing really that much anymore and getting frustrated,” Cline said.

That’s when Cline first started taking lessons outside of her school courses and practicing at home.

Her experience in the auditioning process inspired Cline to help younger students avoid being blindsided by that same late realization. Cline decided over the summer to reach out to freshman band students to offer lessons and guidance.

“I didn’t really have that option when I was a freshman and it was super stressful trying to audition,” she said.

Cline said playing comes more naturally than teaching. Her strategy has been trying to imitate her teachers and reiterate the things they told her that really stood out. 

“I tried to think of when I was first learning a piece and what did I focus on and what helped me,” Cline said. “

Now that she has fully embraced musical performance, Cline feels better about her difficult choice of picking between increased music lessons over continuing volleyball.

“I definitely think it was the right choice, especially now. I’m thinking about going into music performance. The more opportunities I have to play I think is really going to benefit me in the future.”

Cline does not have a short list of schools, but she does have a short list of requirements.

One, make sure she likes the clarinet professor and they are someone she can imagine she will enjoy spending a lot of time learning from. Two, find a school in Kansas. She’s looking into KU, K-State and Baker University, but she’s still not adjusted to planning with a bigger school in mind.

“It was just not something I was ever really planning on,” Cline said. “I didn’t think I was good enough to be able to pursue that so now I’m kind of shifting all my thoughts that I had about college.”