Published: Friday, Jun. 06, 2008 / Updated: Friday, Jun. 06, 2008 12:23 AM

Bearcats' Lucas, Elder pace All-Area Volleyball Team

Brooke Lucas was a star long before she got to Rock Hill High School four years ago and became one of the school's top female athletes.

When Lucas was 7 years old, she appeared in a 10-minute segment on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" with actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. Lucas was there because as a 6-year-old, she became the youngest girl in the country to earn a black belt in karate.

Lucas and Van Damme sat next to each another and answered Leno's questions before getting up and demonstrating several karate disciplines. She still has a video of the show and Van Damme's autograph.

She was like an action hero at Rock Hill. This season, she started for the volleyball, basketball and softball teams. When the Region 3-AAAA volleyball coaches got together to pick their Player of the Year, Lucas was their choice. Same as when The Herald picked its All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year. She also made the Class AAAA All-State team.

Rock Hill's Cindy Elder, who led the Lady Bearcats to one of their best-ever seasons, is The Herald's All-Area Volleyball Coach of the Year.

The Lady Bearcats were 17-3 and tied for first place in the region with Fort Mill at 13-1. Rock Hill's regular-season victory over the Lady Jackets was Fort Mill's first loss in league play in six years.

"We lost to Fort Mill early in the season and to Weddington the day after that loss," Elder said. "We were devastated after that week. We felt we should have beaten Fort Mill but missed six serves in the last 15 points at their place. And it felt like it was 150 degrees in their gym.

"We recovered and got on a roll. Northwestern gave us a good match and earlier in the season we beat Camden, a former Class AAA state champ. We knew when we did that, we had a good team. We didn't lose again until we played Hillcrest in the playoffs."

Lucas was good on 92 percent of her serves, with 34 aces. She had 91 kills and 82 digs.

She said the win over Fort Mill was special because Rock Hill considers the Lady Yellow Jackets their top rival in Region 3-AAAA.

"We've been wanting to beat them for years and it was good to finally do it after my three seasons on the varsity," Lucas said. "We ended up tied for the region title, but I definitely wanted to win the whole thing.

"At the beginning of the year, coach Elder told us it was our year and that she believed we could make it. After we beat Fort Mill, it boosted our confidence and we felt we could win it. Even though we tied for the championship, we got our region's No. 1 seed in the playoffs."

Lucas' first taste of competitive sports was playing youth baseball in recreation leagues. She played Dixie Youth Baseball for Rock Hill Marine and that led to fast-pitch softball in York's recreation league.

She has played varsity softball since the eighth grade and admitted she got a late start in volleyball. Lucas joined a club team after her freshman year and said she saw what she had been missing.

Lucas signed a softball scholarship with Anderson and said since it will be year-round, her volleyball days are over. But she will still have a strong feeling for the sport.

"I'm going to miss volleyball a lot," she said. "I'll miss the coaches and players because we were like a family.

"Our program is a lot stronger than some people realize because of the way coach Elder and our assistants run it. The coaches let younger girls stay on the varsity. That way when the seniors move on, the younger players move up and become leaders. They have the experience to step in and play well."

Lucas will major in education and hopes to get into coaching volleyball or softball after college. With a smile on her face, Elder said hopefully it will be at Rock Hill.

Elder, also an assistant athletics director at Rock Hill and in her 18th season as the volleyball coach, said Rock Hill's program has thrived because more and more girls are playing club volleyball.

"Some played on my club team when they were young and I watched them grow up," Elder said. "We lose Brooke, Amber Caramcik, Jessi Farrington and Jessey Ramsey, who at some point played club for me. But we have 11 players back next year with good experience.

"Brooke is our second straight Region Player of the Year. Last year, senior Tori Criminger won it. I'm very proud of what my girls have accomplished, knowing we did our best to get best out of them. We wanted to not only help them become good volleyball players, we hope we have helped them become good citizens."