Once a week over the summer, Emma Barclay drove to Jami Adair’s house, lifted up the rug on her doorstep and snagged the key to the American Falls gymnasium. She’d open all the doors, set up the volleyball net and bring some balls to the hardwood.
Volleyball is not a sport meant to be played by one person. It seems like an impossible endeavor, akin to playing catch alone. That conundrum provided an opportunity for Barclay’s creativity. She learned self tosses that she’d throw up and smack down to work on her snapping arm motion. She’d serve balls back and forth until she got tired. She’d do any little things that could possibly give her an advantage down the road.
“I feel like I’ve always had that work ethic,” Barclay said. “I think I noticed (volleyball was my best sport) in seventh grade … As a freshman, I saw how good I could be and the ability I had that other people my age didn’t.”
A few months later, Barclay was back in the Beavers’ gym — surrounded by people this time. The senior outside hitter was in her black uniform, leaping with unbridled enthusiasm, her long arms whisking back and forth like she was skiing as she jumped into a celebratory pile with her teammates. A few minutes later, Barclay kept her grin as the Beavers posed with their first district championship in school history.
On Monday, cameras were again pointed at the American Falls star. Surrounded by her family, Barclay inked her name on a letter of intent, accepting a volleyball scholarship offer from Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon.
“We’re so happy for Emma,” Barclay’s dad, Brian, said. “She’s put in so much effort playing on club teams with her sister. She had so many offers but she decided on Blue Mountain … (BMCC coach Ceanna) Larson told her she’d get her to the next level and that really appealed to Emma a lot. Just to be able to play right out of the gate.”
Brian Barclay has lived in American Falls nearly his entire life, an alum of the high school his daughters will soon graduate from. In other words, he’s been around for the school’s athletic shortcomings through the decades. The memories are still vivid of Emma and her twin sister, Grace’s, freshman year, like when the upperclassmen started crying tears of joy after winning their first set of high school. Or that winter, when A.F. girls basketball won its first game in four years and juniors and seniors celebrated like they just won the state championship.
That was all foreign to the Barclays. As youngsters, they won. As middle schoolers, they won. Surely that was going to continue at the high school level. And it did. It just took a few years.
Jami Adair took over the American Falls’ volleyball program in Emma’s freshman year. She remembers the lulls, the challenges of coaching a team that, in her kind words, was young and raw. But she also remembers that Emma wasn’t going to conform to the losing American Falls had endured for so long.
“She’s always been very competitive and always been willing to what needs to be done to be the best that she can be,” said Adair. “For instance, in the offseason, she has always been in the weight room. Trying to get stronger. Trying to jump higher. With that indication, I knew she could go as far as she wanted to.”
Barclay is still on the ascent of that journey, still trying to reach the mountaintop of her athletic career — whether that’s a Division I scholarship or beyond. Perhaps no word better sums up Barclay than the ascent. Her goals are to ascend, both literally and figuratively. To jump higher and to get better.
In her first year, Barclay told Adair she wanted to play college volleyball. It was possible, Adair told her, but a lot needed to be cleaned up. Barclay needed to become a better server. She needed to be more steady and reliable in the back row. And her hitting percentage needed to skyrocket. She had the ferocity behind her smashes, but she needed to find some control.
“I haven’t been the most consistent hitter in my volleyball career,” Emma said. “I actually worked Tana Homer and she was my private coach. We’d go to the MEC Center and she’d help me … This year, I was like, ‘Hey, I need help. This could be my year to go to college, play on and win a district championship.’”
That training, coupled with all the games she played with the Idaho Peak club volleyball team and her four years on American Falls’ varsity squad, led to Barclay’s best season in 2020. Adair’s early concern draws a chuckle now as she reads off Barclay’s career stats: 54 kills as a freshman, 110 kills in her sophomore year, 188 as a junior and 302 this past season.
“That growth is just huge,” Adair said. “And it was because of all the time, energy and sweat that she’s put in to become the best she can be. And I know it won’t stop.”
Brian Barclay is sure of that. As Emma grew up, Brian always wondered if she would grow into an athlete. And there were some doubts.
“She couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time until like sixth grade,” he joked. “But it wasn’t until like eighth grade until she realized she can jump. And, boy, from there, the sky was the limit for her.”
Brian always knew Emma wasn’t going to be the tallest girl on the court, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t jump the highest. As a former bodybuilder, Brian knew a thing or two about working out. He’d take his daughters to the gym and train them every so often as they jumped through the high school ranks. But this summer, he took it to a new level.
Sparked by the pandemic and more time at home, Brian’s training of his daughters became more routine. Noticing their progress, Adair asked him if he’d be willing to train the entire team, making him an assistant coach on the team. He revamped his personal training certificate and put the Beavers to work.
“We did a lot of posterior chain stuff. Glutes and hammies because that’s where you generate all your lift from,” Brian said of his workouts. “A lot of explosion-type lifts. Hand cleans. Power cleans. Push presses. We did a lot of resistance-band work. Like banded jump squats.”
“There were some really brutal ones,” Emma added. “I don’t want to say I wanted to cry but I really felt like it.”
Regardless of the pain, the results were clear. Brian noted that nearly every girl finished the season squatting over 200 pounds. Emma can squat 275 pounds, bench press 170 and her vertical increased to 23 inches. She wants to add another four inches to that before she heads to Blue Mountain, which would allow her to touch a basketball rim.
That translates to impressive highlights on the volleyball court. It’s like she takes off with no gravity, floating above the net as she surveys the court, adjusts her body and releases a fireball — all in about a quarter of a second. It’s a mystical demonstration that explains American Falls’ recent success.
But the explanation for Emma’s hops is shockingly simple. It’s hard work. It’s all the times her quads were on fire after lunches. All the times her dad threw giant resistance bands over a barbell to make squats tougher. All the times she was at Gold’s Gym, lifting at 5:30 a.m. All the times she grabbed Adair’s key and jumped for hours by herself.
Emma’s deviation, her willingness to venture out and embrace tough things with the foresight of improvement, is why no one seems worried how she’ll do in college. She’ll still be a near-perfectionist, still be in the gym and still excel on the court.
“I’ve kind of instilled that in her that hard work and dedication — even if you’re good — you still have to work hard,” Brian Barclay said. “Talent only takes you so far.”