One couldn’t help but feel pity for the poor women from Missouri who were trying valiantly to beat the University of Texas Lady Longhorns volleyball team last month. No doubt, the Tigers from MU were good athletes — one simply doesn’t compete for a Big 12 Conference school without substantial talent — but across the net from them was one athlete in particular who was more than simply good. She was practically a human wall. They kept whacking the ball over the net, and their opponent’s long frame kept going impossibly high into the air to whack it back, over and over and over. They had to be utterly intimidated.
Probably no more so, however, than the poor women who had to go against this same athlete in the high jump a few months earlier at a UT track & field meet. The gathered competitors were taking warmup jumps at a bar set at five feet, two inches. Some of the leapers struggled to clear the height, and others couldn’t get over it at all. Then the Lady Longhorn strode up to the bar and effortlessly hurdled it, barely breaking her stride. Jaws dropped around the stadium, and she decided not to bother with any more warmup jumps until the standard was raised to something more challenging.
It’s hard for Erin Aldrich not to be intimidating. Just being six feet tall makes her a rather imposing sight to begin with. Seeing her use her considerable abilities makes her even more so. And those abilities keep her busy year-round — this spring, she helped lead coach Beverly Kearney’s track & field squad to a national championship, and this fall, in her junior year, she is trying to aid Jim Moore’s volleyball squad to one as well. She accomplished the former by winning the individual national title in the high jump (and setting an NCAA record of six feet, 5 1*2 inches along the way), and she’s working on the latter by being one of the most effective middle blockers in the Big 12. Not many athletes at the college level compete in more than one sport, but Aldrich doesn’t mind the heavy workload.
“Both are so compatible, training-wise,” Aldrich says of her volleyball/high jumping complement. “It’s the best way to go. It keeps me from getting burned out, and I always look forward to the next season. In volleyball, I do a lot of jumping and power work, which I need for track. In track I do lots of jumping, which helps me so much in volleyball. A fan asked me about that the other day, and my answer was, when I’m in the off-season for one it helps for the other.”
But is it harder to be a dual-sport athlete?
“It’s both harder and easier. If you don’t have a sturdy build, if your body can’t take it, it’s harder, it takes a lot out of you to be on all the time. But for me, knock on wood, my body is pretty sturdy, even though it may not look like it,” says Aldrich, whose slender frame is typical of high jumpers but less muscular than the typical volleyball player. “A lot of people assume that because I’m thin that I must be fragile. But I’m pretty sturdy and injury-free compared to a lot of volleyball athletes.”
Aldrich came to UT after competing for the University of Arizona her freshman year, 1996-97. She went to Arizona to work with Arizona assistant coach John Rembao, who had a reputation as the best high jumping coach in the nation. But then Rembao got a job offer from Kearney and headed for Austin, and Aldrich, a Dallas native (Lake Highlands High School), decided to follow him.
The move was a big help to both Lady Longhorn teams. In 1997, the track team finished one agonizing point shy of a national title. This year, the 10 points Aldrich scored for her winning leap put them over the top. Similarly, a volleyball squad that was already loaded with talent was happy to welcome her. Although she says she started slow this season, having difficulty adjusting to Moore’s system, she has since scored a pair of triple-doubles (meaning she got in double digits in kills, blocks, and digs) this season, a rare feat.
This weekend, Aldrich will need to achieve similar heroics. The volleyball team’s last home stand of the season is against the Colorado Buffaloes (Friday night) and the Nebraska Cornhuskers (Saturday), two Big 12 rivals who are also nationally ranked. (The ‘Horns are ranked No. 12 by USA Today, the Buffs No. 15, and the ‘Huskers No. 3.) It’s the two biggest games of the year, but unlike some of her opponents, Aldrich is not intimidated.
“I’m not nervous, I’m really excited,” she says. “It’s our chance to show the nation, and the people who don’t really believe in us, that we can beat them and that we deserve to be in the top 10.”
In fact, she has always claimed to do best when more is on the line — in the aforementioned UT track meet, she passed on all her jumps until all her opponents had been eliminated, the best of them missing three tries at 5-8. Aldrich entered the event at 5-10, and then knocked the bar off on her first two tries. After her amazing warmup exhibition, she was just one miss away from an embarrassing no-height, which would have put her in a disgraceful last place.
No problem. She got over on her third try, her calves grazing the bar, and ended up winning at 6-2.
“I like the pressure. That’s what the high jump is all about. I like the nerves and pressure, so I think it’s good that we’re playing Nebraska and Colorado at the end of the season.”
Aldrich’s athletic destiny after college would seem to be in her own hands. She is one of the favorites to make the American Olympic team in the high jump, and Olympic volleyball coach (and former UT coach) Mick Haley has already asked her to try out for his team as well. Aldrich said she is “definitely” leaning toward jumping in 2000, but “an ideal situation in Sydney would be if the track finals finished when the volleyball finals began,” so that she could do both. “But I don’t know how the volleyball coach would feel about that.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the high jump is her favorite sport.
“Whenever people ask, I just say my favorite is whichever one is in season. In volleyball I’m on volleyball, in track I’m on track. You’ll have to ask me again at the end of my senior year.”
The Lady Longhorns play Colorado Friday and Nebraska Saturday. Both games are at 7pm. For tickets, call 477-6060 or buy them at the door at Gregory Gym. Admission is $9 and $5 (seniors/students are $7 and $3).
This article appears in November 20 • 1998 and November 20 • 1998 (Cover).