Volkert Finally Stops on College Merry-Go-Round : Softball: Former Dana Hills pitcher calls Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego home after attending three other schools.

SAN DIEGO — You know you have attended one too many colleges when your softball glove starts to earn frequent-flier miles.

Pitcher Jackie Volkert has switched schools so often she sometimes mistakes her passport for her transcripts. The 1989 Dana Hills graduate, who has attended four colleges in as many years, could chart her own educational road map.

What began at Cal State Hayward stopped briefly at U.S. International, then moved to Cal State Northridge before landing at Point Loma Nazarene, where Volkert plans to stay.

“This was a good choice,” said Volkert of her decision to attend the San Diego school. “I like it here. It’s personal here, people really know you and how to help you out.”

The feeling is mutual. Volkert has done wonders for a blossoming softball program; Point Loma Nazarene’s is in its second year.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do anything without her,” Crusader Coach Karla Kehoe said.

The fourth-place Crusaders will meet first-place Southern California College today in a doubleheader. Depending on that outcome, and with a little help from other conference teams, Point Loma Nazarene has a shot at making the NAIA District 3 playoffs.

With two games left in the regular season, Volkert leads the Golden State Athletic Conference in almost every pitching category. She has a 23-8 record on 24-15 team. Volkert has a 1.89 earned-run average--the only statistic in which she doesn’t lead the GSAC--but is first in innings pitched (211 1/3), complete games (28), hits (171), walks (31) and strikeouts (241). Volkert also has one no-hitter and has one 18-strikeout game and two with 17 each.

After bouncing around from program to program, she has finally found solace in a place that needs her as much as she needs it.

It hasn’t always been this way. Volkert’s education odyssey began at Hayward in the fall of 1989, where she was successful enough in softball but wasn’t unhappy in much else.

“I wanted to go back to Southern California and I wanted to get a better scholarship offer,” said Volkert, who has one year left of eligibility but won’t graduate for another three semesters because many of her credits were not transferable.

U.S. International answered her prayers, sort of. She had lived in Escondido for several years and was thrilled when the Division I independent offered her a partial scholarship to run cross-country, a sport in which she had never competed, and play softball.

No sooner had she donned her running shoes than a rumor of the demise of the school’s intercollegiate programs began to circulate.

“People were telling us not to panic, but it was pretty scary,” she said.

By February, 1991, her fears were confirmed. Financially strapped USIU dismantled its entire intercollegiate athletic department, leaving Volkert and her teammates no place to play.

“They honored my scholarship until the end of the year, then I had to find somewhere else to play,” she said. “It was pretty sad.”

Volkert had modest scholarship offers from several schools, but chose Northridge, which was on its way to becoming one of the top-20 softball programs in the nation.

But her experience there wasn’t exactly rosy. Going in, Volkert was leery. She knew she had to make up for the time lost at USIU.

“I hadn’t played for a season and everyone else was getting better,” she said. “It’s tough to have a year off like that when you don’t want it.”

The 1992 season started off reasonably well, but the intensity of the program, coupled with her struggles academically, took their toll. After several bad outings, Volkert lost her confidence and her role was reduced to that of a reliever.

“I wasn’t getting enough playing time,” she said. “That was OK for that year, but I wanted to play more. I wanted to leave if they were going to keep me as a reliever.”

A little sheepishly at first, Volkert approached then Point Loma Nazarene Coach Barbara Wnek--she resigned her position after she had a baby in the fall--about playing for the Crusaders.

“I felt pretty stupid because I had talked to her a year earlier, and I went to Northridge instead,” Volkert said. “But she gave me a second chance.”

With a weak pitching staff, Wnek assured Volkert that she would pitch a lot.

“They told me I’d probably have to pitch some doubleheaders and I said that’s OK,” Volkert said. “I wanted a lot of playing time after that year off and not pitching much last year.”

At first, Volkert tired easily. So Kehoe put her on a tough training routine.

“In the beginning she could only do one game, but we needed her for two,” Kehoe said. “We worked on her conditioning. We did a lot of sprinting, a lot of running. There wasn’t anything wrong with her motion, but her body was tired. We had to help her get through the last two innings. Now, she’s in great shape. She throws harder in the last two innings than he does in the first two.”

Volkert’s mild interest in running multiplied. Two weeks before February’s San Diego Marathon, Volkert decided to race. After minimal training, she finished the 26.2-mile course. She might even run cross-country at Point Loma Nazarene next fall.

But her energy these days is directed at opposing batters. Kehoe senses Volkert is simply taking out four years of pent-up frustration.

“She has moved around so much. She has something to prove, you can just see it,” Kehoe said.

But Volkert doesn’t blame anyone for her college drifting. Looking back, she would had done things differently.

“If I had it to do over again, I would have gone to a junior college my first two years,” Volkert said. “I would have focused more on academics and not on what division I wanted to play.”

But the many moves have taught her a valuable lesson. She takes decision-making a little more seriously than in the past.

“It’s still hard for me to make decisions, but it’s important you get your priorities in order,” she said.

Volkert also learned early in life that you can’t always believe everything adults tell you.

“She’s matured a lot,” said Volkert’s mother, Julie. “She was disillusioned in the beginning, when she realized a lot of times what adults say isn’t what they do. But instead of getting mad and saying, ‘Hey that’s not right,’ she’s learned to accept it and try to figure out what she can do about it. She realizes she can’t feel sorry for herself. She has to cope with the problem, and look for alternatives.”

Her resume is full of them.