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Setting new standards
By Ben Dunsmoor
 Media Credit: Blair Schlichte SCSU setter Kari Turkowski enters her senior year as a well rounded volleyball player. Turkowski was highly recruited out of Rocori High school as a hockey player and choose volleyball instead.
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Hockey is the one sport that is mainly associated with St. Cloud State University.
Allow us to introduce you to a hockey player that attends SCSU, Kari Turkowski. Here’s the twist though: she is the heart and soul of the Husky volleyball team, and although she might slap the puck around a little bit when she’s not on the volleyball court, she doesn’t strap it up and play for the Huskies women’s hockey team at all in the wintertime.
Kari Turkowski grew up playing hockey, and was a three-year captain for her team at ROCORI High School in Cold Spring, MN, and also played on Minnesota select teams from 1998-2000. Throughout her hockey playing days she received offers to play hockey at the University of Minnesota, and St. Cloud State.
However, volleyball was a secondary sport in high school for her, and she didn’t even start playing the sport until she was a freshman at Rocori.
“I just played volleyball in high school,” says Turkowski, “just because I wanted to be a three sport athlete.”
Turkowski, or, “Turk” as her coaches and teammates affectionately call her, wasn’t only an average three-sport athlete in high school, but she built an impressive r�sum� in all three of those sports. Kari received All-Conference honors in volleyball, hockey, and softball, and All-Area honors in both volleyball, and softball. She is also listed in the Who’s Who Among America’s High School Students.
Why volleyball and why St. Cloud State you may ask? But this is when Kari’s aggressive nature took over, and made her decision easy.
“I wanted to get everything out of my way with being recruited and choosing where I wanted to go,” Kari said. “It was a for sure thing (playing volleyball at SCSU), and I knew I was going to do this. With hockey, the recruiting process is still later on in months, and I’m not a person to wait.”
This aggressive, competitive nature is what Husky head coach Dianne Glowatzke saw about Turkowski in high school, and moved to recruit her for their volleyball team.
“You look at hockey and it’s a very aggressive sport,” said Glowatzke, “Another thing that’s shown throughout her career here, and at camp, and when we saw her play is that she’s so aggressive. I think that’s one attribute that we wish more players had.”
As you take a look at a volleyball game program or a media guide, you see Turkowski’s position is a setter. Again, this is something that is relatively new to her, because she was a hitter in high school.
“The first time we saw her was in our volleyball summer camp,” recounts Glowatzke. “She was a right-side hitter at the time, and we really liked her hands. We attempted to convince her that she would really be a nice setter.”
Coach Glowatzke must be a master of persuasion, because she persuaded Kari’s high school coach, Matt Hibbison, and Kari to switch positions, and Kari started at setter her senior year of high school to prepare her for college.
In Kari’s freshman year as a Husky she saw some action as a back-row specialist, because SCSU had a senior setter that year.
In her sophomore season, Turkowski got the nod to start at the setter position for the Huskies, and served as one of their team captains. That 2001 season saw her rack up 915 set assists, which led the team and moved her into ninth place in the SCSU record books for most sets in a season. That season she had a career high 60 sets against Morningside. She also ranked ninth in the North Central Conference in assists per game with 9.02.
Being a hitter in high school, and being an all-around-athlete makes Turkowski one of the most dominant and versatile setters in St. Cloud State history.
“She’s more versatile than any of the setters we’ve had,” said Glowatzke. “I think she’s one of the best, if not the best setter to come through this program overall.”
Coach Glowatzke has even gone as far to call Turkowski, who was unanimously selected to be a team captain this year, one of the best setters in the nation.
“It was surely a great complement, and when she told me it was a shock,” Turkowski said. “But in my head I still have a lot of things to do, because I do want to be the best. I have so many goals in my head right now, and I’m nowhere near where I want to be.”
Turkowski has already had three triple doubles this season, and with this being the NCC, any other Husky opponent better be ready to take on this hockey player from Cold Spring, MN.
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