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For the love of the game

Faced with a family tragedy, Hopkins volleyball coach Vicki Swenson and her family use sports as a way to heal.

By Brian Stensaas, Star Tribune

Last update: August 21, 2007 - 4:09 PM

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Early Tuesday morning the Swenson family learned that they were chosen for "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Host Ty Pennington and the rest of the crew from the popular ABC show will begin work on the Swenson's Minnetonka home Aug. 22. For more information about the project visit www.project805.com.

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Upset that her players were not executing a set of blocking drills correctly during the second day of practice last week, Hopkins volleyball coach Vicki Swenson stopped the exercise and demanded the players take blocking seriously.

She told a quick tale of how she blocked an all-American at the net repeatedly in a match during her college playing days. It was, she said, a wonderful feeling.

The story brought an appreciative chuckle from the group, and then it was back to work.

Shortly after, Swenson ended practice and took a much-needed seat. Expecting their fourth child in November, Swenson and husband Erik will soon have eight children in their home. Half of them joined the household last year due to unthinkable circumstances.

Last September, Swenson's sister, Teri Lee, and her boyfriend, Tim Hawkinson, were murdered in Lee's West Lakeland Township home. Lee's ex-boyfriend, Steven Van Keuren, was convicted in the double homicide and sentenced in June to two consecutive life terms in prison.

It was the second tragedy in five years for the family. Ty Lee, the father of Teri's four children, was killed in an auto accident in 2001.

Soon after the murders, the four Lee children, ages 6-12, moved in with the Swenson family, which already included three girls: a 9-year-old and twin 1-year-olds.

Vicki Swenson took a leave of absence from Hopkins. But two months later she was back coaching at the club level and has returned to the Royals' sidelines this season, though she has yet to resume teaching.

"Time is a wonderful thing," Vicki Swenson said. But "that doesn't mean that our hurts will ever go away."

Swenson said there was little doubt she would return to Hopkins.

"I never thought about not coming back," she said. "Coaching was the one thing I wanted to hang onto for myself. It's what I love to do. I've put a lot of time and effort into the program. It's a very positive thing in my life, and I feel I can make it a positive thing in [players'] lives."

Said Hopkins Athletics Director Dan Johnson: "She's put miles and miles of work into this. Both she and Erik are friends in this community. Both are role models and very special to our department."

Positivity is something the entire Lee/Swenson household can use these days. And it often comes by way of athletics.

If it's not football practice, it's a hockey practice. If not volleyball, then it's baseball. All five of the school-aged children at home play at least one sport.

"[Sports] have taught the kids a lot," said Erik Swenson, who teaches at Hopkins High School and is the head football coach at the Blake School. "It's more about being together and having fun than winning the games, though. They get that."

Sports, too, is what Vicki Swenson said brought her and her sister so close together.

Two years apart in school, Vicki was often bumped up to play on Teri's teams because participation numbers at the time were not what they are today.

"I go back to my scrapbooks, and it's all pictures of Teri and I playing basketball together, Teri hitting a double and Vicki scores the run. It was always Vicki and Teri. It was a great way to grow up."

She wants to instill that sort of active togetherness in the children, even if it doesn't always involve athletics.

"If they wake up one day and say they want to join band or be involved in theater, I don't care," she said, "so long as they have outside interests."

It will likely continue to be sports for the Lee/Swenson family, though. And while they've been told they're crazy to keep driving the kids around to countless games and practices, don't expect it to stop -- especially for Vicki Swenson, who found it hard to contain her excitement regarding the Royals' first match this week.

"This is where I'm most comfortable," she said. "There's no better place than being in a gym."

Brian Stensaas 612-673-4127

Brian Stensaas • bstensaas@startribune.com

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