JHS alum Jaelyn Keene joins the Italians as she continues professional volleyball
By Ben Cox
Photos/Provided
When Jaelyn Keene graduated from Jacksonville High School as a three-sport varsity athlete and in the top ten percent of her class in 2014, she didn’t envision a career in professional volleyball.
Since 2019, she’s been doing just that — making a living as a professional volleyball player in Europe.
Keene spent four award-winning seasons as an Illinois State University Redbird, starting in every match during her career from 2014-2017. While there, she became just the sixth player in Missouri Valley Conference history and the second ISU Redbird to be named a four-time All-MVC First Team selection in volleyball. During her senior season at ISU, she set a Redbird Arena record with 29 kills and 33.0 points versus Valparaiso on October 7, 2017.
She is still in the top ten in career statistics in several categories at ISU. After her undergraduate days, Keene attended the University of Alabama-Birmingham and took her game outdoors to beach volleyball. In her only year as a graduate transfer playing beach volleyball, Keene set the single season wins record at UAB with 19 and was named the team’s MVP. She also was able to accomplish a master’s in accounting in that one year and a summer semester.
Keene says that it was at that point in her life that she began exploring playing professionally: “When I was at Illinois State, I talked with my coach and she, I don’t know if you would say influenced me, but told me about playing professionally overseas and said that I would be good at it and I would enjoy it even though I would be obviously far from home.”
During her time at UAB, she met an agent who connected her with a 10-day tournament in Europe, which Keene says got her “feet wet” into playing overseas. About that time, the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down and stifled travel for everyone. She ended her first European season with the ATSC Kelag Wildcats in Austria abruptly due to the pandemic.
Keene says she wasn’t very happy with the play in that first season and almost thought about giving it up to return home, “To be honest, I wasn’t really happy with where I was or the level of the volleyball there. I had spoken with my agent and I was like, I don’t know if I want to play anymore. It just wasn’t what I expected my first year and everything. Then, I kind of decided [to return] because I didn’t fully get the entire experience because COVID cut the playoffs short and we didn’t even finish league play or anything. I said to myself, ‘Okay, I need to play it at least one more season and see what it is.’ Then, I went to Finland the next year and it was still kind of chaotic due to COVID, but it ended up being fine and it went well there. There were four other Americans on my team and that was really nice and I really liked it. The level was better and the volleyball was fun.”
Keene says she really loved the beauty of being in a Nordic country and hopes to go back to visit but doesn’t want to live there due to the cold weather.
For the next three years, Keene found herself in warmer weather and with even more competitive volleyball playing with the Nantes Neptunes in France. “In my fifth year of playing professionally, which was my third year in France, we won the French Cup, which was the first time ever for that club. So that was really cool. We also got second in the playoffs, and then, we got second in one of the European tournaments that we played in. That was a really, really great year because we did so well. It’s hard to not have fun when you’re winning,” Keene says.
Keene then moved to Germany this past year, playing for SSC Palmberg Schwerin.
She says the German team got struck by the injury bug but still managed to win gold in the league, “We had three girls by the end of season be out with knee issues and they had surgeries and things. That really kind of put a damper on a lot of things. One of them was our setter, so then you have to make all new connections with a new setter that they brought in. It turned out fine because we ended up winning the league and that was my second gold. My first gold was in France when we won the French Cup. This was my first time ever winning the entire league playoffs and everything. We finished first in the regular season and then we ended up winning playoffs and it was the 13th playoffs victory, or 13th time that the club in Germany had won the tournament. It was seven or eight years ago that they last won it, so they were also really excited to bring back the gold to Schwerin.” The team is located about one hour east of Hamburg.
As far as being an American in Europe during the politically charged times, Keene says that she keeps out of politics and her head out of the news. She says she discusses things with her teammates when they ask and that all of the countries she’s visited have been friendly and helpful. It’s helped her learn bits of different languages in her travels, she says.
Keene is now heading to Italy for the upcoming season. The professional volleyball season is somewhat similar to baseball in that it is nine months long with most of the first two months being training and conditioning, but the teams do not play every day. Keene says the number of matches is dependent upon the quality of the team and how deep of a playoff and tournament run the team makes near the end of the year.
“I’m really excited about playing in the Italian league. Italy is probably in the top five for being one of the best leagues in the world for volleyball. Their national team is great,” Keene says, “They just won the gold medal at the last Olympics. I would say it has kind of been a goal of mine to try to be the best that I can be and play against some of the best players in the world. And I think finally I get to do that this season. So I’m excited to see the difference and how much more demand it is or how much more pressure it is.”
She says she knows a couple of her teammates but it will also be another new experience in the high-caliber league.
Keene says she has not put an expiration date on her volleyball career as she is entering her age 30 season. The 6’ 2 ½” middle blocker feels that her body will tell her when it’s time to quit, “I just kind of say, I think I’ll know when I need to be done when it’s that time. I don’t want to put a timeline on it because if I say, ‘Oh, I’m going to be done playing in three years,’ and then it gets to three years, and I’m like, ‘Well, I feel better than I did five years ago or something,’ I don’t want to get people’s hopes up, let’s say if I were to come back home.” Keene says she would like to finish her playing career in the U.S. whenever that time draws near.
As far as after her playing days, she’s not sure yet what she’ll do but she does enjoy giving back when she’s home, “I do coach some high school camps and stuff just to keep my volleyball up and to kind of inspire future athletes.”
Keene suspects that volleyball will always be a part of her life to some degree even if she decides to put her master’s in accounting to use. She admits going from being in a gym full-time for nine months out of the year to a 9-5 desk job would be a large adjustment, but it’s an adjustment that appears to be on the very distant horizon.
