Date: Fri 15-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Dee-Conley-Feature

Full Text:

Dee Conley Feature

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

No one knew who Dee Conley was when she came to Newtown High School back in

April. But everyone knows who she is now . . . a gazelle on the track and an

audacious and devastating middle hitter on the volleyball floor - one of the

main reasons why the track team went undefeated in the South-West Conference

in the spring and one of the main reasons why the volleyball team is chasing a

CIAC Class L championship this fall.

She came from Ohio in the middle of the last school year without much fanfare

and the newness of this place made her feel a little bit incongruous, out of

place . . . unknown.

" When I first came, " said Dee, a junior, " I came in the middle of track,

and it was kind of difficult. This fall, I was little bit nervous. I didn't

know anybody. Carrie (Phillip) and Jess (Hoffman) are my closest friends now

and I didn't know who they were. I had thought, this past summer, that I was

going to go back to Ohio, that's all there was to it, but something made me

stay. I don't know what. "

It could have simple providence . . . because with the arrival of the Leigh

Hoppmeyer from Illinois the year before and the arrival of a new

tournament-tested coach, as well as the enormous improvement of Kristin

Denninger and Carrie Phillip and Delphine Tuot, it seems as if other forces

had to be at work, stacking the proverbial deck in Newtown's favor for one

dreamlike, magical season.

" Right away, " she said, " I knew this was going to be a really good team,

anyway, and I feel really good about being a part of it. There is so much

talent on this team. "

And it all came together, quickly, as Dee - whose presence allowed coach

Nell-Ayn Lynch to move Denninger to the outside and Dee to the middle, giving

Newtown an uncommon one-two punch - meshed with the Newtown offense almost

immediately. It helped the Lady Nighthawks.

And it helped her.

It was during a pre-season tournament when Dee - who has since loaded her gun

with dozens of quick sets from Hoppmeyer and peppered the unsuspecting people

on the other side of the net with one bullet after another - earned her first

kill and really became known. Soon after, all the coaches in the South-West

Conference came to know her . . . much to their chagrin.

" I felt a lot of pride (with that first hit), " she said. " Sometimes I feel

so unknown here, but then I heard the people out there saying my name. I

didn't know that they knew me. I just wanted to thank somebody and give

somebody a big hug, you know, because it felt good that somebody knew me

again. "

All the way from the South-West Conference to Ridgefield, Southington,

Cheshire and Stamford, and, yes, even into the collegiate ranks . . . oh, they

all know about Dee Conley - her speed, the way she can leap, her service.

And the way she can flat out hit.

Yes, she is known.

" I feel good playing with these guys, " she said. " I feel really comfortable

now. "