An Interview With the Blue Valley Four
by Rick G-----
Part 1 An introduction


The interview that follows is about a story you may remember if you followed
local sports at the high school level in the Blue Valley area. I think that
this interview will give you a much better understanding of the women involved
as well as providing an update on where they have gone and what their lives
have been like since they left the Valley for greener pastures.

As some of you might remember, back in 1999-2000, the Blue Valley Raiders
girls field hockey and lacrosse teams won Regional AAA titles featuring, among
other fine athletes, Susan B--------, Jordanna S----------, Melissa W- ----
and Alyssa T------. What made these Raiders teams memorable besides their
talent and dedication was the level of muscularity shown by these four girls
and some of their teammates. Local Valley papers at the time described the
girls in language unlike anything used to describe female high school athletes
before or since. One memorable article in the Blue Valley Clarion began "With
biceps exploding out of their sleeveless uniforms and legs seemingly carved
from steel Susan B-------- and Alyssa T-- --- had so thoroughly intimated the
East Weston Blue Jays girls lacrosse team with their pre-game flexing
demonstration that there was no need to play the game".

I had the chance to interview the four former Raiders over their recent
semester break after they all got together for a reunion weight session at the
Powerhouse Gym on Lincoln Street. It was the first time that the 4 had pumped
iron together in almost 2 years and they were in a great mood.

Rick: At first you guys looked like you were just happy to be together lifting
but it soon seemed that it got competitive among you.

Melissa: That's the way it always is with us. We all pull for each other but
we all want to beat the others. If Aly does 165, Susan wants to get 170. If I
do 10 reps, Jordy wants 12.

Jordanna: Yeah, we love to help each, encourage each other, you know, but when
it really gets down to it we all want to be the biggest or the strongest or
whatever.

Rick: Well, who won today?

Susan: I did. I always win.

Alyssa: Well, you usually win. You are the biggest to begin with and you make
the rules and you ...

Susan: I do not always make the rules. What does that mean?

Alyssa: Smiling - See you even have to win when we're doing an interview.

Before we go any further with the transcript, maybe I should describe the four
women sitting with me in the lobby at Powerhouse.

Susan B------- is the obvious leader of this group. At 5 feet 9 inches and
weighing 165 pounds Susan is big. She has long brown hair, a pleasant smile
and demands attention wearing a tight black tank top and running shorts. Susan
was the captain and leading scorer of the field hockey and lacrosse teams at
Blue Valley and she received an athletic scholarship from the state university
where as a senior she is a starting midfielder on her school's top 20 lacrosse
team. She also has the most muscular looking arms that I have seen on a woman.

Jordanna S-------- should be a model. She is just as tall as Susan, weighs
about 140 pounds, has long jet black hair and is used to being the center of
attention for her beauty. She is quite simply a head turner. When she gets
ready to do biceps curls, the entire gym comes to a halt with every guy (and
girl) staring at Jordanna and in her bright orange jog bra and half short she
demands attentions. What's hard to believe is that Jordanna is a top notch
athlete playing varsity in the Ivy League.

Melissa W---- is an athlete. Its obvious the minute she walks into a room. At
5 foot 5 and 135 pounds, Melissa is the lightest of the four, but she moves
with a feline grace that screams out - jock. Melissa has medium length blonde
hair that is almost always in a pony tail - although when she decides to put
her hair up and dress up, she is unmistakably attractive. Melissa has lean
arms with a vein running from her shoulder to her wrist and a clearly defined
six pack, which is currently on display in the torn t- shirt and boyish
looking gray sweatpants she is wearing. Melissa plays midfield for her
Division 3 school's field hockey and lacrosse teams and says she lives to
compete.

Alyssa B----- says she isn't an athlete. She claims to have 2 left feet, no
instincts for sports and no passion for winning. What she has is a passion for
building her body. Alyssa is the shortest of the 4, standing just under 5 feet
4 inches tall but weighing, on this date, a robust 155 pounds. While Melissa
is toned and defined Alyssa is big and round. But not fat. Alyssa looks like
she could take your best punch and shrug it off. She goes to school with Susan
but no longer plays any varsity sports. Instead she works out all the time,
with Susan and on her own when Susan has games or practices.

These four girls came together back during the first set of practices for fall
field hockey when they were freshman in high school. We'll start there.

Rick: How did you guys meet?

Melissa: Susan, Aly and I tried out for field hockey back in 1996 at the
Valley. I was friends with Susan and we both kind of knew Aly. Jordanna moved
in prior to sophomore year so she was the last to hook up with us.

Susan: Yeah, Mel and I used to play sports together in middle school, we
weren't really close friends but we were teammate friends. Aly was this little
runt that we usually played against since we lived on different sides of town.

Alyssa: [Laughs] Susan is being modest, which is so unlike her but its so
obvious to see through isn't it? She was the star of every team we had growing
up. She was the fastest and one of the biggest and everyone wanted to be on
her team. I played a year of travel soccer with her when we were 10 or so. And
I knew Mel from around town. Blue Valley's not that big so you kind of know
the other girls your age if you lived there long enough.

Rick: OK. So the 3 of you tried out for the field hockey team as freshman.
What happened?

Alyssa: We all made the JV team. Susan was the best player on the team and Mel
and I played all the time. The three of us got friendly and we started to do
extra work, you know, passing, skills drills, that kind of stuff after
practice or on weekends.

Melissa: Yeah sometime that fall we all just all started hanging around
together. I was playing travel soccer still with the field hockey, but
basically we became best buddies. 3 jock girls you know. I had a boyfriend,
but these two didn't so I think they really became close friends.

Susan: Yeah, you were dating that Timmy guy. What a dweeb. Even then you could
have kicked his butt and you weighed probably 95 pounds.[laughs]

Rick: Had you guys starting with weights yet?

Susan: No. I'm sure I didn't even know girls could lift weights then.

Melissa: No. We were like 14 years old. Just a bunch of jocks.

Jordanna: My brother who is 2 years older than me started lifting about that
time. He would come home and flex his little biceps and ask me to come lift,
but at the time I had no interest in doing that. I thought "Yuck muscles." I
was living over in Jefferson County and playing soccer too. We moved to the
Valley around Easter. I hated it. A new school and it was the end of the year.

Rick: How was that?

Jordanna: Awful. Here I was 15 years old, with braces, as tall as I am now but
I weighed about 100 pounds of skin and bones. Believe me I was nobody's prize.

Susan: Here we go again. Jordanna the ugly duckling, Jordanna the dog. Its
such bull shit. She comes in - she was in my history class - and every guy is
drooling over her. She may have been 100 pounds, but she had the hair and the
ass, she walked like a model. She had that I'm beautiful attitude. Every guy
wanted her as soon as she got to the school. I hated her, of course.

Alyssa: Me too. You could tell she was stuck up with an attitude. She didn't
need us.

Jordanna: C'mon be nice. I wasn't that bad. Right Mel?

Melissa: You were that bad. You see I know because she moved in next door to
me. On the one hand it was great having a new neighbor the same age as me. But
once she moved in - no, once she moved in and went to school in her red
leather skirt - it was all over for me. My boyfriend began trying to come over
to see me, but really to get a chance to check out Jordy.

Rick: So what happened? How did the Jordanna join the group? How did the
weight lifting start?

Melissa: Well in spite of her being a bitch [all laugh] she and I became
friends that summer. Jordanna had a pool in her yard and so when it got hot, I
began to invite myself over to swim. I think I must have brought Aly or Suzy
over or maybe not till school started.

Jordanna: No it was after school started. That summer, when I wasn't away at
camp or visiting friends back at my old town, I had no friends so I was forced
to make friends with Mel. She was such a jock and she had such a loser
boyfriend that I felt sorry for her. And she's right. She just wanted to use
the pool. Plus my brother liked her so he used to ask her over sometimes too.

Melissa: So we got to be friends and I told Jordy that she should try out for
field hockey. She had never really played but I was sure she could make the
team. So I kind of dragged her along to practice and of course she met Aly and
Susan and she wasn't half bad. It was apparent that she was going to be a good
player once she learned some of the skills. She was fast.

Rick: And the weights?

Melissa: Oh yeah. That was Jordanna's brother, Mike, and me. One day that
summer he invited me over to swim, Jordanna was there too and it started to
rain. So we all went inside their house. Mike had a weight set in the basement
and he said he was going to go work out and would we like to. So I said sure.
Jordy came down and watched as Mike put me through a workout. I think we did
bench presses.

Susan: He was a 16 year old guy. Of course, you did bench presses!!

Alyssa: Or biceps. Biceps and chest. Every guy's workout!!

Melissa: Well, anyway. The next day I was sore. But it was a good sore. So I
went back. Mike and I spent the next couple of months working out down there
on occasion. Jordanna would come watch sometimes. But mostly she thought it
was disgusting for a girl to lift.

Jordanna: No. I thought it was disgusting for a girl to lift with Mike!!
Especially when all Mike wanted to do was get in her pants. Which he
eventually did.

Melissa: He got into all of our pants eventually I guess - Jordy excluded.

Susan: Not true. We made out but he never ... uh, never mind. [laughing and
one serious punch from Aly on Susan's shoulder]

Melissa: Anyway, sophomore year started and we had a new coach on JV - Ms.
Knight.[All giggle] And even though Susan and I made the varsity, Ms. Knight
seemed cool and when she started to organize post-practice weights sessions
for the girls on her team we joined in as well. You see I went since I loved
the feeling of lifting right from the beginning with Mike. I convinced Aly and
Susan to come along. And when the 3 of us were there, Jordanna who was the
newbie with hockey figured she better join in too. So that's how we started.

Susan: And of course, we all took to the weights right away. I loved the
feeling of trying to test myself. I set a goal of lifting more each day than
the day before and for a while there I was able to do it. The school had a
great set of weights and Ms. Knight was an excellent teacher. Right Aly?

Alyssa: Ms. Knight was a dyke. A hard core dyke. And for some reason she
wanted me. Not Jordanna, me. She gave me extra instruction, showed all kinds
of lifting techniques. She was great. Until one day when it was just me, Jordy
and her in the gym, I guess Susan and Mel had a varsity game or something, Ms.
Knight started stripping her clothes off. She was down to her bra and panties.
I'll never forget it, she said ...

Jordanna: She said, "Come on girls. It feels so much better lifting naked".
Which by the way is true, but at that time and in that place I'm not sure Aly
and I appreciated it. Anyway, to make a long story short. They fired Ms.
Knight soon thereafter over that incident on the wrestling mats.

[to be continued]