By Pat Welter

If you aren’t familiar with the positions of volleyball, the setter is like the quarterback of the offense. They call out shots and direct traffic in the chaotic moments as the team tries to get in position for the perfect bump, set and spike.

“Free, free, free!” Logan Ballance shouted at a Wilson Christian Academy practice. “Push, push, push, help, help, help!”

“If you don’t get a good pass, then the sets not good,” Logan Ballance explained. “If the set is good the hitter can get a good kill, so it’s really a key part of volleyball.”

Logan is a junior at Wilson Christian Academy and has been playing volleyball at the school since seventh grade.

“She’s intense, she’s very intense,” Wilson Christian volleyball coach Gabriel Willard said. “She’s dedicated to what she’s doing and those two qualities plus some athletic ability to go along with that drive that she has.”

Logan’s leadership ability transcends sports and species.

“I get up every morning at 6:00am and I feed them,” Logan explained.

After practice everyday it’s straight home to work on the farm.

“Once I bring the feed cart over here I place it over here and I feed all of the pigs,” Logan finished.

Of course the chores were just getting started.

The Ballance family owns several pigs that they raise and sell. Logan and her sister Riley, also show the pigs at 4-H youth livestock competitions locally and nationally. They will compete at the North Carolina State Fair in October. The application deadline is circled on the calendar next to the pig pen. A sign that reads “practice like you’ve never won, perform like you never lost” is above “Panda”, the first pig Logan takes out for a cleaning and a walk.

“As you’re showing you have to keep in mind staying in front of the judge at all times,” Logan said as she took Panda for a walk the same way she would in a competition.

How you present your animal, how it listens to you, and making eye contact with the judge are all part of the 4-H criteria.

“It’s all about the work that you do with your animal,” Logan said.

Champion showman banners line the ceiling of the Ballance family barn. Raising livestock isn’t their livelihood, but it is a way to bring the family together.

“My dad handles buying the pigs and feeding,” Logan said. “Me and my sister we work really hard on getting the animals broke and their skin and hair. My mom does pretty much everything else. She runs the stuff in the house plus does the vet checks and all the registering for shows. Definitely we all play a key role in what we do.”

Logan is ranked No. 3 in her class at Wilson Christian Academy with a 4.36 GPA. Her accomplishments in the classroom, on the volleyball court and showing her animals earned her WRAL’s Tom Suiter Extra Effort Award.

“Talk about an ‘Extra Effort’, this is sports, academics, 4-H, all of those together,” Willard said. “Makes her very worthy of receiving this award.”

“It means a lot,” Logan said. “I’m very thankful, I’m very glad that others have seen everything that it has taken to do volleyball, livestock, and school work. I’m very honored, I’m very thankful.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com