![Hernando High’s, 6, Kayla Ward hit cross court in the volleyball match with Nature Coast. [2023 file photo by Joseph Dicristofalo]](https://www.hernandosun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/0001-1.jpg "0001-1")
Hernando High has only fielded a beach volleyball team for one season, but already it can boast a Division I signee.
In the middle of November at the start of the Early Signing Period for sports other than football and basketball, Kaiya Ward signed with Eastern Kentucky University, making her the Leopards’ first beach volleyball player to go to a D-I school.
“It’s exciting,” Ward said. “I haven’t been playing beach ball too long. Ever since I started high school, I went to Coach Halie (Werkmeister), she coaches Hernando Elite. I was like, ‘Hey, beach ball looks fun.’ She was like, ‘Yeah, come join us.’ So I played with the older girls for a little bit and I loved it.
“She’s been working really hard with me the past few years. Honestly, I give it all to her and my mom. My mom’s been making sure I get to all my practices. It’s so surreal. I never thought I’d make it that far and they both believed in me and I got it.”
“I’m definitely proud of her because it’s a D-I school so it’s a big accomplishment for any athlete just to go D-I,” Werkmeister said. “That was definitely our biggest achievement for her that we saw. Other than that, just getting a scholarship, it’s hard for any players to get scholarships nowadays that every school has their own. To even get one for Division I is a huge deal.”
Eastern Kentucky first came into the picture for Ward when an assistant coach there sent her a message on Instagram to set up a phone call. Other offers came from New Orleans, Utah, Stetson and Hendrix College in Arkansas, but a trip up to Richmond, Kentucky to visit EKU sealed her decision.
“I went back up there in April and it was beautiful. My mom loved it, and she didn’t want me going out of state,” Ward said. “Once we got on the plane ride back home she was like, ‘Kaiya, that’s perfect.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it is.’ So I committed a couple months after that just to wait out my options, but it’s perfect.”
The 5-foot-10 senior showed off her abilities most recently in an outstanding final season of indoor volleyball at Hernando High. She recorded a career-best 350 kills, leading the Leopards to a district championship. She combined for 813 kills the past three years on the varsity level. But she has exceled even more at beach volleyball, which she felt might have something to do with her family living near water when she was younger.
Werkmeister, who played beach volleyball at Florida Gulf Coast University after graduating from Weeki Wachee, had a more technical evaluation. “Definitely her ability to communicate and play with any player on the beach has been something that helps her stand out. Because in beach you have to be able to play with anyone especially going into college,” Werkmeister said. “It’s hard to find partners if you’re not reversable. She’s able to go back and forth with any player. She’s able to switch it up. She can split block, she can play defense. She’s capable of playing any part of the beach game at any position.”
Werkmeister noted that Ward started playing against 16-year-olds when she was just 13, and now she often goes up against college players. After several years of playing beach for Hernando Elite, Ward finally got the opportunity to play at the high school level this past spring.
“It was new,” Ward said. “I’ve never played for an actual beach team before. With Coach Halie, we had practices and we would play in tournaments. But it was nothing like being seeded and then playing other schools. We had to deal with some rude coaches at times and Miss (Hernando head coach Erin) Sittig did a very good job at handling them. It was so cool, though, and I’m very excited for this year, too.”
When she gets to Eastern Kentucky she intends to study fire science, wanting to follow in the footsteps of her parent who are both firefighters. “I’ve always just been drawn to that adrenaline rush that the firefighters get and also I just want to help people,” Ward said. “Volleyball-wise, I want to play in college. I want be able to play D-I, which I get to do. Make friends and all that. I don’t really care too much about going pro, but I’m definitely going to work toward it. I just won’t be heartbroken if I don’t make it. It would be awesome, I just want to focus on my career once I get toward the end of my volleyball career.”
