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A whiz in biz, volleyball Ex-North star in final year with Lobos By GREG STILES The ports of call number San Diego and Honolulu. There's plenty of time for shopping the malls in Salt Lake City and the Bay Area. Life on the Western Athletic Conference volleyball circuit isn't bad at all for former North Medford High star Shannon Offutt. She's having the time of her life in her final season with the New Mexico Lobos. "We never drive anywhere, we're always flying, staying at nice hotels and our food is paid for," Offutt says. "We have lots of free time to study and go shopping when we travel, because we leave Thursday night and play Friday and Saturday nights." Offutt graduated from New Mexico's school of business last May, but she had another year of athletic eligibility. So she embarked on an MBA program she's due to complete next spring. "As long as they're paying for it," Offutt reasons, "I might as well keep going." The MBA will show instant dividends. Most likely she'll go to work for Big Five accounting firm Price Waterhouse. "Ideally, I'd end up in Orange County, but if I don't get an offer there, I'll stick with one in San Francisco." When she departs Albuquerque, it'll be on much better terms than when she arrived. The Land of Enchantment wasn't the least bit enchanting when she got to New Mexico. But Albuquerque has grown on Offutt. "At first I didn't want to come here, because it was so far from home," Offutt recalls. "I had wanted to go to Oregon State because my sister was there and it was the comfortable and easy thing to do." But Oregon State wanted her to walk on and the Lobos were willing to pay her way through school. It was tough to turn down a full ride from what to that point had been a perennial Top 20 team. The pieces didn't fit at first. She didn't think much of the school or the ramshackle part of town surrounding the university. Offutt convinced herself during her first term that she really belonged at the Air Force Academy, a day's drive north in Colorado Springs, Colo. "I had bigger dreams," she says. "The Air Force Academy was all regimented and I liked that. I was just unhappy here; I felt like I didn't belong." Somehow the university, the volleyball program and Albuquerque took root. "I grew up a lot," Offutt says. "I'm really close to my family, but it was important to be far away. Once I adjusted to the college, I started loving it. "Albuquerque, the school and the team have grown on me. It's definitely where God wants me to be." The classes that once were so easy that she wondered why bother got a little tougher as she steered into accounting. "Gradually, it got a lot more challenging," she says. When she finished her undergraduate studies last spring, she dove right back in. "They waived a lot of classes, because I had done my undergraduate work here," Offutt says. "I was questioning whether I wanted to stay, once I graduated. But the MBA kept me here." Although she's playing more than ever, Offutt concedes the Lobo volleyball program isn't what it was five years ago. Laurel Brassy Iversen remains the head coach who has won 60 percent of her matches in 14 seasons, but a turnover in assistant coaches has stunted recent success. "The program was just awesome when I first got here," Offutt says. "It's gone downhill. We didn't focus as heavily on recruiting as we should have, assuming we're good and we'll continue to be good." Assistant coach Jenny Langping, one of the world's premier players, returned to China to coach the national team. Jeff Stork, a member of the 1988 through 1996 U.S. Olympic team, left to coach a men's team. With the loss of high-profile assistants, the Lobos slipped. "It's not like it kills me that we're not as good as we used to be," Offutt says. "Volleyball isn't my life, but I still love the game." Offutt ranks among the Western Athletic Conference leaders in digs at just under three per game and had career highs of seven kills and 19 digs Oct. 9 against Fresno State. She's second on the team in digs and third in kills. Barring a late-season rush by the Lobos, however, her career will end around Thanksgiving. "I still think it's a fun sport," Offutt says. "Playing here didn't make me hate it. That's a good thing, because I've heard horror stories." Hers wasn't a fairy-tale beginning. But it hasn't been a bad ending. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,