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Six years of year-round volleyball. Long days and longer weekends. Countless tournaments and practices. None of this is enough to make Shelby Caudillo quit. The Rock Falls senior-to-be can't even come close to estimating how much of her 17 years has been spent on the volleyball court - but she wouldn't trade any of it. "I just can't get sick of playing this sport," Caudillo said. "You fall in love with it and can't let it go." Club volleyball has become an unstoppable phenomenon in teenage athletics, having taken off in a way the originators of off-season, nonschool-affiliated volleyball programs couldn't have imagined. It runs from January through June, with tournaments almost every weekend during the school year. Longer, bigger-scale tournaments are saved for summer break. Add in the fact that high school summer leagues kick off in July and the prep season begins in mid-August and that means almost a full 52 weeks of volleyball. Burnout? Not even close. "I can't imagine not playing volleyball all the time," Sterling's Morgan Martells said. "You really have to love the game to play it this much - and I definitely do." "I just really love playing the game - anytime, anywhere," fellow Golden Warrior Kaitlin Loos echoed. "It's easy to stay excited and energized, and there's nothing like making a big play to help your team." Those sentiments are echoed by many girls who play the sport year-round. They seemingly can't get enough of the sport they love. They are constantly itching to get back on the court, to play another point, another game, another match. "Playing the game is what keeps me going, makes me want to keep doing it over and over," Oregon's Niatha Cullen said. "It's the long rallies, being three points behind and knowing you can still win the game. There's an energy, an intensity, a sort of rage - that's maybe too strong - like an electric current running through you to keep going." Cullen, Caudillo, Loos and Martells were part of React Volleyball Club's trip to a national tournament in Louisville, Ky., at the end of June. Oregon's Ashley Rude and AFC's Ashley Hahn also joined a few more girls from Byron and Stillman Valley to play for Stillman coach and Sterling native Mike Peterson. Even though they all ended up in the same place June 27-30, they got started in different ways. - Caudillo has been doing this for a long time. In seventh grade, her No Limits club team out of Westwood Sports Complex won a tournament in Iowa, and the Rock Falls back-row specialist was hooked. "It's just everything about it that makes it great," Caudillo said. "It's a great release; you can really take out your anger and frustration. Seeing yourself get better, building camaraderie with your teammates, there's nothing like it." An all-around athlete, Caudillo has given up basketball for a shot to play volleyball at the collegiate level. Last year, she played club volleyball and basketball and discovered that it was too much to juggle. The full school day, followed by basketball practice and then club volleyball practice a few times a week were a lot, but Saturdays filled with basketball games and Sundays spent at various club tournaments finally pushed her to the breaking point. "Last year was the worst," Caudillo said. "There were some nights when I'd come home crying because I was so tired. "But volleyball was what I wanted to play in college, so it was an easy decision to stop playing basketball." - The decision to give up basketball wasn't a tough one for Caudillo, but it's one Loos and Martells don't want to make. The two tall hitters from Sterling just finished their first season away from No Limits, and both say the move up to a higher-level club was a huge eye-opener. "It's a lot different playing against the best players in the country," Martells said of the Louisville tournament. "You kind of feel like if you can compete at this level, you can compete anywhere." Loos made the move because she realized that volleyball was the sport she wanted to play in college. After a fine basketball season last winter as a junior, Loos found she never lost that desire to spend all her spare time working on her volleyball skills. She joined with React because Coach Peterson is a longtime friend of her parents. "Sometimes it does feel like you don't have time for anything else, and I never see my other friends," Loos said. "But it's all worth it. I love volleyball, I want to play a lot of volleyball and this is the best way to do that." Martells joined the React team as result of her friendship with Loos. During the club season, React's middle blocker suffered an injury and was unable to compete. Loos had played with Martells when the freshman was moved up to varsity last fall. Loos called Martells and asked if she'd be interested in filling in. Martells accepted, having no idea what she had gotten herself into. "I was kind of scared. I didn't know what to expect, and what I got was more than I could have imagined," Martells said. "But I became a lot better player, an all-around player, a more confident player, and that's what I was looking for." - For Cullen, club volleyball was a no-brainer. With Oregon coach Christy Sitze involved with the club before this season, Cullen joined Hawk teammates Rude and Carissa Oelke with React. It wasn't much of a change for Cullen, who spent her high school season surrounded by the likes of Dani Steffa and Faith Watson before moving into the club season with Loos and Martells. Still, tournaments like the one in Louisville are awe-inspiring for the junior-to-be. "I think the thing that sticks out to me is seeing all the different people, players, coaches, styles, everything going on all at the same time," Cullen said. "The combination of talent on these teams is just awesome and overwhelming. It just gets to you sometimes how unbelievable some of these players are."