Lutheran South News
Her parents fled war as refugees. Now she's Indy Ignite's volleyball power hitter
INDIANAPOLIS -- Leketor Member-Meneh is so powerful, so incredibly athletic, so dynamic on the court, serving balls at more than 60 miles per hour and putting them down at speeds higher than that, she has quickly given George Padjen a new outlook on coaching.
As a college coach in Minnesota, Padjen would sometimes get out on the court during practice to fill in for a player. As the head coach with the Indy Ignite, the city's new professional women's volleyball team, and with Member-Meneh hitting, that's not happening.
"I have no interest in being out there with her," Padjen said, laughing. "I'm like, 'I have no interest at all.' She's something else. She's incredible. She's ridiculously athletic and good."
Member-Meneh, a college standout at Missouri and Pittsburgh and now one of the top players in the Pro Volleyball Federation, has been dubbed the most powerful outside hitter in the league. Her athletic prowess is remarkable, says Padjen, but there is more to her success than that.
"She has great perspective. Anything that you have to go above and beyond to grow from and then build it into a foundation, she has," he said. "It really is an extreme side of maturity."
That perspective, that maturity Member-Meneh has at 25 years old, comes from a life story that hasn't always been easy.
"Oh, we struggled. We struggled," she told IndyStar last month. "But struggling is never really struggling is what my dad says, 'Because we're blessed.'"
More than two decades ago as war raged in Nigeria, Member-Meneh's parents fled with their seven children to America.
"They fled here to the United States so that they could live, which is really intense and kind of scary when you think about it," Member-Meneh said. "But by the grace of God, we landed in America, and we were able to stay here as refugees."
Her family lived in a refugee camp until Christian Friends of New Americans in South City, St. Louis, stepped in to help. Her parents had their eighth and only American born child and named her Leketor, which means "everything around me is good, everything around me will be prosperous, like I'm going to live a good life," Member-Meneh says.
And she has.
"I didn't really feel like I was lesser than everyone. I was always taken care of. I never worried about where the next meal or anything was going to come from," she said. "But in terms of getting access to resources that were going to help me get to the next level, I didn't have that."
But she did have a family who loved her and all those older siblings who believed in her. Then she met a coach who changed everything.
The family had one car to share among eight kids so sometimes Member-Meneh found herself waiting around for a ride after school.
That was just fine with Member-Meneh, a fifth grader, who would go to the Lutheran High School South gym and watch her sister's volleyball practice. She was always trying to measure up to her older siblings.
"In America when you think of the youngest, you think of the spoiled child," she said. "But in Nigeria, we were kind of like, everybody else was together, and I was always trying to find a way to fit in with my older siblings."
One day, as she stood watching from the sidelines, her sister's coach Kim O'Leary came over to Member-Meneh and started talking. Then O'Leary started taking time out of practice to explain the game to her, the plays, the serves, the blocks.
"It was just like a person that showed a different kind of care for me that I'd never really experienced," she said, "outside of my parents."
Because of O'Leary, that relationship, Member-Meneh fell in love with volleyball long before she ever got a chance to step on the court.
"You know, when you don't have the world and then some, you have to figure out how are you going to get to where you want with what you've got," she said. "And that requires a lot of thinking. That requires a lot of reflection."
Once at Lutheran South -- the high school all the Member-Meneh siblings attended with the help of scholarships - she never took for granted the opportunity to be part of a team, part of something bigger than herself.
Member-Meneh pushed and she practiced, arriving early to the gym and staying late, and she pushed some more. As her senior season began, she and a teammate made a lofty goal. They were going to win the state championship, a feat that had never been done in the school's history.
"We called ourselves the 'Moose Herd.' And every day, when we got into practice, we knew we were going to win state," she said. "Every day when we got into a game, we're like, we can't just settle with beating teams. We have to try and blow these teams out."
In November 2016, Member-Meneh sat front and center in a Lutheran volleyball team photo holding the state championship trophy after posting a match-high 19 kills on .319 hitting and 10 digs. Lutheran finished the season 34-3 with Member-Meneh leading the region in kills (513), kills per set (7.1) and hitting percentage (.536).
Member-Meneh went on to play at Missouri then Pittsburgh, where she led the team to its first NCAA Final Four in school history. She was named MVP of the NCAA Regional All-Tournament Team and collegiate all-American.
"She is a competitor and there is no more dynamic an athlete than Lek. She is so physical," said Padjen. "And what I mean by physical, she's so fast. She jumps so high, and she hits the ball so hard. It's not just the offensive stuff; she passes well and she's a team leader."
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