Northside’s Scheffler continuing volleyball career at Sandhills Community College

Published 1:17 am Thursday, January 16, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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Madison Scheffler knew if she wanted to continue her volleyball career past high school, she would have to do some extra work to get noticed.

Within a month, her dream came true. The Northside High School senior will play for Sandhills Community College starting this fall. After playing volleyball and basketball plus being part of the school’s first-ever flag football team — which won its league title last December — the senior is ready to do what it takes to make volleyball her main focus along with studying to one day be an athletic director and coach.

She’s also following in the footsteps of her mother, Andrea, who played college volleyball at Mid-Atlantic Christian University in Elizabeth City.

“It’s a big deal to me,” Scheffler said. “It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years now. I know my mom, she played for a year or two in college, so that kind of got me to start playing volleyball in about fifth grade. And I just ended up loving it.”

She wasn’t able to play travel volleyball due to the expenses. So, she did everything else she could to make her volleyball ready. That included practicing by herself and working on hitting and footwork.

She got the chance to go to two showcases to show off her skills. In November, she attended one in Greensboro. It was there that she caught the eye of a few colleges, including Sandhills. She got an offer and, after taking her mother’s advice to think it over for three days, she chose the school.

“I didn’t expect that at all,” Scheffler said. “And they were the first ones to come up to me and kind of taught me about it. And then, at first, I was actually like, the one thing I knew I wasn’t going to do was go to community college because I’ve already taken a lot of college classes.

“I decided to just take a look at the school. And then I ended up loving it. Like, they and the strength and conditioning coach, like, they’re all amazing. They’re very genuine people. And, like, their volleyball team this past year for their level, they were sixth in the country.

“It made me feel like all my hard work finally paid off after years.”

Sandhills finished sixth nationally last season, advancing to the National Junior College Athletic Association championship double-elimination tournament. They went 2-2 in the double-elimination event to finish 37-7.

“Madison attended some camps that (assistant) coach Holly (Mandeville) was running and she caught her attention, and so we got her down on campus,” coach Alicia Riggon said. “She had a great visit, we love her athleticism, her way of being a good teammate, the way she interacts with new people, that’s kind of what college is going to be like.

“We just kind of felt like she’d be a great fit for our program, especially on the front line with hitting and blocking. I mean, she’s a force to be reckoned with, so we’re really excited. She’ll be a great addition to our program.”

Northside volleyball coach Michelle Leathers is happy to see all of Madison’s hard work on and off the court pay off and knows she’ll stay committed to it.

“I told her that she needed to go to some camps and get herself out there because things are different now,” Leathers said. “A lot of coaches don’t have the time to come and watch you all the time.

“I think when you get on the college level, in the springtime, even if you think you got off time, it’s still going to be working. Still going to probably have a weight training program. Still got to work on certain skills that I probably wasn’t able to teach.

“I’m just happy for her because she’s happy. This is something she always wanted to do.”

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