STILL WORTH WATCHING : Five Years Later, These Athletes Are Fulfilling Their Early Promise : Dana Burkholder

Burkholder has learned about a new place and a different sport in the past five years, but she has not forgotten how to win.

Burkholder won four national age-group titles in track and cross-country by the time she was a fifth-grader at Newhart Elementary in Mission Viejo in 1991.

Since then, she has moved with her family to Bakersfield and has devoted her time to volleyball. Burkholder, 15, started at setter for the Bakersfield High varsity girls’ volleyball team this season. She led the Drillers to the Southeast Yosemite League title and the second round of the Central Section Division I playoffs.

Burkholder was selected the team’s most valuable player and also was an all-league first-team selection. She also is in her third season playing with the Kern River volleyball club.

“I love running, but volleyball is more fun and intense and competitive and team- oriented,” she said.

Burkholder said her older sister, Beth, influenced her to try volleyball. Beth played volleyball at Capistrano Valley in 1990 as a freshman before playing for Bakersfield Stockdale in 1991 and ’92 and returning to Capistrano Valley for her senior season in ’93. Burkholder’s other sister, Joy, was a diver at Mission Viejo High before graduating in 1992.

Burkholder slowed her running regimen when she was in seventh grade at Bakersfield Tevis Junior High because of back pain, but she has not completely forsaken the sport.

At the request of Bakersfield cross-country Coach Bob Coons, Burkholder jumped into a couple of races this fall. Even though she hadn’t seriously trained, she placed 13th in the Kern Invitational in October to help the Drillers to their first team victory of the season. She also placed 17th overall at the Central Section Division I race in November.

“I have wanted to get back into running for a while but I hadn’t had the opportunity,” she said. “So, I ran [in cross-country] and now I’m going to do track and see how that goes.”