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Nancy Rodriguez wanted to play volleyball. She was good at it — in fact, her coaches thought she was a phenomenal athlete — but Rodriguez wasn’t showing up for practice.

Turns out Rodriguez was in the middle of a farming field in Arvin helping her family make a living.

Rodriguez was a setter for the Bakersfield Starlings Volleyball Club, a local, non-profit group which targets young girls just like Rodriguez — girls who want to play volleyball but can’t afford the fees other club teams charge.

“We needed her to come out to practice,” said Brianna Moore, Rodriguez’s coach. “She was out there in the field and didn’t have a way to get to the gym. ”

Frustrated, Moore contacted Johnitta Hodge, the Bakersfield Starling’s director. Hodge’s advice was simple: “Drive out there and get her.”

And so Moore did.

“I’d meet her on the edge of the field, and we’d go to practice,” Moore said. “It was a culture shock to me. It was very humbling to see how hard these girls have to work.”

Rodriguez’s story mirrors that of many of the young girls who play on Starling teams. Most of the club’s 135 members are from rural, low-income farming communities.

According to Hodge, who founded the Bakersfield Starlings in 2004 with Jim Greer, many girls from these rural areas face high risk situations such as high drop out rates, failing test scores, teen pregnancies and drug and gang problems.

“Our goal is to reduce and eventually stop this growing trend by offering a program that encourages confidence and provides opportunities for young women from an early age, before negative influences can have a full affect,” Hodge said.

For Rodriguez, being involved with the Starlings did just that — and more.

Rodriguez just completed her freshman year at Feather River College in Northern California and made All-Conference in volleyball, helping her school finish in the Top 20 for junior colleges.

The Bakersfield Starlings is an off-shoot of Starlings Volleyball Clubs USA, the largest junior volleyball club in the nation.

Besides learning their way around the volleyball net, Starling girls learn about life.

“Sports mirror life,” said Hodge, whose own daughter, Jasmin Dawsey is a Starling.

“You have to learn the value of hard work, cooperation, dedication, resolution, goal setting, submission, leadership, control, discipline — I could go on forever.”

“Having life tools is very empowering.”

About one-third of the program’s members are from the Lamont-Arvin area. According to Hodge, a retired peace officer and former volleyball and basketball coach, every high school senior in the program has graduated and is currently in college or college bound. Eight Starlings girls graduated in May — three from Arvin High — all are on their way to college.

“(The program) keeps us out of trouble,” said Grisel Gallardo, 17. The Arvin High senior class president will join her friend, Kristi Grigsby, also of AHS, this fall at UC Riverside.

In addition to practices, the girls are asked to keep raising their grade point averages and are required to participate in a national literacy and art contest. Last year, the Bakersfield group brought home a number of awards, including cash prizes.

The Bakersfield Starlings have both junior and senior teams. The girls range in age from seven to 18. Girls pay a fee of between $100 and $600 each, depending on the team. However, membership is not based on an athlete’s ability to pay. The girls are provided fundraising opportunities to help pay their dues.

Local schools provide gym facilities at reduced rates and local and national sponsors help with equipment and uniforms.

“This program is a blessing because it gives me tangible recourses to reach more kids,” Hodge said. “We just got a grant to put our Junior Starlings programs in schools to replace lost after-school programs.”

Junior Starlings are non-traveling teams who meet twice a week, competing locally with other clubs. Practices are divided into learning the sport’s fundamentals and doing their homework.

Traveling teams participate in SCVA tournaments as well as the Starling National Tournament held in San Diego.

Bakersfield Starlings also give back to the community, donating their time to projects such as Special Olympics, Clean-up America and Habitat for Humanity.

“We learn together from our experiences,” Hodge said. “Some of the lessons are hard to take, but that’s life, too.”

— To learn more about Bakersfield Starlings or to make a donation, visit the club’s Web site at: www.bakersfieldstarlings.org.