Suffice to say, as a three-sport athlete, Newark’s Kiara Wesseh wears many hats.

A veritable jumping jack, the 5-foot-6 senior outside hitter is a multitasker who plays key roles for the Norsemen. She leads in kills and ranks second in digs and serve receives.

It’s not her main gig, but that doesn’t matter.

“I love volleyball so much,” Wesseh said. “I love hitting, getting to jump and hit, but I also love defense because they’re so completely different. It’s fun to do both. I really like that.”

What’s her vertical jump?

“I’m not really sure,” Wesseh said. “But I can reach 10-foot, 1-inch.”

Wesseh has small school powerhouse Newark (31-4) reaching goals again this season in volleyball. She’s complemented 274 kills with 202 digs and 271 serve receives.

The fact she’s the reigning Class 1A state high jump champion with a personal best of 5-7 also lends credence to her high-flyer status.

While Wesseh plays basketball as well, she confirmed track is her No. 1 sport.

“It’s for sure what I want to do in college,” she said.

Wesseh, who plans to compete in the seven-event heptathlon, has already made official visits to Michigan State and Ball State, with plans to check out Ohio State, Baylor and Indiana.

She wears many hats in track, too, winning three more medals last season at state by taking third in the 300-meter hurdles, fourth in the 100 hurdles and sixth in the 100.

Her experience in heptathlon — which includes the 100 hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200, long jump, javelin throw and 800 — has been limited to a few summer events.

Wesseh appears to come by her athletic talents naturally, even though her parents didn’t compete in track.

Her father, Doco, is a native of Liberia, a country on the west coast of Africa. He survived a civil war that started when he was in third grade. Helped by a missionary family, he eventually emigrated to the United States.

Doco was playing soccer and met his wife Allison, a volleyball player, when both were college students at Judson.

Kiara’s mother, who grew up in Lisbon, teaches grade school there. Her dad briefly played soccer professionally and now coaches the sport for a Chicago-based club program. He also does personal training and serves as president of the nonprofit One Goal Foundation.

P.J. McKinney, in his second year as Newark’s head coach after assisting former coach Tonya Grayson since 2009, teaches in Lisbon and introduced Wesseh to track when she was in fourth grade.

“I started with hurdles and tried high jump in fifth grade but hated it,” Wesseh said. “I’ve come a long way and love it now.”

She credits early work in high school with Dr. Jeff Schutt, whom she still sees for personal training, with much of her development.

Wesseh will continue to have a key role for Newark in the postseason, which opens Wednesday for the top-seeded Norsemen at the Class 1A Earlville Regional.

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The program has extended its streak of 30-win seasons to six, not counting the 2020 season lost to the pandemic, and is aiming for a sixth straight regional title.

“Teams focus on Kiara and serve to her to try to take her away from the offense,” McKinney said. “It’s one of the things you can do to try to slow one of a team’s key offensive players from getting into the flow.”

Wesseh and senior setter Lauren Ulrich both played on varsity as sophomores and made it to the supersectional.

Wesseh remembers well the exploits of Madi Malone leading the Norsemen downstate three straight years, taking fourth place and back-to-back state titles before being denied a bid for a three-peat by the pandemic.

“It was an interesting transition to high school,” Wesseh said. “We thought, ‘Oh yeah, our school always goes to state,’ coming into this program with such high expectations.”

The bar remains high.

“I think reaching state is totally possible,” Wesseh said. “We definitely have the potential.”

Originally Published: Oct 24, 2023 at 7:40 am