Howell keeps Mission close to home

When Jackie Howell thinks about volleyball, she thinks about her mother. After all, it was her mother, Sonia Treviño, who introduced her to the sport at a young age.

Howell comes from a volleyball family, with Treviño and three of her sisters playing at the collegiate level. Volleyball was never forced but always encouraged, and for Howell, it was a natural fit thanks to her mother.

"When I think of growing up and what makes my childhood so special, it's my family, where I'm from and volleyball.

"Really, all three of those are kind of intertwined into one."

From Mission, Texas, where Howell grew up, you can see Mexico. Located just minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border, Howell and her family would often cross into Mexico, be it for shopping, their favorite restaurants or visiting.

In many ways, traveling to Mexico was like driving across town for many people.

When Howell tells people where she grew up, she's used to a concerned look on their faces. She is regularly asked questions about safety and violence, but she says it's not as bad as many assume.

Howell likes that Mission is close to Mexico, and her Hispanic heritage. She appreciates the pride there is for athletics, and the successful athletes who have come out of the area. Mostly, though, she loves that home is where he family is, with her aunts and cousins all living in the same neighborhood, literally steps away from each other.

To Howell, Mission is home, and she's proud to be part of the Rio Grande Valley.

"Our small town doesn't have a lot of crime and we have everything we need," she said. "People assume the worst, and there are some bad things that happen, but there are bad things everywhere."

Jackie Howell with Mom

For Treviño, Howell's mother, volleyball was her ticket out of Mission – at least temporarily. She began her collegiate career at a junior college, before finding a Division-I opportunity at Florida State and running with it. During her two-year career in Tallahassee, the Seminoles went 58-13, winning a pair of conference titles and advancing to the NCAA tournament both seasons. Treviño, an outside hitter, averaged more than 2.0 kills per set as a senior in 1989, in addition to a team-best 4.13 digs-per-set average, while being named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team.

She then returned to Mission, where she opened her own chiropractic business, raised a family and was recently elected to serve as justice of the peace.

Now it's Howell's turn to follow in her mother's footsteps.

She also took a similar path, playing her first two years at a junior college – Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas – before getting her Division-I opportunity. Howell signed a National Letter of Intent to play volleyball for Montana this spring and moved to Missoula earlier this month.

The goal now is to not only make it to the Division-I level, but to thrive while there.

"People, a lot of times, have a doubt in you when you go to a junior college, but I think it was the best route for me, making me better and stronger," Howell said. "It hadn't fully clicked until I had my first open gym. I was looking around, looking at the gym and the girls I was playing with. That's when I realized that I'm in the spot I would look up to when I was younger. Now I'm the Division-I player I always strived to be, and now it's up to me to prove I deserve to be here."

Howell began her collegiate career at Tyler Junior College, where she graduated summa cum laude with an associate degree in business administration. She was twice named to her school's dean's and president's lists, and on the court was a Region XIV all-conference outside hitter, earning All-America honorable mention honors.

After ranking third on her team for kills as a freshman in 2019, Howell became the Apaches' go-to attacker during her sophomore season, averaging 3.58 kills per set (first), in addition to 2.48 digs per set (third).

Entering the Region XIV tournament as the No. 3 seed in April, Howell had 12 kills on .423 hitting in a three-set win over No. 6 Coastal Bend, before nine more in a sweep over No. 2 Navarro. Then, going up against perennial power Blinn College in the regional final, Howell recorded a double-double with 14 kills and 18 digs, plus three aces, in a 3-1 upset win to capture a regional title and advance to nationals.

Behind 14 kills from Howell, Tyler earned a three-set win over Northeastern in the opening round of the NJCAA tournament, before knocking off the nation's No. 2 team in Odessa, with Howell totaling 14 kills and 19 digs, to advance to the national semifinals.

"I was watching her matches online, and just kind of became a giant fan of Jackie and her program," Montana head coach Allison Lawrence said. "I'm seeing her in the exact environment I want to see her in here – high-pressure situations where she's getting the ball on match point, and she has to make a big play.

"She does this again and again and again, every round. The passion that she showed, the competitiveness and the leadership… it was all right there."

The communication between Howell and the Griz coaching staff began in late March. Montana was looking to fill a few holes with veteran players, while Howell was looking for her next destination.

Howell was hesitant, at first, but that didn't last long.

"I'm from so far south, I'm not aware of a lot of the schools up this way," she said. "But the more I started looking into Montana, I was like, 'Wow, I could really see myself there.'"

The truth is, both sides were sold on each other early on in the process.

For Lawrence, once she watched Howell's film, she knew she wanted to get to know the athlete more and see if there was a connection. There was, right away.

For Howell, there was a link from the first phone call.

"I fell in love with it instantly," she recalled. "Even if Missoula wasn't as beautiful as it is, and the town wasn't as great as it is, I still think this would be my place because I made a really great connection with the coaches right off the bat, and I feel like that's rare."

The connection was so strong, Howell said, that she was almost ready to commit from the get-go.

"From that first phone call, I was pretty much ready, but I had to slow myself down," Howell said. "I had to hold myself back and not get ahead of myself."

So Howell continued to do her research while talking with other coaches who presented various Division-I opportunities.

But she kept coming back to Montana.

Jackie Howell signing

"Every time I talked with another coach, or I was a little bit unsure, I'd have a phone call with Coach Allison and Dana (Hallisey) and I couldn't see myself going anywhere else."

Similarly, Lawrence liked what she saw and heard early on, but the final piece for her was a phone call between regionals and nationals.

"There was this one phone call, and the way that she talked about herself as a competitor, that was the last piece I wanted to know," Lawrence said. "She's competitive in the way that we want her to be here, and she's willing to push and do really hard things for her teammates in order to build greatness. Where our program is at, it's a great fit for her, and she has the personality that's tough enough to see it through."

Listed at 5-9, Howell is undersized for an outside hitter. But what she lacks in height, she makes up for in her explosiveness, with Lawrence noting her jumping ability being the first thing that stood out to her on film. She'll be listed as a junior this fall, with immediate eligibility and the opportunity to compete for playing time right away.

As for leaving home, it was hard to move so far away from something so close to her heart. She had never before been to Montana, and even though Tyler Junior College was nine hours away from Mission (Texas is a big state), her mother made the drive to nearly every match – even driving back through the night several times to make it back for work the next morning.

It won't be as easy this time around, with Mission to Missoula being a 30-hour drive, but Treviño is already making plans for trips to Missoula when she can.

And while Howell will be far from home, the bond she has to it – both her family and the city – is what motivates her even more.

"My mom is such an inspiration," Howell said. "She excelled at Florida State and then became a doctor. She owned her own chiropractic business and is now a judge. She knows how to do so many things and doesn't depend on anybody to do work for her.

"I always admired that she left and then she went back home and became successful where she grew up."

Howell likes that Montana provides her a new opportunity, not just to play Division-I volleyball and earn a degree in business marketing, but to travel and see more of the world. She could see herself moving back to Mission after college, but she also likes the idea of continuing to explore.

But no matter what, she will always remember where she came from.

"Mission is home. My family is home," Howell said. "Wherever I go, I want to keep all my ties to Mission, so even though I'll be playing far from home, I'll be representing it from Montana."

University of Montana Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Jackie Howell

Related Videos