Remember when Alisha Glass was an attentive volleyball team manager, belly-high to high school players and her always-attentive mother, Laurie?

Ms. Glass, a Leland and Penn State graduate, has moved from Leland to a big stage, and been up to the task. The Leland and Penn State graduate has been named an alternate to the U.S. Olympic volleyball team, just missing a back row view — she’s a setter, after all — of the team’s search for a gold medal in the United Kingdom starting next week.

While Alisha may be disappointed at being named an alternate, we’re not. She’s relatively young for an Olympic volleyball player, and with perseverance has a good chance of making the first team in 2016.

Whether or not she becomes Leelanau’s first Olympic athlete, we remember Alisha for her lightning spikes, unreserved smile and humble beginnings. Home-town fans are like that.