Somewhere in the great American southwest, there is an enchilada with Ashley Kelsey’s name on it.

Of course, volleyball and academics had their part in it for the Campbell volleyball standout. Kelsey will be on her way to the University of New Mexico next season, a scholarship in hand, along with an appetite for Mexican food.

Listed at 5 feet 11 — though she appears taller — and with the skills to play any position on the floor, the Campbell senior also has an unquenchable thirst for a championship. It could happen. The Sabers finished the regular season in second with a 7-2 mark and are in position to make the state tourney with a few wins in this week’s playoffs. Campbell, with a steady setter in senior Nicole Vaa, 6-2 middle blocker Abbigail Gifford and several fast-improving weapons, could be a sleeper. Kelsey, who loves studying history, but concedes she lives completely in the present, certainly hopes so.

HER DAD MAKES THE BEST enchiladas, she proclaimed. Steve Kelsey is a kitchen master who loves to test and experiment. His daughter is the test sampler. He feeds the mind and mom (Candy) nourishes the soul.

Just a few years back, life wasn’t so fun. Ashley’s birth parents couldn’t care for her. Ashley and her younger brother, Zachary, became wards of the state while she was in elementary school. She was bumped from one foster home to another, a seemingly unending trail of hope followed by heartbreak.

"My mom gave me up about the age of 6. I never knew really why I was in the places I was in," Kelsey said. "I’ve kind of moved on."

Zachary, she said, is back with their biological mother. Kelsey prefers staying right where she is. Last year, she was adopted by the Kelsey family.

Ever since she arrived in the Kelsey home around six years ago, it’s been all about church, family, volleyball and the academic grindstone. Ashley, once diagnosed with ADHD, became a voracious reader at Steve’s insistence. Aldous Huxley? No problem. "Old Yeller"? She read it in one day. The medication ended. The progress zoomed.

"She really blossomed in eighth grade," her dad said.

In fact, Kelsey, with her AP classes in history and English, and her 3.4 grade-point average, has one main goal outside of volleyball. She wants to return to Hawaii, namely Campbell, to become a teacher and coach one day.

Sam Delos Reyes grins from ear to ear when he hears this. The Campbell athletic director has been a strong proponent of the public-school system for decades as a teacher, football coach and administrator. He knows that many DOE employees send their children to private schools. He also knows that someone like Kelsey, who turned down an opportunity to attend a private school, is a gem.

"She’s worked really hard. Her parents have given her that opportunity and she’s made the best of that, playing club ball. She’s developed tremendously fast. I would wish she would come back and maybe be a leader in terms of education, maybe in the role of administrator," Delos Reyes said. "We’re proud of our student-athletes, of getting them academically prepared for the next level."

Volleyball wasn’t Kelsey’s first sport.

"There was a counselor who called me and said, ‘Hey, you have ‘Iolani looking at you, a whole bunch of people looking at you.’ My parents and I thought about it. I mean, what’s the difference? ‘Iolani is really good, but why I chose Campbell is I want to prove any girl anywhere doesn’t have to go to a big school to be the best. Just be you and you gotta represent your school well no matter what school you go to."

Not long after that — "She really doesn’t like running," Steve noted — he noticed that she had an affinity for volleyball. That led to a trip to town for a volleyball camp at UH. Then more clinics. More coaching. Her development was rapid.

"Volleyball is really what got me to where I am today. I’m thankful I found something to relieve the stress," she says now.

"She has grown a lot," her coach, Ale Iosefa, said. "Fundamentally, she’s very good. I know she can bang the ball, but her defense is what really stands out. She passes well. I know if she’s playing with an experienced group, she knows her spot. With our team, we tell her don’t worry about the others. She’s trying to do a lot of stuff."

IN THE PAST YEAR, with all the work with college-level coaches at those camps, plus her involvement with ‘Imi ‘Ike Volleyball Club three to four times per week in the offseason, the motor started humming. Offers started pouring in from as far away as Rutgers and Xavier. But it was a visit to Albuquerque, N.M., — she likes their educational program — that set her future path as she committed to the Lobos.

How can a few years turn a lost child into a future leader?

"She’s like an older sister because she pushes me in everything," said Tayln Samuelu, a junior teammate.

"School, volleyball, she guides me in everything. She’s very strong-minded, which is a good thing because we all need that. We need that mind-set," Samuelu said.

"When I first met her, it was just fun times, but when it’s time to work, it’s time to work and it rubs off on me. It makes me want to be the person she is, strong and humble. She really has a future ahead of her."