Rio Rancho High School junior varsity volleyball coach Ken Carpenter says he's a laidback, low-key, "vanilla" kind of guy.

If that's the case, who needs spumoni or Neapolitan when the team wins all 17 of its matches?

"I'm as vanilla as they come," Carpenter said. That's what happened with his team last season. This fall, most of those players will be promoted to the varsity, which will be out to defend its Class 5A state titles won in 2005 and 2006 - and with championships in four of the last five seasons.

Varsity coach Toby Manzanares never shirks from spreading the credit for his team's success, whether it's to varsity assistant Huu Vu, to Carpenter, or any of the coaches at the Mid-High and middle schools.

Here in the City of Vision, the love for this court sport starts with the little girls who dream of making a key dig in game 5 of the state championship match, or serving up an ace for the district title.

They were in the gym in force last week, when Manzanares, Vu and Carpenter had more than 100 kids learning essential skills.

Once they've learned the skills, someone needs to take them and hone them, get six girls to work together on the floor, and learning what it takes to win.

And that's where Carpenter excels.

"Gosh, he has been a staple in our program for the last nine years," Manzanares said. "When you're look at loyalty and continuity from within, Ken Carpenter is the epitome.

"Our kids have grown up with Ken Carpenter, graduated to eighth-grade at the Mid-High, to the ninth-grade for one year, and at the JV level right now," Manzanares said. "He works well with kids, relates well to kids. He's a good friend - one of my best friends - and a fine coach in developing kids for the varsity level."

Of course, when a team wins all 17 of its matches, there must be a pretty good dynamic in place.

After the JV match, Carpenter is back on the bench to assist Manzanares.

"During the varsity matches, I look at the other team's serve-receive and how well they can do it, and I look at our serving. I just think we can get so many points from our serve/receive. Toby doesn't have to concentrate on that," he said. "He's the master motivator."

In spite of growing up in basketball-crazy Indiana, Carpenter played only one season of the sport in high school. The Hoosier State had some varsity boys volleyball teams, but none at his school, so he had to be content playing in a church league.

His girlfriend at the time played, so he'd go to the gym to watch her matches.

His initial interest in the fast-paced sport changed when he headed to Eastern New Mexico University, a long drive from Indiana but not far from his grandparents, who had returned and moved to T or C.

Carpenter's brother was the first family member to attend ENMU, and he encouraged Ken to go there, too.

"They offered me a scholarship for band," the former tuba player said.

As for volleyball, he said, "I played in intramural coed leagues."

Later, Carpenter joined the Navy and played on a military team. "I was on a boat my last three years; the first three years was all school, so when I was in school I had plenty of time to play.

"I learned (about the) nuclear industry in the Navy," he said, and he now teaches courses in a nuclear lab at the University of New Mexico. "I make sure they perform those experiments to do their lab work safely. It's a small nuclear lab; I supervise that it's done correctly."

After his discharge from the Navy, Carpenter returned to New Mexico and moved in with his brother, by then living in Albuquerque. Carpenter married an ENMU coed in December 1985; Peggy Carpenter attends some Rams matches but keeps a low profile.

The couple has two sons: Steven, a member of the RRHS Class of 2007, who's enrolled at UNM, and Alex, a junior at RRHS.

What brought the Carpenters to Rio Rancho? (They reside in River's Edge 2.)

"I was coaching an Albuquerque club (volleyball) team," he said, recalling standouts Jeanne Fairchild and Gayle Tripp, now playing at UNM, had been on that U-12 team. "The regionals were in Albuquerque, and the U-12s were held at Rio Rancho High School. (Former St. Pius X) coach Holly Olson suggested talking to Toby 'because he needs coaches.'

Manzanares did need coaches, the two worked some summer camps together, and a bond began.

"I had been coaching seventh grade at Sandia Prep before the Albuquerque club coaching," he said, familiar with coaching in a school setting.

Carpenter's first volleyball job in Rio Rancho was a three-year stint at Mountain View Middle School; from there, he went to the Mid-High for two years, coaching the freshman team for a season. The past two years, he's been in charge of the JV.

He had immediate success at MVMS, thanks to his "recruiting" technique, namely setting up a "volleyball table" soliciting potential volleyball players and handing out information packets near the registration desk.

"There was a big group that I recruited as seventh graders: Colleen Connelly, Susie Roberson, Farrah Harrington, Tricia Barress ... When the first week of school came, I had 60-70 kids trying out for our team. Based on sheer numbers, we ended up with some good kids"

Carpenter was asked what it is that he likes about volleyball.

"It's just of those sports when you're playing, you hook onto it - it's something I've never looked back on," he said, excited to have been a part of the two latest state championship teams.

"We look at each other and say we won again," he said.

So, it seems, whatever Carpenter is doing at the JV level soon leads to varsity success.

Hopefully, that will be the case this fall - Manzanares had 10 seniors on last fall's title team.

Some of the top 2006 JV players, he said, were Sarah Koch, who saw some varsity action and "played pretty much every minute of every JV game last year," who is an outside hitter; outside hitters Vanessa Leal and Kirsten Steele; setter and defensive specialist Jocelyn Hamilton; middle blocker Madison Rhoades; defensive specialist Cassy Schaffer, the lone freshman on last year's JV squad; and libero Jackie Rodriguez.

Manzanares will have just three seniors on this year's varsity - Koch, Kayla Hammond and Ashley Rhoades - and so you'll probably be hearing a lot more about the underclassmen in 2008, although Carpenter fears a logjam of talent.

Plus, Carpenter said, "Our JV will be strong this year - we finished third in the New Mexico Games' silver bracket this summer. They got used to my coaching at that point. And at the UNM Cherry-Silver team camp, our team coached by Huu Vu did pretty well.

"The heartaches will be next year when we have so many JV kids from this year's team and we're only graduating from this year," he said.

During matches, Carpenter explained, "I'm not a yeller; I'm fairly quiet, I'm pretty direct with them. I tell them what we expect them to do.

"If they don't do it, there's bench time," he said. "We have quality kids - if they're not performing well, I can pull a kid off and put in someone else - and there's not a decrease in play at all."

Carpenter is content to be an assistant; his full-time job at UNM probably keeps him from being able to commit to a varsity job.

And, he's more than happy to be among friends here.

"If Toby leaves, I don't know that I'd coach anymore," he said. "Huu and I? Neither one of us wants to be a head coach. As far as other schools, I'm not interested in a head coaching job - and I haven't really looked, either. About two years ago, I was offered an assistant job at UNM."