The year was 1983.   Return of the Jedi was released in theaters, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” topped the charts, and the Eastern Kentucky University women’s volleyball team was becoming a dominant force in the Ohio Valley Conference.   Dr. Geri Polvino had been leading EKU since 1966, and by the early 1980s, she had the program rolling. Prior to joining the OVC, the Colonels won three straight Kentucky Women’s Intercollegiate Conference (KWIC) state titles from 1971 to 1973. The 1973 team went 26-4, the best overall record of any team in EKU volleyball history.   By 1981, the Colonels had won their first-ever OVC Tournament title. In 1982, they repeated as champions.   To make this even more impressive, all of their success was coming without scholarships.   Scholarships for women first became available, as a result of Title IX, in 1973, but EKU first began offering volleyball scholarships to student-athletes in 1983. When that happened, Polvino’s first visit was to a basketball game in South Bend, Indiana. To watch a tall post player with an impressive vertical jump named Angela Boykins.

Before Polvino arrived, EKU’s volleyball teams were composed of the top intramural players at the school – glorified intramural All-Star Teams, if you will.   And they were good.   “Volleyball at EKU had a culture of winning way before I came here,” Polvino said. “I just expanded on it.   In order to expand on that culture, she first had to learn more about the sport.   Polvino is a data-driven learner. So she immediately set about consuming all the data she could about volleyball, and the athletes who played it.   “I thought: ‘If I’m going to do this sport, I need to learn more about it,’” Polvino said. “And I had to understand the young women who loved the sport.”   Polvino began attending volleyball clinics around the country.   Early in her career, she packed up her entire team and drove them from Richmond to Santa Barbara, California for a camp. To save money, they camped in tents along the way.   “It was an adventure,” Polvino said. “When I look back on the things we did, I think ‘how in the hell did we have the courage to do those things?’   “But that’s what I tried to instill in our players. Once we had established a winning culture at EKU, I asked myself ‘what’s this all about?’ For me, it became about giving young women the confidence that they could do anything they wanted to do. To go beyond winning.   “When I was growing up, as a woman, you either got married and had kids, or you became a secretary, or you became a teacher. There were very limited opportunities.   “Look how far we’ve come. Look how healthy it is for young women to play sports and be in that competitive environment, as they transition into business, and financing, and raising a family.”

By the fall of 1983, Boykins was the first scholarship volleyball player in EKU history.   She remembers loving the drive into Richmond, passing the horses and the white fences. She remembers living in Martin Hall and the homey feel of campus.   “The people at EKU just kind of made you feel welcome,” Boykins said. “They were over the moon being supportive of you and whatever you wanted to accomplish.”   The beginning of her volleyball career at EKU, however, wasn’t so rosy.   “When I first started, we were playing in a tournament, and we did not play well,” Boykins said. “And I was like ‘I think I want to go home. I don’t think I want to stay here.’ But I think we got past that.”   Past it, indeed.   A lot of winning took place after that inauspicious start.   Boykins was named the OVC Co-Player of the Year twice and she finished her career with 1,497 kills, 457 career block assists and 162 career block solos.   “She dominated the court,” Polvino said. “She was a big part of our success. She was a big part of our culture of winning. If you’re going to win, you have to have your best players – like Angela – show up and do those extraordinary things that are necessary to win, when the opportunity to win is there. Angela could do that. Not everybody could. But Angela could. And she could inspire her teammates.”   EKU won the OVC Tournament all four years that Boykins played.   “I would ask every team that won the OVC, at the end of the year, ‘what do you want to do?’” Polvino said. “They would always say ‘we want you to cook lasagna.’”   This response was clearly in jest, because Polvino did not know how to cook lasagna. In fact, she was such a poor cook … well, let’s not go into that.   “Eventually, I got a recipe book and taught myself how to cook lasagna,” she said. “The tradition was born, and we had a big lasagna dinner at my house.”

Boykins graduated from EKU with a degree in computer information systems in 1987. She earned an MBA from New Mexico State University and moved to Colorado in 1990. After working as a financial analyst for several years, Boykins realized a long-held dream of attending law school. She graduated from Ohio Northern University’s Claude W. Pettit College of Law in 1999.   While preparing for the bar exam, however, Boykins suffered kidney failure. It was a major setback that could have easily derailed her dreams. But Boykins stayed focused, and she credits a team of “very good doctors” for her recovery.   She was able to pass the bar exam and began practicing law back in Colorado in 2000. Ten years later, Boykins received a kidney transplant.   After more than 20 years of working in private practice, Boykins became a magistrate in 2021. In January of 2025, she was appointed a District Judge in Denver.   “I do believe it’s true, the saying that if you find the thing you love, you won’t work a day in your life,” Boykins said. “You get to do it. As a judge, I get an opportunity to make a difference in peoples’ lives. To change my community. To try to help as many people as I can during the course of my tenure. It’s a gift. It’s something that I was born to do.”