High School Volleyball

As I slid the Miami uniform on over my head and laced up my shoes, I couldn’t help but to observe all of the commotion going on around me. Excitement was in the air as we prepared for our first home game. I was surrounded by all of my amazing, talented teammates who I’ve grown within the past three months, and we all shared in each other’s excitement, running around the locker room, dancing and singing and laughing. I looked at my name engraved in the plate above my locker, and I glanced to the right where all of the volleyball records were posted. There, I saw my mom’s name written high on the leaderboard, and in seeing this, I couldn’t help but to think back to where this all began…

I was born into a volleyball family. My dad had played volleyball

In high school, I was a starter on our varsity team as a freshman. By this time, I had grown into a very capable player who everyone expected to play in college. In my four years there, I had been in two state final-fours, was captain for three years, and won many awards for my skill. But those awards and titles don’t mean anything, what I really took out of my high school volleyball experience was mental toughness and how I learned to push myself, even if those around me aren’t. One of my coaches, Ken Fehrman, shaped me immensely during this time. He was tough, but never hurtful (well other than this one time when he drilled me in the face with a ball) and was constantly trying to improve my mental and physical game. I will admit, he was frustrating at times, but I appreciate him so much for it. After my last high school volleyball game, I remember talking to him for quite a while after, both of us in tears. Not only did I thank him for making me a better player, he thanked me for pushing him as well. He told me how much he struggled on a daily basis to find ways to push me and make me better, because I had this tenacity and intensity and drive that he has never seen before. He laughed and recalled how he was so frustrated that he could never get a kill off of me during a drill, because I’d somehow find a way to get the ball up every time, and when I stood back up I

Looking back on it now, my seven years of club volleyball were some of the best of my life. Here is where I met some of my best friends, who are all still by my side to this day. There was nothing better than travelling across the country to big cities and playing the sport we loved with the people we loved. My extremely talented teammates and I pushed each other on a daily basis to become better, and the competition, whether in practice or a tournament, was insane. We constantly had to fight and push ourselves to new levels in order to excel in these environments, which skyrocketed each and every person’s play to the highest caliber. Through my positive experiences with my team and coaches in this club, I fell in love with volleyball, and I knew I couldn’t live without it. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a college volleyball player.

The recruitment process was hectic, and my mom luckily handled most of the emails and letters that I would receive. Beginning my freshman year, I already had many schools that were either highly interested in me or had offered me a scholarship. All along though, there was one school in the back of my mind that just kept calling my name,