Game Off Court Isn’t Nearly as Much Fun

Sometimes I think I was put on this earth to play volleyball. I know I got recognition when I was younger for playing soccer and right now at Marina High for playing basketball, but volleyball is a passion I have had for the last nine years.

It is my escape from the real world, my way of expressing myself, and it has become my life. From the moment I played my first match when I was 8 years old, I knew I wanted to play volleyball in college. I wanted that so-called “prize” we call a scholarship.

I never thought loving something so much could bring so much pain, but the recruiting process was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with.

It started out great with all the letters pouring in from all over the country. For a while I was thinking that my biggest problem was going to be which college I was going to choose, not which college was going to choose me.

But I slowly learned that some coaches passed on me because I was only 5-foot-10.

My dad told callers that I was “exploring my options,” so I told anyone who called to come for a home visit. I wanted to know all about these schools from all over the country that were writing to me.

I got advice from coaches and older players, including a neighbor who played college basketball on a scholarship. They said to take my trips, so I began to think of which five schools I wanted to visit. But several of them, like Ohio State, canceled on me first because they got a commitment from someone closer to home.

There was a lot of pressure to make a commitment early, even before I took my trips. By September I hadn’t completed my trips yet and most everyone else had made commitments already, some at schools I was interested in.

When I came back from my visit to Indiana, I was so tired and stressed I came down with mononucleosis.

I always wanted to go to a top program, but as high school basketball season began, I was still looking for the right place. The search began to consume my life. I lost a lot of confidence in myself. It was affecting me in basketball and club volleyball.

In mid-December I took a trip to Arkansas. I could tell they wanted me bad. Coach Chris Poole pretty much guaranteed me a starting position as a freshman. I really liked it there. The facilities were great, the players were nice. They wanted me too.

After a club volleyball tournament on New Year’s weekend a bunch more schools called the house, but none really interested me. My club volleyball coach, Charlie Brande, suggested UC Santa Barbara, so I took a trip there. But Santa Barbara needed a middle blocker more than an opposite like me.

I wasn’t going to wait any longer to make a decision. When I called Coach Poole I knew by the way he acted that I had made the right decision.

Going through this process has only made me a stronger person. I have realized that you can teach someone to jump higher and you can teach someone to hit, but you can’t teach someone to love the game like I do, play with the desire I have, and you can’t teach someone to want to win like I do.

However, I’ll never understand how this recruiting process came to be in the first place.