Utah's FIRST Beach Only high school athlete

It’s been a long time since I sat down to write in my blog.  A lot has happened in the last few months.

After months from being excluded by the high school volleyball players at my school, I was ecstatic to be going back to my indoor club (Club GSL) and get back on the court. About a week before club tryouts an amazing opportunity came to me. I could be the first ever high school “beach only” volleyball player in the state of Utah. Since beach volleyball is still growing in Utah, not a lot of people play beach. One of my friends, Sammee Thomas, had set the tracks for a beach volleyball player from Utah by playing the summers in California and bringing her teammates to the Golden State. Sammee is one the first Utah athletes to play beach at the collegiate level. So everytime we go out to California we make sure to get in touch with her or her dad to keep them updated and to make sure we visit them.

Over the UEA school break in October I got the birthday present of playing beach volleyball at the Get Noticed tournament in Santa Monica. I played with my friend Grace who also plays for GSL and Wasatch Beach. Grace is a great player but since she graduates in 2019 we had to play up in U18. 

I'm wearing black shorts& white Tshirt

For our first GNBV tournament I think we did well, but there’s always room for improvement. Luckily, I get the chance to improve my beach a lot this year.

It was a difficult choice but I have decided not to play indoor volleyball and to go “beach only” this year. In Utah, the land of the greatest snow on earth, we have never had the option to play beach volleyball year round, until now: SandBar is a new facility that is opening on the 18th of December. It holds six sand courts inside and four outside. This will allow me to play year round. But because there are no other high school athletes playing beach volleyball year round and most volleyball athletes in are playing indoor club, I will have play Women's League during the winter. Leaving GSL is so hard to do but I know that it was for the best. So this year I am going to be playing adult leagues to practice and hopefully bring my coaches from California here to Utah  to work with me. And instead of going to out of state Indoor Volleyball Qualifiers, my time will be spent traveling to California monthly for training over the winter and beach tourneys as soon as they start in the spring.  I’m super excited for this because not only do I get to play beach year round, but I get to visit California more.

Last time I went to California was during Thanksgiving break. There I practiced with LMU coach, John Mayer. We focused a lot of serving and setting which I thought was very helpful.

I usually train with Rick Reeve at Beach Elite when I am in California but during this trip he was in UTAH(!) while I was in California.  So the next day I practiced with Sand Soul. I loved every part about that clinic from the drills, to the workouts, to the players and coaches.

There are only a handful of beach volleyball players in Utah so we are like one big family. The Utah Volleyball Awards is chance for all of us to see each other after beach season. This was the second year they had the award ceremony and the second year I’ve been awarded for “Utah Outstanding Performance in Beach Volleyball”.

These last few months have given me so many new opportunities that I’m so excited about!  I can’t wait to develop my skill, work hard, play tournaments, WIN!, and continue the process of finding a collegiate program that works well for me. And even though we have snow on the ground I still find every chance I can to get on the sand courts- even if it is with the adults. 😀

Far side in turquoise top/black leggings

Keep it sandy~
Brie

** UPDATE:  Wasatch Beach just posted the Women's A rankings for the summer of 2017 and I ranked 12 out of 57!  My first summer playing Women's League.  So much fun!

Click here to see the Wasatch Beach Women's A ranking