I first began playing beach volleyball my freshman year of high school. I didn’t like it at first as I had come from indoor where there was air conditioning and I was more natural at the sport. I had an extremely aggressive coach who often played favorites, and this put a negative view of beach volleyball in my mind. My partner at the time(a junior who was playing club beach) asked me to play a pickup tournament with her, and after reluctantly doing that I fell in love. Once all of the circumstantial negativity fell away, beach volleyball was all of the parts of indoor I loved but accentuated. I have a passion for strategy and planning before games, so getting to touch the ball every time it came over the net and prioritizing placement over power made it a perfect fit for me. I’m so glad to have found beach when I did, because it also levels the playing field for smaller athletes. I was just beginning the indoor volleyball recruiting process when I began playing beach, and being told I was too short to play at a high level was something I was hearing everywhere. Although I am 5’10, I am extremely small for a division 1 indoor hitter, and this was very discouraging to my younger self. I was always very clever about ball placement, even if I didn’t have the biggest block, so beach gave me the opportunity to hit and play defense. I joined Optimum Beach club last year (2023), which involved a lot more traveling for tournaments and enabled me to meet new partners. This helped me play with girls who were already committed, and reinforced the idea that this is what I wanted to do as well. I love traveling, so getting to go to new places like California to compete against more challenging opponents is a dream. I have continued to play indoor volleyball but with a major focus on beach. I just recently committed to playing division 1 beach volleyball at Austin Peay State University, and I either plan to study communications or sports management. I have always had a huge passion for helping others learn new techniques, and analyzing film and strategy. Because of this, my dream job is to coach college volleyball, but it is still something I am still considering because of its being an inconsistent career. Studying film is something that comes naturally to me, and on my high school team I am often in charge of helping my coach with scouting reports. My future college coach, Coach Hobson, is very similar to me in that way, and I’m hoping he will be able to connect me with coaching positions in the future. I want to help other girls discover that beach volleyball is the game of the future, and for undersized indoor players like me there is a way to show your skill without being the biggest one on the court.