[Columbia, MO]
Ever since she started playing volleyball in elementary school, Sarah Schwentker has been climbing a ladder of athletic goals with each season.
By the end of November, however, she may not have any higher to reach.
Schwentker and her Columbia College Cougars teammates are 29-1 through Oct. 22, and are making a run for an NAIA National Championship at the end of the month.
“I’m waiting for my best volleyball memory to be winning nationals this year,” Schwentker said, “I’ve never been to nationals, so that’s a big goal for me.”
Schwentker is a sophomore outside hitter in her first season with the Cougars. She played at East Central Community College in Union, Mo. last season.
Her volleyball career began in fifth grade, on the elementary school intramural team. The next year she began playing on an elite traveling club team, and continued playing club through high school.
Despite all the hours of hard work in the gym, Schwentker struggled throughout high school with the obstacle of never “playing up.”
“Going through high school, I played on the freshman team my first year, the JV team my second year, and went to the varsity team my junior and senior year,” Schwentker said, “So I never played up, but I always made the team I was supposed to. It just made me play to the level I needed to.”
These challenges tested her drive, but she kept working to get better in an attempt to catch the attention of her coaches.
Schwentker says that playing for club teams, such as the Rockwood Thunder, really helped her to improve her game. By the time her senior year rolled around, her coaches weren’t the only ones who noticed her.
Brad Bruns, the former head volleyball coach at East Central Community College, recruited Schwentker in high school, as well as helped out with coaching her club team, and became one of her biggest role models in the process.
She signed to play with East Central for her freshman year, but Bruns resigned as head coach before the season started, leading to an unexpected coaching change.
Schwentker said that under the new coach, and the new game plan, the team didn’t perform as well as it hoped. But there were other factors that influenced her decision to leave East Central.
“At East Central, I always knew I was going to start, but here I never know,” Schwentker said,
“It just depends on my warm up; it depends on how I’ve been practicing. It’s been a big change, but a good change. It pushes me a lot.”
A huge shift in the academic workload was another factor that Schwentker dealt with upon transferring schools. After breezing through her first year at East Central with a 4.0 GPA, she said that classes at Columbia College are much more difficult. A switch in majors might have factored into this.
“I was graphic design, and I changed it to sports management. It’s a bunch of business classes first, and I’ve never taken business classes before. So it’s a lot harder than expected,” Schwentker said, “It seems like all the teachers schedule the tests on the same week. So it is hard, but time management is a huge thing.”
Schwentker has accepted the new challenges she was faced with. She said that almost any time she isn’t playing volleyball or sitting in class, she’s studying or doing homework, another indication of her dedicated work ethic on and off the court.
Even her teammates, including junior outside hitter Trinity Ojo, have noticed Schwentker’s hard work in the classroom.
“Off the court, I think one of her best qualities is her diligence in her academics, as well as her willingness to help her teammates,” said Ojo.
Personal goals are one of the main factors in Schwentker’s drive to succeed. Apart from winning a national championship, her main goal for the remainder of the season is to become the starting outside hitter, and also play at every position on the floor. She has spent most of her minutes so far in the back row, because of her talent for serving.
The ability to serve has been a very strong attribute for Schwentker so far this year, and her statistics reflect it. She leads the Cougars in aces per set, and is second in total aces.
Her coach, Melinda Wrye-Washington, has taken notice of Schwentker’s offensive performance thus far.
“She’s got a great serve,” Wrye-Washington said, “She’s been really key to our points-scoring this year… We’re scoring some of the most points in games during her serving rotations. She’s dangerous for other teams.”
According to Schwentker, the key to a successful serve is self-assurance.
“I tell myself to get an ace, and sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t,” she said, “But you just have to set the standard for yourself.”
Schwentker’s plans for success extend beyond the volleyball court. After graduation, she hopes to find a good job in sports management that involves the aspects of public relations and advertising, her three areas of emphasis in school.
She has no official plans to further her volleyball career after college, but did express interest in assistant coaching, helping with camps or even substituting for sand volleyball tournaments.
Whatever she decides to pursue after her days at Columbia College, Sarah Schwentker’s tried-and-true work ethic will more than likely have a dramatic impact on her success.
Comentários