Lily Stewart made her impressive varsity career start in the middle of her freshman year volleyball season. She was one of three freshmen who first made junior varsity and one of the only freshmen who got asked to move up to varsity. Then, she continued on varsity her sophomore year.
She ended her freshman season with 42 kills but had an upsetting injury right before tryouts her sophomore year. Because of this she only had 5 kills and didn’t play as much front row as she would have liked while she was rehabbed.
“When I dislocated my kneecap my vertical decreased three inches, so I had to work and train back my vertical for a long period of time which made me have to mostly play back row for that amount of time.” Stewart says.
“It was about two months till I could play again but my vertical was not back for seven months.” Stewart proclaims. This took a toll on her club season as well. For club volleyball, Stewart plays for Northern Kentucky Junior Volleyball.
One other reality of being a varsity athlete is the mental strain of it all and how mentality affects not only the player’s health but also how they play and their connection with the rest of their team when struggling.
If you had known Stewart playing in these tough times you would have seen the “mental strain and wanting to play all the time but not being able to.” Is what Stewart said was happening but one of her teammates Erin Pessler protested, “I think she handles it pretty well. Her injury made her sit out for a while but she fought back to get on the court again. She was really strong and positive. When she was hurt, she would lift the team up and help out at practices.” Pessler says this about Stewart they have played together since seventh grade but have known each other since first grade when they were in Spanish immersion together.
Another problem is “how many coaches and teams I’ve played for, I felt like I lost some love for it, especially some of the coaches I have had I have lost love for the sport.” This shows that jumping from school volleyball to club volleyball, the change in coaches and how they treat you and picking favorites can affect how much you love the sport you are playing. If you do love your sport it makes it harder to want to play.
It is also a lot of work being an athlete, having a social life, and doing well in school. Especially during club volleyball because she will be gone for the whole weekend and sometimes even days before if her teachers do not understand and let her have extended time after talking to them about not having time to do assignments she missed in class or homework they assigned because of being away and playing constantly. Stewart says, “I have to stay up after getting home and be tired the next day at school.” Which is even more mental strain trying to stay awake at school and figure out not only what is going on that day but the days that she has missed.
Right now though Stewart has been doing amazing in school volleyball and has being able to balance her life after being injured last year, she has gotten back to playing front-row hitter all the time now which is the position she wants and she has been playing very well. In the future Stewart hopes to play volleyball in college and continue to start varsity next year.
