Every week ESPN RISE Volleyball will voice high school bloggers from across the nation. This week we would like to introduce freshman outside hitter Kaitlyn Granger of Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas.

Being a freshman on varsity with a team of 8 seniors might seem intimidating to some but for me it was an opportunity to learn life lessons on and off the court. Arlington High School is filled with many traditions. It's an older school with a lot of history and pride. With its tradition, came duties that were for underclassmen in athletics.

	Photo Courtesy of Granger Family
	Kaitlyn Granger of Arlington (Tex.)

We had 2 freshman and 5 sophomores on our varsity volleyball team this year, so our team was very different in age. Half of our team could drive, while half depended on the others to help them get where they needed to go! When we first started open gym in the summer, I had heard that seniors give you nicknames, and if they didn't like or respect you, they wouldn't. I was given the name "froggie” because the way I hopped to get under the ball when I dug the ball and when I jumped to hit the ball! We had the usual duties of shagging balls, taking down the net, but they weren't ever mean to us.

There was a pecking order when it came to getting on the bus and for eating out. Riding on the bus went by class. Seniors, juniors, sophomores, then freshman when varsity and JV rode together. However, when it was the freshman's turn to get on, the varsity seniors always saved seats for the 2 freshman so we could sit near our team.

My favorite tradition of all was the kidnapping of underclassmen. My 2 freshman friends and I were sleeping in my room, and all of the sudden we were awaken by screaming girls with masks on their heads!! They blindfolded us and took us in their car. They took us to a house and threw us in the pool!! We spent the night with them and we had so much fun!!

My seniors were the best. They were helpful, nice, and true leaders on the team. I learned so much from them on and off the court. They helped us when the coaches were on us and told us ways to do the drill right so we wouldn't get yelled at or make the team run.  They looked out for us if other students were messing with us outside of volleyball, helped us adapt to high school in general. They were our big sisters and tried to keep the drama off our team. Of course, their was some, but we always worked it out and became a stronger and better team for it in the end. I was so lucky to be apart of these seniors lives and will miss them so much next year.

Let us know…

kolsen@studentsports.com

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Every week ESPN RISE Volleyball will voice high school bloggers from across the nation. This week we would like to introduce freshman outside hitter Kaitlyn Granger of Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas.

I'm Kaitlyn Granger and a 14-year-old playing varsity for 5A Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas. I have been playing volleyball for seven years, but it wasn't my first activity or my first love!

At three, I started dance and gymnastics and competed in both until I was in the third grade. Soccer and basketball were the sports I began playing at the age of five.

	Photo Courtesy of Granger Family
	Kaitlyn Granger of Arlington (Tex.)

Honestly, I thought soccer was going to be the sport I would play the longest. My D1 soccer team was Solar Red and I played forward. Basketball was the other sport I played and when I first started, boys and girls played together. I was fearless and loved to compete against them (boys)!!

However, when I began to play YMCA volleyball at the age of eight, I instantly fell in love with a something I didn't know existed...volleyball!!

I couldn't get enough of playing!! I went to Arlington Courts (club team ACE) that started a league for kids on Friday nights! I loved that because I had cheer, soccer, and basketball on Saturdays. At 10 years old, I wanted to tryout for the 12's at ACE and made the top team. I decided to limit other activities and focus more time on volleyball.

Texas Advantage (TAV) is where I spent my next two years playing. I was on their top team, 12 TAV Asics, and went to Nationals and placed third, in American Division. That was an awesome feeling!! After 13 TAV Asics the next season, I met my current 14s and future 15s club coaches, the Drewnicks at one of their summer camps.

What attracted me to train with Cilene Drewnick was been the fact that she played in two Olympics for Brazil and had played professional volleyball for 16 years. Over the summer she was involved in the training of the USA Youth National Team, spent a week training University of Nebraska in August and even took Penn State, last May, to train with the Brazilian National Team.

Cilene and her husband, Eduardo Drewnick, took a new club (called Instinct Volleyball Club) and in our first year our 14s Instinct Tigers, won North Texas regionals, qualified for the Tour of Texas (seventh overall), and did well at Nationals in Miami this past summer.

Their drive and enthusiasm helped me decide that my goal was to make varsity as a freshman for a 5A high school team and reached it. Our team had eight seniors, five sophomores, and two freshmen.  I wanted to earn the respect of the coaches (Sue Cauley and Kim Spencer), but most of all the seniors, and know that when I'm out on the court, they can trust me to play my position, and know their experience and guidance has helped me get through my first year.

After making the team, my new goal was to start, and I have done that almost every match this season. As a 5'11 outside hitter, I currently have over 300 kills in my first season. 

Let us know…

kolsen@studentsports.com

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