Introduction

Riley Rush is an amazing student, volleyball player, and friend at Santiago, she is kind, supportive, helpful, sweet, and hardworking. Riley is a senior and has been in the Santiago volleyball program since she was a Freshman. Riley is a starting setter for the Varsity team. Riley’s passion for volleyball is undeniable, and you can notice the joy volleyball brings her. Her outgoing attitude is contagious, and it’s impossible not to want to be a better person around her.

Riley’s Favorite Things About Volleyball at Santiago 

When Riley reflected on her experience, she shared that her favorite thing about volleyball is the connection players make on and off the court: “Nothing can top the relationships we make with a teammate.” When we spoke about her idea for the program, she said, “I love how the coaches in this program see the talent in these girls. They constantly tell us how much talent they see and that we can use it. That is very encouraging for us.” The coaches in the program always push us to be our absolute best and never settle for anything less. Notably, Riley enjoys all her coaches and the positive impact they make in her and other’s lives and sports. 

The Team Goals

Riley also highlighted the team’s collective ambition to achieve many great goals; one of the biggest goals for the season she shared was “to get to the quarter-finals for CIF,” that’s a great goal to have; you always want to do your very best in your games. She believes that if the team finds the connections, then they can be a great team and make it to their CIF goal and farther. She also shared that during a game, they have another goal, “the three C’s, consistency, communication, and confidence.” I love the idea of the three C’s. Communication, confidence, and consistency are things that apply in our lives as well as sports. It’s a great way to teach players and students a fantastic foundation. 

Mindset and Advice

During a game, you must be in a certain mindset to shake off mistakes, be the best you can for your team, and stay positive. When I asked Riley how she remains in a game state mindset, she gave really useful advice, “to shake off a point or mistake, I focus on the next play; you can’t go back, so don’t concentrate on that, focus on the next play, that’s all you can do. I also remind myself that volleyball is a game of mistakes. If there were no mistakes made, then nobody would win.” Riley is right; to play a sport, you have to know that mistakes are ways to improve you, and without mistakes, how can you improve yourself and your skills?

Challenges and Regrets

Missing school for games is inevitable when you play a sport. To some student-athletes, that may be a struggle. So when I brought up the subject of missing school for games to Riley, she shared, “I don’t struggle with missing school for volleyball. Since it is mostly after school, I can get my work done. And if I do have to miss a lot of work at school, then I work on it in the study hall or after school. As a student at Santiago, I know that school always comes first. You can’t play if you don’t have good grades.” All of the coaches work at Santiago, so they understand and know that school is very important. Other than homework being a challenge for some, we all have our challenges. Riley shared with me that her challenge when playing is herself, “I am so hard on myself and my biggest enemy. But if I can use that to my advantage, it can be my biggest success.” Regrets happen, you will wish you would have done something differently, or never done to begin with. During the time I had with Riley I asked what her biggest regret was, to her, it was changing her position too late. She wasn’t always a setter but ended up switching to a setter from what she was before. 

Practices and Games

It’s always interesting to see how a team practices. Riley stated that their practices usually start with warm-ups and almost always go straight into serve receive. It then goes into whatever the coach thinks they must work on the last gameplay. I asked Riley what her favorite game was this season and what she was most excited about. “One of my favorite games I have been a part of was their first win. We were down 2-0 and ended up with three wins afterward with a big fight to win. But the game I am looking forward to the most is the Centennial game.”

For Younger Players to Know

Riley wanted to share advice she had for younger players. Whether or not you play volleyball, her insights can still help you. “Your grades still matter. Even if you want to play in college, your grades still have to be good in order to get far in your sport and your future. And you, any young volleyball players reading this, play for your team, not yourself. That’s the best advice I could give you. You have to play for others in order to succeed in the game; it’s a team sport.”