Day 19…what a long day it is.I'm sitting on my first plane as part of the Pepperdine Volleyball team. Looking back now and thinking about the past two and a half weeks I kind of laugh—the days that "took forever to end" seemed to fly by.
In the beginning...I can't even find the words to describe how nervous, scared, or completely in shock I was. I flew out on August 4 th , 2007 with my Mom, but I didn't have to report to the campus until the 6 th . Because I couldn't drive all my luggage out we flew a couple days early and hit up the local Target [target=great for starting college shopping!] to pick up the dorm life necessities. On the 6 th we left our not-so-cozy hotel through the mountain canyon in Calabasas and headed off to my new home for the next eight months. We made the trek up the big mountain to Dorm 3 E. Pengilly Hall. Suite B1 not exactly like home but it'll do. I've got my bed big enough for a 5'10'' girl, the shower that doesn't quite come to my shoulder, no computer and no TV…my thoughts: WHAT AM I DOING HERE? Once we loaded all of my clothes, shoes, bags, tubs, toiletries, and other random things into my side of the room it only seemed to make the tiny bedroom seem less than half its actual size. One 'o'clock strolled around a lot faster than I was ready for. We drove down to the locker room, not only was I super excited to receive all my new Pepperdine apparel, but I think I was even more ecstatic to have a locker with a nameplate bearing the letters
3 Seaton. To me that was the first sign that I truly am becoming part of this team, no more recruiting trips or campus visits this is real now. My first step into to the locker room and I'm sure my eyes about popped out of my head. Carpet was no where to be found; the entire ground was covered from corner to corner in bags and jerseys and spandex and shoes and all kinds new stuff. The girls on the team have coined that day 'Christmas in August.' And let me tell you it was so much better than Christmas!! Today was the fun day, getting all of our new gear and having a brief meeting with our coaches explaining some ground rules, laying out the freshman duties, going over some defensive reminders, and meeting with the NCAA people signing about 50 papers just to play volleyball. Wow that was definitely a new experience—now I see why celebrities get so tired of signing autographs!
Day two...This is when the real work begins. Practice starts at 9a.m. but for us three freshmen, that means our day begins around 7:30a.m. We have to dress in our new Pepperdine Volleyball navy blue practice t-shirts and spandex, then make the long journey down to the 'ice room' where we get to decide the Gatorade color and flavor of the day. Yeah, we
get to chose! Not—this means we have to fill the coolers with ice and water and make another cooler being sure to measure the exact amount of Gato (yeah it's a California word…they've got me hooked) powder with the right amount of ice and water. As the cooler is filling we have to stir viciously to ensure that no powder is left at the bottom where the spicket is to fill a glass or bottle at practice. Now you're probably wondering why I'm going into such detail about making Gato; all I can say is that if you make it wrong or it doesn't taste good you will hear about it all practice and for the remainder of the day. So practice day one, starts out with Plyos (word to the wise, start plyometrics before you report or days three, four, and five will be miserable…trust me I know from experience!). After plyos we move into defense drills. Later I learn that this will become an everyday routine. We focus a lot on serve receive and defense. I mean look at our team we have the offense with Kayla Walker 6'6", Lecca Roberts 6'5", Julie Ruebstein 6'4", Cassie Chamberlain 6'3", Rachel Lumsden 6'3", and a fierce setter Kiah Fiers standing a good 5'11". I am the only potential hitter coming in this year as the other two freshmen Krista Friedman 5'7" and Kealohilani Kea 5'8" both came in as defensive specialists. Kea spends about half her time working with setters and the other half working with liberos. I'm spending a lot of the time on the outside. Working with the leftsides is a lot different for me. I only spent a fraction of time on the outside during club, but now it's almost a normal thing to be playing there.
Different regions... Different stylesComing from the heart of the Mid-West I'm used to playing a very fast paced game, always trying to beat the block or beat the defense, moving the ball as fast as possible. The passes are low to the setter the sets are fast and quick, the kills are fast and great. California/West coast ball is much different. Coming to compete in college everyone warns you that the game is much faster and much more intense than any club or high school match. The west coast volleyball is a nice high (I mean a few feet higher than the antenna) passes to the setters who lob the ball high in the sky above most blocks which allow the tall hitters to dominate. So in a way coming to compete is a MUCH slower game than I'm used to playing. At first it was hard to play defense because the set seemed to take so long to reach the hitter, but when it did that ball did indeed coming soaring my way trying to rearrange my face. After a few days at practice getting used to the slower but faster game I started to adjust pretty well. Morning practices run from 9-12 and consist of mainly individual skills including several 'coach-on-three/four/five' drills. We get a break for lunch and time to rest or ice our bodies. Then we are back in the gym from 3-6 to work on more team oriented things. Usually toward the end we scrimmage 6-on-6 or we work on things that Nina thinks we need to prefect. For a while I struggle with everything, most of it just nerves or lack of confidence. Although around day 10 or 11 we did a series of drills called Pancake and Statue of Liberty. This is where I made history to myself! Throughout my two year career at Circle City Corky and Eric made our team go through numerous pancake drills—none of which I ever succeeded. But in California running from the right back corner towards the middle of the court I got my first college pancake, clearly up and off the ground. Of course with my newly found talent two more were sure to follow. To me this one proof that the hours and days and weeks spent diving and rolling out, collecting bruises in an array of colors had paid off. You can try something 99 times but that hundredth time…when you succeed…it makes it all worth it. That was my proof.
So I promised it earlier…don don da daaaaa The RoomateHmmm I'm not sure where to start. She's a very nice California native whom I had met once before moving in with her. Skipping back to August 4 th , I was shopping with my mom at Target picking out things for my room. Being the girl that I am, and given the color choices of white, blue or pink you can guess that I was picking out everything to be pink. Eventually looking down at my cart and realizing that almost everything in it was some sort of pink I worried that I would 'pink-her-out' by bringing too much. So I proceeded to put back about half of my things in exchange for white. Well come to find out on moving day she walks through to door with everything I had bought, exactly the same except in pink! We had bought the same things except I had replaced mine with white, which now I realize is probably a good idea because that would have been too much pink. So later one evening after our first day of practice we were discussing the day, the good parts and the bad parts, what we liked and didn't like, what we expected and what we didn't expect, and we started talking about ourselves and our families. We found that we have a lot in common like our favorite movies, books, music artists, and among others. We are so alike it's crazy but then comes the 'we are so opposite it gets hard to deal with' part. For instance I'm into the rap and R&B scene whereas she is hardcore into older country. She is a bright and early morning riser and I could sleep well past noon. I'm one to stay up at night keeping myself busy and she's in bed by ten. I like to show up five minutes early as not to be late and she likes to be 30 minutes early as not to be late. We get along great for the most part and we're always friendly with one another, but being around the same person 24 hours a days for two weeks gets old really, really fast. We made it through ok and we just took our time apart every once in a while and now that all the other students have moved in and we've gotten our schedules and we don't share any classes it's a lot easy to be around each other because it's not every minute of everyday anymore. We talk a lot about our boyfriends, getting advice and telling stories. I think it's easier to talk to someone who doesn't know the person I'm talking about because then they can give me their personal advice without any other influence. In a way it's hard for me to talk to her about being out here because she doesn't understand my position, being away from my friends, family, boyfriend, comfort circle, normal food, and things like that. With her family and most of her friends only about and hour's drive away she doesn't understand the separation difficulty I went through. It was definitely hard and I spent many nights doubting myself, my skills, my choices, and just crying it all out. But now Day 19, sitting in row 9 seat C, I know I made the right choice.
What am I trying to say? Yeah these past two and a half weeks have had their fair share of ups and downs, but in my mind it's worth it. I'm now part or an awesome university, a tremendous volleyball team, a spiritual community, a special group of very talented athletes, an infamous tradition, and I feel like I have a special new west coast family. The nerves are starting to build up and I'm starting to worry about what tomorrow will bring. Will I get to play? Will I do good or bad? Will I embarrass myself? Will I please my coach or disappoint her? My fear of failure seems to grow everyday, but slowly my confidence is beginning to rebuild. Don't get me wrong, I love this team and I couldn't be more excited to get off this three hour plane ride and stretch my legs, grab some food, head to bed, and get ready for tomorrow…the day I begin my college career as a Pepperdine Wave. GO WAVES!!!
Posted by: Kristen Seaton
