THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2006
Maturing Volleyball Player Strives For The Best
By ANDREA ZELINSKI
Journal Reporter
Three years ago, freshman Amanda Simmons tried out for the volleyball team at Elk Grove High School.
Lanky, tall and uncoordinated, she made the team but only played half the season before calling it quits.
She had never played the sport before that time.
Less than two years later and half way across the country, the now 6-ft., 3-inch Simmons is towering over the net and slamming the ball into another girl's face.
Now that's volleyball.
The Des Plaines resident of seven years is now a wanted athlete with a full scholarship to the University of Hawaii. She may play professionally across the globe in the years ahead.
"I never thought I'd be at the place I'm at right now," says the teenager.
That's because she never liked sports. Instead, Amanda reads and studies despite her mother Evelyn's subtle efforts to get her involved in soccer and basketball.
"I couldn't get her to play any sports," her mother says.
As a tall girl for her age, she hadn't learned how to grow into her long arms and legs. She also didn't like to run.
"I'm not that aggressive," she explains. "I don't like the idea of having to run around and have people chasing me," and hitting me and bumping me and passing me.
Amanda's mother didn't raise an aggressive daughter. As an only child, she didn't have siblings to chase or many athletic games to play. So she stayed at home and read and played the trumpet, which was just fine with her.
"It was never about athletics. It was about reading," the volleyball player explains about her childhood. So, volleyball it just kind of happened by chance."
As a 16-year-old sophomore, Amanda told her mom about Club Fusion, a volleyball club that would change her life, sending her to tournaments and competitions around the country.
"She's had a great time," her mother explains. She's "learned about herself. About teamwork. She's having a lot of fun and meeting so many different girls all around the country."
Simmons said club volleyball goes above and beyond high school ball. In club the coaches are full time, not teaching history by day and volleyball by night. They are professionals and can give her the attention she needs.
But when the time came to try-out for the team, Amanda was absent. Her mom Sent e-mails to the coach asking if there was some way her daughter could still participate in the club.
"I'm going to bed, Amanda," said her mother. "Will you finish the e-mail for me?"
And she did. In her mother's tone, she changed the message, begging them to let her daughter try out for the team even though she was too late.
Luckily for her, it worked and eventually landed her a spot on the team. There, she quickly learned how to grow into her tall body, using it and her new-found skills to mature as an intricate part of Club Fusion's success.
"She's taller than I am," her mother pointed out. She's 6-ft., 2-1/2-inches with her shoes off and she's still growing. "Every time I look at her I still can't get over the fact that she's taller than me."
Now, "I can be as aggressive as I want on my side" of the court, the younger Simmons said.
For two years in a row, her team has placed second in the nation. Now, she strives to win first.
The club practices twice a week in Marengo, a 45-minute drive. It also meets on weekends for tournaments throughout winter and spring.
"The level is just so much higher" than high school volleyball, Amanda explains.
So is the cost. Her mom spent close to $6,000 this year on fees, uniforms and travel expenses to tournaments. That doesn't include spending money while she's one the road.
"It's helped me so much. Playing volleyball at such a high level has really helped my self-esteem. It helped me cope with a lot of things," like being a teenager.
She has also been part of the USA Volleyball Team's High Performance Team that performs just under the professional level. For a week and a half, the players practice with top notch coaches and then compete in a tournament.
As Amanda faces her last year at Elk Grove High School, and possibly her last year with Club Fusion, she's leaving with an ability she didn't know she had.
While she plans to become a psychologist after college, she has the opportunity on the back burner to play professionally for a while, earning her a $150,000 pay check every year, she said.
"That's where it gets kind of confusing," she confesses. "I'm improving really fast in ways that I don't even really know." While she goes away to school next fall, she's thinking about what she really wants to do after college such as playing professionally overseas in places like Mexico and France. "That would be something."
For now though, she's thinking about next season, which kicks off around Thanksgiving.
"It's an unbelievable dream," says Amanda's mother. "I think that every parent would like for their kid to be the best that they could possibly be. It's still amazing for me to comprehend that she can accomplish so much as such a young age.
"And who wouldn't want to be in Hawaii at 18 for four years?"