Going into high school sometimes can include a drastic change in academics and sports. Your sport can go from being fun to serious, or from intense to even more intense. Freshmen Grace Rued and Maci Jenson both are experiencing these changes. 

Jenson and Rued both explain the differences from playing on their volleyball teams in middle school and now in high school. The freshmen coach Delaney Woodruff believes that both athletes are well adjusted.

“I think they have been transitioning well so far because they both showed up often over the summer and work hard every day,” Woodruff said.  “They both played club volleyball for a pretty competitive club which I think helped prepare them for playing on JV and Varsity as Freshman.” 

Jenson started playing volleyball at a young age. She inspired by her sister to play the sport. Now she is a varsity player. 

“I started when I was six or seven. That’s when I started playing more competitively, and I started playing because I was just really inspired by my sister, and she wanted me to play,” Jensen said. “I’m happy that she wanted me to because I feel like I wouldn’t have known my potential.”

Rued started playing as a kid. She chose volleyball because she found that it was a sport that she was good at and she hardly found herself getting injured.

“I started playing when I was about ten and I feel like I found something [volleyball] where I felt accepted,” Rued said. “Volleyball was probably the only sport out of all of the ones I have done that I didn’t get injured in.”

According to NFHS, a body that  writes the rules of competition for most high school sports and activities in the United States, high school sports offer a lot more play time and more focus on skill development/acquisition. Rued is experiencing some of that as she starts playing on her new volleyball team.

“I definitely think the level of play got a lot higher and a lot harder, so you definitely have to work a lot harder to keep up and the schedules are more intensive,” Rued said. “I definitely had to learn how to kind of navigate that.”

Both Jenson and Rued have  experienced different levels of positivity from their peers and from the sport itself. The support from teammates grew from middle school to high school.

 “I feel like there was a change also from the people, like everybody on the team is so nice, very helpful when I need it, and very supportive,” Jensen said.  

Woodruff also agrees that the level and transition is a change that she has also navigated herself. Freshmen will continue to face that change when going into high school.

“The transition was fun and exciting but it was also difficult at times; it was fun being about to play the sport at a higher level in high school but it was a big difference putting in the work necessary to be successful in high school vs. middle school,” Woodruff said. “The preseason training and each and every practice made me a better athlete, and a better teammate on and off the court and I would do it all again if I had the chance.”