Abbi's Almanac #1

Welcome to the first installment of Abbi's Almanac. Eagles freshman volleyball player Abbi Schultz will be contributing a blog entry every other week describing her experiences as a first year student-athlete at Edgewood College. Abbi has moved right into the starting line-up and is making key contributions to the 3-0 Eagle volleyball team. Read on for Abbi's first entry....

My name is Abbi Schultz I’m 18 years old and a freshman here at Edgewood College. I have been playing competitive volleyball since the 6th grade. During high school I played three years of Varsity volleyball for one of the top ranked division one schools in Wisconsin, Westosha Central. I started my junior and senior year as a right side. While playing there I made three state appearances and in 2006 won the state title. My senior year I was graced with second team all-conference and second team all-county. Now at Edgewood I am a starting setter/opposite.

Already in only two weeks on campus there are so many differences in college athletics compared to high school athletics. Coming from a small town with such a legacy everyone in the school knew the volleyball players, when matches were, who they were against and if it was a home or away game. As I walked around campus wearing a game tonight shirt I was constantly asked which team I played for, where we were playing and who we were playing. It’s a strange thing walking around campus hanging up posters, advertising games. There is a difference in work ethic as a college athlete. Practice becomes job like, but in a good way. There is an outline of practice and a time line in which to complete the work. High school practices were more of a way to blow off steam after sitting in class for eight hours.

Classes are another strange thing to me as a freshman college student. At Westosha there were eight class periods in a day, 51 minutes a class and school ran from 7:30 until 2:15. It’s liberating to start class at nine every day and most days done with classes at 1:20. And having huge breaks in between classes is refreshing. It gives time for homework and a social life before practice or matches. There’s a relieving feeling that if a professor finishes the lesson early students do not have to sit around like Pavlov’s dogs waiting for a bell to ring. There is also the attendance, nobody is forcing class attendance. Not saying I’m going to ditch classes but it’s nice to know I am in charge of my schedule and what I do not a teacher, school officer or parent.
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