Sawyer Stong '26 Recruiting Profile

My passion for volleyball began at age 8, from a German au pair who lived with my family for 2 years, and was an amazing beach and court player. I enjoy being part of a team that has to bond and work together to achieve success. My freshman HS season really helped me grow in my skills and our JV team went 6-3 with very few players having ever even played the sport before. 2022-2023 was my first club experience with Flight Academy Volleyball in SLO, CA, and I had so much fun with my team going to the SoCal Showcase and Boys' Junior Nationals where we finished with a bronze medal. In 2023-2024 we played in the SoCal Cup league in Seal Beach. I attended the SoCal Cup Winter Formal Tournament and the SoCal Cup Open Championships in January 2024 with my club team, FAV 16 Maverick. During my junior year, I am playing on an 18s team and we are playing in the WCVBA league, and will attend Winter Formal and SoCal Cup Open. My coach, Gabrielle Rivera, is a former middle and although the season has just started, I have learned so much from her already. I feel this will be a big growing year for my game and skill set.

As a sophomore on the varsity team at Paso Robles High School, I learned a lot from the seniors on my team and we had a great and very fun season, finishing as CIF Central Coast Section Runner-Up. My parents and I decided to invest in athletic training summer 2024 to improve my vertical, agility and speed (overall conditioning), and I downgraded to a practice player with my club team for the extended season in order to focus on my overall athleticism, in hopes of competing at a higher level and just generally improving my abilities. In conjunction with that decision, I spent 2 weeks this summer in Rome, Italy at Rome City Institute's Summer Volleyball Experience learning the European game style from their coaches. This was an incredible experience, and I am thankful for the friends and instruction I received.

I would love to continue playing volleyball as a college athlete because it is a great passion of mine, and I think it would be amazing to be able to play with and against top players from all over who also have a passion for the sport. I am looking for a coach who will help me continue to grow and improve, and also one who values character and academics off the court. The friends and mentors that I have in the volleyball community have made a huge difference in my life. I would like to view my college team as a family, and I hope to find a spot on a team where the players support and cheer each other on. Academically, my favorite classes are math, engineering and science, and I see myself going into either an engineering field or possibly going on to veterinarian school after I complete my bachelor's degree. As a junior, I am taking 4 AP classes -- AP Biology, AP US History, AP Language and Composition and AP Calculus. I will complete Spanish 2 my junior year as well. Music is a hobby of mine, and I love listening to and singing an eclectic variety of music - I am in my school's advanced choir in the 2024-2025 school year, and we were incredibly excited to be invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in April 2025. I like to think I'm pretty well-rounded, I am definitely committed to doing what it takes to get to the next level, and think I can be an asset to a university both in academics and athletics.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I look forward to talking with you!