Nico Zambuto '20 Recruiting Profile

Something colleges may not know about me is I used to be a basketball player, and basketball was my life until freshman year of high school. My current club coach, Kainoa Mitchell watched me play in a basketball game and told me to come out for his Spike and Serve 14s team. I reluctantly went to the tryout, made the team, and that is when my love affair with volleyball began. From then on, my passion for volleyball has only got stronger, and the rest is history. 

I feel that the time of my volleyball career where I grew the most was when my 15's team lost 4 games in a row and came in 8th in BJNC qualifiers. This experience was tough and I was very upset, but it helped me in more ways than I would've ever thought. It motivated me to improve myself as a player, it pushed me to be more critical of myself to be the best person and player I can be, it pushed me to want to get stronger and get into the weight room more, and it gave me a competitive fire that I couldn't have gotten without failure.

I think my best trait on the volleyball court is my competitiveness. Every volleyball coach that has encountered me over these two years has said that I am the most driven, passionate, and competitive kid on the floor at all times. I give 110% on every play and nothing is more important to me than getting the win, and winning together with my teammates. Even playing middle blocker, and even right when I started playing volleyball when I wasn't very good yet, I was always the emotional leader of every team I played on and I was the one hyping everybody up and bringing the energy to the court. At all times, I play my hardest and I play with a chip on my shoulder and that competitiveness is what I believe is my best asset. I would love to take my drive and competitiveness to the college level one day, and I hope NCSA can help me get there.