Victoria Patnaude '20 Recruiting Profile

I am a transfer from Clarke University with two years of eligibility left. I will have some college footage up soon. In the meantime, please reach out if you are looking for a transfer middle blocker! Thanks for taking some time to view my page! 

Love can be expressed in so many ways, the love you feel for your family, a friend or a pet, but I never thought I could love a sport until I discovered volleyball. When I made my school’s volleyball team in eighth grade, I was ecstatic. I hadn’t made the team the prior year and I was excited to show the coach how much I had improved since the previous season. I walked into tryouts with a determination to excel and gave all of my effort to improving my skills. Despite this though, I didn’t get any playing time, which made me question if I was good enough. This doubt was amplified by some of my peers who chose to make fun of me, saying that I only made the team because I was tall. This escalated and got to the point where I wanted to quit, but my love for the game wouldn’t let me.

Not playing my eighth grade year really taught me that if I want something, I have to work for it. That playing time is earned, not just given away freely. So when I made the junior varsity team in ninth grade, I devoted all of my free time to the game, and the new coaching staff noticed. In fact I was asked to play with varsity in the playoffs, which helped raise my level of play and in turn allowed us to go deep into the playoffs. Towards the end of this season, I was fortunate enough to be asked to play on my coach’s travel ball team. With this new outlet, I was able to further grow and learn. I also was blessed to discover a mentor in Coach Tangela who taught me that the hard work and dedication I apply on the court can be duplicated in school as well. This is one of the reason I have 4.0 grade average now. To me volleyball is love, I can’t imagine not playing with a team/family after high school. Which is what drives me at every practice and game to make it impossible for a coach to pass on me.