Ryo Lyon '23 Recruiting Profile

My name is Ryo Lyon. I've been playing volleyball since I was in 4th grade. I started playing because I saw how much fun my older cousins were having and wanted to try it out. I've been playing club since about 7th grade.  I was a setter up until August of this year when I switched to become a libero.

I've recently been struggling with my mental game. It started last year when my club coach would try and help me but would never show me how to correct the mistake I made. I was always the second choice to go in and set for my team. I worked so hard on becoming a better setter and with my mental game but my team would always find a way to screw with it and put me down an even deeper hole than what I was already in. I had knee surgery back in April because I tore my meniscus while getting extra reps in with my dad. It was a bucket handle tear and all they had to do was go in and cut out the piece that had flipped underneath my knee cap. I had a month of recovery time so I would go and help shag balls for my team so that I was still able to learn. 

My final club game was down in Las Vegas. This is where I was really close to deciding to quit volleyball for good.  In my last game, I had to go in since the other setter got injured. Apparently, when I went on the court, 2 of my teammates started talking trash about me behind my back and wouldn't even try to go for any of my sets that I would give them. They would yell at me to pay attention and get the ball even though I was trying as hard as I could where they were all just being very lazy and not caring about what's happening.  

Fast forward to August when I had high school tryouts. My mental game wasn't there, I wasn't enjoying playing, and I didn't want to make it onto the team. I made it to the second day of tryouts and was cut. That had also affected my mental game so I knew that I had to do something about it. I decided that I was going to switch positions and see if I was any good at being a libero. I've been in that position for a month now and I can tell that my mental game has improved drastically and that I actually want to keep playing.