The following is a story told by UCF freshman Anne-Marie Watson.
I never would have thought that I would go to UCF, let alone play volleyball for the Knights. My story is one of hard work, open doors and taking chances.
Born and raised in Oviedo, I have lived in the same house all my life. Even though we lived just a few miles from campus, my family never really went to UCF events.
I played softball growing up. Fall was always busy with travel tournaments. My dad, Joe, was also my coach, and he taught me everything. We travelled throughout the country playing the game that I loved.
I really thought that I was going to play softball in college. I had my sights set on going out of state and moving away from home. Little did I know, that would all change during my freshman year at Hagerty High School.
I wanted to play another sport in order to stay in shape during the fall, so I tried out for the volleyball team. I had no idea what I was doing on the court. Adam Levi just started at Hagerty, and he helped me with the fundamentals, getting my arm speed up and my footwork correct.
After playing my entire freshman season on the varsity team, Coach Levi introduced me to the world of club volleyball, where the commitment level was much higher than I expected.
I was faced with one of the most difficult decisions in my life, whether or not to take up volleyball full time and give up the sport that I had played since I was a kid. Fortunately, my parents were encouraging through the whole process.
I will forever be grateful that they did not pressure me into something that I doubted. Once I made my mind up to stick with volleyball, my parents spent their free time learning about the game in order to be better fans.
I have to admit it. I knew nothing about the recruiting process.
I thought UCF was right down the road, so I figured I'd give the coaches a call. Once I finally got a hold of them, my nerves went away. Instead of talking the Xs and Os of volleyball, we talked about movies, school, and vacation - just about everything other than the play on the court. That was when I knew I wanted to play at UCF.
I verbally committed to be a walk-on during my junior year. I figured that I would just work to improve my game for the next year and a half before I set foot on campus, but again, life presented me with a new opportunity.
It was New Year's Eve 2016, and Coach Todd sent me a text asking if I had a few minutes to talk on the phone. Obviously, my mind started racing through everything that I might have done. When my phone rang, I nervously answered, all the while hoping that something wasn't wrong.
There wasn't.
Coach then said the five words that every recruit wants to hear – We're putting you on scholarship.
Words cannot describe the emotion I felt at that moment.
Several months later, I joined the team for summer workouts, expecting to gradually get stronger. Coach Joe had other plans. He kept putting more weight on the bar and handing me more protein shakes. At the end of the summer, I felt like a completely different player.
The coaching staff informed me during the summer that they were planning on redshirting me. I took that as a positive. A redshirt year was going to give me a season to get more reps and work on the scout team against great players like Wickey, Kia and Jordan, but again life had other plans.
Coach Todd told me that that I was going to play.
At the midway point of my freshman season, I can say that this has been an amazing experience. Every day that I go to practice or put the jersey on, I know one thing for certain.
I'm proud to be a Knight.