- July 2022
Personal Statement
I don’t even know where to start off. I’ll just give you a little history about me. I'm Harold Johnson and I live in Colorado and go to Gateway High School. This is my last year as a high school student and the next year will be of me becoming a college student. All my life I dreamed of playing the big sports, Basketball, Football, Soccer. Although I had wanted to play these sports and had tiny samples of the sports I never really got invested into a game that felt like me. My dad on the other hand; golf fanatic. He’s been wanting me to have the opportunity to go to college through golf, and although that is my main sport I don't have that same passion as my dad. And I didnt find that passion for a sport until I started playing Volleyball. During my freshman year me and my friends had a ball and we used to go and pass the ball around. Then we had a collective idea to start a volleyball team. So we went to our AD and asked them if we could start one, they said sure just get the people and a sponsor and you can start the team. After that it set a hunger in each one of our eyes to get people interested in boys volleyball at our school. Skip past the pandemic year and we hit my Junior year, the team still hasnt been made yet due to all these setbacks. So me and my friends go back to the AD, but this AD is a new hire. So we ask her if we can start one and she says, “Don't worry, you'll have a team to play with.” So we all got excited again, our first year back and we got volleyball as a sport too. Life was great. So skipping through our season, we didn't do too bad for our first year, there teams that we completely swept and others that completely swept us. That humbling season made me want to continue to get better and better and so did everyone else on the team. So it's summer break now and I’ve been playing volleyball three times a week now, and my skills have improved so much just from sheer practice and playing with a bunch of skill sets. One day my coach puts me in a group chat with three other teammates and the assistant coach. He tells us about this combine that we got invited to and that it would have a bunch of college coaches waiting to see us, as that was the first Boys Volleyball Exposure Combine. So we all said yes and agreed to go. Within a couple weeks later we all met up at Gateway and we headed out to Kansas. One of my first times going to Kansas, and it was for volleyball. I was so stoked to travel for a sport because I had done that with golf, but doing it with my friends and my teammates made the experience so much fun. So when we arrived at Ottawa, Kansas we were all so shocked that it was like they were stuck in a different era. There was nothing out there in terms of Fast Food, Shops, nothing, it was just a small town with barely anyone out. So when we went to the event they were hosting the girls event first. So we got to see many talented females playing and showing off their talents and skills. Especially for me when I walked through those gym doors and heard all the yelling and communication, I got a spike of enjoyment and like a little kid at a candy shop I was telling everyone to hurry up so we could watch. Going out there knowing that that’ll be me and my teammates being able to show college coaches that we are meant for their team had me so excited. So when they started the boys event they measured all of our physical attributes. Meaning our height, weight, wingspan, speed, vertical, swing velocity, was all measured. And I’d never been to a combine before so I never even knew you measured things like swing velocity or your speed. After they had measured our physical abilities they wanted to see our technique so they made us be a “volleyball player” instead of playing your position. This allowed us to be able to learn new things and be able to sharpen the other skills we most likely never use in our position. We ran some pretty fun drills and they were really engaging, I remember thinking like I’m so focused right now I can’t mess up. And everytime I did, I always asked the coaches what I should’ve done to improve. And before we left we played a scrimmage. Practice is not practice without a scrimmage at the end of it. So we played five games going to 15 in each set. So me and my team won the first two sets and we were so confident we broke down our huddle yelling “Popeyes Chicken!”. But the other team started to comeback, making us go to the fifth game. I gotta say those rallies were so long, neither team wanted to let the ball touch the ground. One of the rallys had gone on for around five minutes and just continuous motion and swinging was so tiring. So we played the last set to 10 and it went by so quick, the other team had gotten around 6 aces and we just kept messing up on our attacks after that, and I don't blame none of my teammates we were all tired and we had no subs, so I was glad to see them all gassed out. So the entire experience was really fun. Going on a road trip with my teammates and my coaches was super exciting and just gave me so much adrenaline. And the learning experience for not only me but for everyone else there was superb. I learned a lot of new things on blocking, and rhythmic timing with the team and how to use that and lead an attack. Also learning new things on setting and receiving so overall it was just a great experience to learn to become a volleyball player.
