Grace Phelan '20 Recruiting Profile

I started playing volleyball in 4th grade, on my school's rec team. The moment I stepped on the court, I knew this was a sport I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life. I stuck with it for a long time, and moved up to a club team, South River Volleyball Club. There, my love for volleyball grew with my skills. Next, I knew I wanted to play on my highschool's team as well. I made the Varsity team as a freshman, and my drive to get better increased with every practice. 

One of the reasons I have ben so successful in my volleyball career so far, is that I am very physically fit. I am fast, and strong. I also have a very high vertical (9ft. 6in.). My coaches all work with me to continue conditioning to the best of my ability so I can improve on the volleyball court. I am also personally working on increasing my vertical even more so that I can start hitting the ball even more agressively. 

All of my coaches I have had in the past have all said that I am very coachable. This is a trait in myself that I take pride in having. I am also a good leader, and want to become an even better role model. The volleyball court is a great place for me to do that. I strive to become a better player and person everyday. By continuing this strive for betterment all the way to college volleyball, I will make myself and those around me proud.  

Currently, I am a tenth grader at Broadneck High School, and I have a weighted GPA of 4.25, and well as an unweighted GPA of 4.0. My academics have always been very important to me. I want to continue an advanced education in college, and am interested in environmental science, teaching, and physical therapy degrees.  

Another thing that makes me very different from my peers is that I am hearing impaired. I am classified as having a severe hearing loss, and I wear two hearing aids to help me with this. This has for sure made an impact on who I am today. Strugling to hear often makes school, volleyball, and my social life more difficult for me. However, I have had to overcome these things in order to succeed in my life so far. For example, I use an FM. system to make hearing in the classroom easier, and take Sign language classes in case I want to pursue Deaf Studies in the future. Also, I worked with my audiologist about my hearing struggles on the volleyball court, and he put a volleyball setting on my hearing aids that makes it much easier for me to hear my teammates, opponents, and coaches durring a game or practice. Lastly, having a hearing disability made me a shy person in my early cildhood, and my social life suffered because of this for most of my life. But then, as I beagan taking volleyball more seriously, and started getting better as a player, I rapidly gained confidence. That confidence in myself helped me make freinds and get involved in many things such as groups, clubs, and school activities. I have had to put a lot of hard work into overcoming my hearing impairment, and I am proud of who I have become due to my hearing loss, and I wouldnt change a thing.  

I am looking forward to all of the opportunities college volleyball holds for me in the future. It will for sure make me a better volleyball player. It will also bring out the best in my leadership and teamwork skills. The experiences of being on a college volleyball team alone are something that I want to be a part of, and will work as hard as I can to get there.