Jaylen Nachtigall '23 Recruiting Profile

Hi, my name is Jaylen Nachtigall, I will graduate this next spring in 2023, finishing out my fourth year playing High School Varsity Volleyball.I also have accomplished the role of being a National Honors Society Officer, two-year academic letter, and the number one rank in my class. I play all the way around on the court however, my main position has been middle blocker in the past, but I am moving to outside hitter for this coming fall season. I started playing volleyball in sixth grade and immediately fell in love with the sport and all that comes with it. 

I have competed for our high school teams in gymnastics for six years and track for five years. Our gymnastics team has been very successful over the years placing top 4 for the last five years. Individually, I have placed top 10 in all events for gymnastics over the past four years and was named to the All-State Tournament team this last season. In track, I have competed at the South Dakota State Track Meet the last three years and placed top six in two different events. 

Something I have taken away from volleyball that I didn't necessarily have to deal with in my other two sports is overcoming the thought of having natural talent for the sport. Gymnastics and Track came very naturally for me and while I was never satisfied with my abilities in those sports, I could always had that raw talent to fall back on. With volleyball, that was not always the case. I started the sport out like most kids did in middle school, but I wasn't the best out there on the court, that was something I was new to. With that in mind I changed my mindset and learned how to be the person I knew I was capable of being. I learned how to never be satisfied and motivate myself to be better. In doing so, I developed characteristics of being encouraging to other teammates, learning how to be coachable, being a leader on and off of the court, and always asking what to do more of to better my skills. My plan is to take these traits and skills I have learned and better them in a new journey of playing college volleyball; developing that team bond with new people and a new school community.