“I played volleyball in middle school and high school. Then I got a full ride to play at Lee College. It was my first year there, and we were at a tournament in the El Paso area when I landed wrong from blocking. I tore my ACL, meniscus and everything. I knew instantly.

“So I did the surgery. I did the rehab. I tried everything to get back into it. But I just knew it wasn’t going to be the same. I didn’t trust my knee enough to do the physical movements. I knew the sport was done for me.

“It was definitely upsetting. Being so young at the time, I thought my life was over. I wanted to eventually go into a four-year college program like my friends from our high school team. I really wanted to do volleyball as a full-time thing. But after blowing out my knee, I had to pick a different career.

“Right out of high school, I started working as a medical assistant at an OB-GYN office in Baytown. It’s the reason I decided to go into nursing. That and the fact that my mom has been a nurse for years. At the time of my injury, she was studying to become a nurse practitioner. She was constantly a role model to pursue a career in the medical field, and always encouraging me to do something big.

“I’m in nursing school at UTMB Galveston. It’s online right now, but hopefully we’ll go back to in-person soon. I’m still at the OB-GYN office, and I work alongside my mom. That’s been pretty cool.

“We really are best friends, so we work really well together. We mesh well. It’s like I know what she wants before she even wants it. Of course, we are mother-daughter, so sometimes we do butt heads. But for the most part, it’s been really nice.”

— Delany Boyd

The post Injury leads her from volleyball to nursing appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“Right before Adam turned 2, that’s when we found out he was autistic. There definitely were signs. Because he was our only child, some of the signs I probably didn’t recognize as early as I should have or could have.

“David and I were a little bit older parents, which I think was a blessing as we began raising an autistic child. I don’t know that we really felt equipped. But as we went along, I think we learned what to do.

“Because I was a volleyball coach, Adam traveled a lot. David would take all his vacations to go on the road trips with us. That was probably our biggest challenge when Adam was younger. Being in crowds with loud noises, he didn’t like it. He would scream bloody murder. But as he got older, he got better.

“He may not socialize like others, but he grew to like being around people. I think traveling, going to the games, going to the restaurants with the team and just being around all of that really helped him. His teachers always said that it’s amazing how well he behaves. But he just had to do it. Now his favorite thing is going to restaurants.”

— Tracie Johnson

Tracie was the head volleyball coach at Lee College for 29 seasons, where her teams recorded 652 wins.

Related:

• Hurricane Harvey helpers get some assistance
• Mom believes her son ‘deserves the best’

The post Life on the road helped coach’s autistic son appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“Volleyball has always been my passion. I played at Lee College, then Houston Baptist University, and now I’m back at Lee as the assistant coach.”

What’s your biggest coaching challenge?
“Probably dealing with freshman and sophomore girls. They need a lot of guidance in their first couple years of college, especially the ones who are away from home. They’re just not used to college classes and volleyball being as demanding as it is on their bodies. It’s never been this intense for them.

“I think I’m able to relate with them and show them it’s possible. I wasn’t somebody who was super studious. I wasn’t somebody who was really driven in school all the time, but volleyball was the thing that drove me. I knew I needed to make good grades or else volleyball wasn’t going to happen.”

Any big changes since you played in college?
“I guess there are always the temptations of being a partier or whatever, not taking everything seriously. I don’t know that it’s that different from when I played, but the younger generation may be starting to get a little more wild, you could say. As time goes on, they’re getting a little more daring. I try to help keep a handle on that aspect.”

— Paige

The post She helps volleyball players make college transition appeared first on The Baytown Project.