Our Wednesday, May 27th meeting was very well attended with visiting Rotarians and volleyball enthusiasts. Carolina Forest Rotary President-elect Lauren Zuschlag introduced guest speaker Sarah Sponcil, a national champion beach volleyball player. We had the coach of CCU volleyball at the meeting and some of the team’s players.
Sarah is originally from Phoenix, Arizona and attended Loyola Marymount University before transferring to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She remembers playing volleyball at age 6 or 7 and by age 8-9 she was playing against mostly older players. Sponcil was self coached and likes that she “grew up that way”. At UCLA, she was the 2018 and 2019 beach volleyball champion. She also played on the “indoor” team (6 players), which is more specialized in terms of “positions”, than the beach game which has only 2 players.
Pro beach volleyball players must make money through tournaments and sponsorships. In her travels on the international pro circuit, Brazil and Switzerland are a few of Sarah’s favorite places. Sarah considers herself as a positive role model for younger girls as she has been mentored by women that are a decade older.
A local volleyball enthusiast noted that a beach volleyball tournament is scheduled for Myrtle Beach on June 20th. President TJ appeared to coax out interest from the CCU coach in having his players do some community partnering with the Club. Stay tuned for more Volleyball support from the Carolina Forest Rotary.
Written By: Scott Burleson
Published By: Brooke Vu
