JUNIOR SETS SIGHTS ON BROWN
Ella Park commits to play DI volleyball for Ivy League school Park made it onto the McLean High School varsity team her freshman year and started alking onto the court for the McLean Youth Volleyball League focusing on reaching out to schools and tryouts, nervous fourth grader Ella Park never would have getting recruited. expected that seven years later she would be committed to an Ivy “At the middle to the end of my League school to for a sport that started off as a casual pastime. freshman season, I started my recruitment In elementary school, Park’s expectations process by for volleyball weren’t high. However, after emailing my top playing on a recreational team for two years, 15 schools. My Park grew interested in a higher level of goal has always I FEEL SO BLESSED TO competition. She joined her first travel team been to go to a HAVE COMPLETED in sixth grade and became more serious about highly academic MY PROCESS, AND the sport by practicing at a more intense level institution as EVEN THOUGH IT than ever before. The travel team offered a well as a place WAS SO STRESSFUL, more competitive environment, setting Park with a competitive up for bigger things in her future. volleyball program, IT WAS WORTH IT.” “When I started playing club in sixth grade, so I wanted to talk - ELLA PARK I knew that I would want to continue playing to schools that fit JUNIOR for the rest of middle and high school and those expectations,” never even considered that playing in college Park said. was a realistic possibility,” said Park, who is Due to the now a junior. recruitment process being lengthy and Once she began playing for her travel team, Park’s opportunities challenging, Park has had to make a lot opened up tremendously. Since then, she has been on multiple teams of sacrifices. High school is a time to gain and has even played with teammates above her age group. In middle experiences that people don’t necessarily school, Park had to learn how to balance her time and energy, putting get any other time in life. Park’s dedication in hard work on the volleyball court while also trying to get stellar to the sport and to school has taken away grades. some of those experiences. She had to take “Ella’s middle school years were particularly hectic. She had the ACTs and SATs earlier than most high volleyball practice and tournaments, basketball practice and schoolers and has missed out on a lot of tournaments, as well as piano practice,” her mother, Angie Park, said. social activities because of volleyball and “This was all in addition to her schoolwork, which [was] the main schoolwork. priority.” “It took a lot of hard work on Ella’s part: visiting schools, talking with several coaches on a weekly basis, Zooming with potential teammates, virtual tours, taping practices, putting together videos, playing in front of college coaches at big tournaments, etc.,” her father, Richard Park, said. Thanks to Park’s talent and determination, she eventually got an offer from a prestigious school that drew her interest: Brown University. Her academic motivation and volleyball skills finally paid off. Now that Park is committed, she has to keep up the hard work and maintain a high GPA until her senior year, when she will officially apply to Brown. IN THE ZONE — Ella Park shows off her skills as a setter “I still am in partial disbelief because I not only get to compete at a home game against Yorktown in 2019. “I am able at the Division I level,” Park said, “but I can also receive an amazing to touch the ball almost every time it comes to our academic experience, something I have always dreamed of.” side of the net,” Park said. (Photo courtesy of Kent Arn old) SYDNEY GLEASON REPORTER
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Photo courtesy of Ella Park | Page design by Ariana Elahi & Sydney Gleason
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