Check out this question/answer session with the sophomore from
Oswego, Illinois.
Kate Stefanski is in her sophomore year for the Tars
Volleyball Program. Stefanski primarily plays as a right
side/outside hitter. This season, Stefanski has 162 kills,
averaging 1.80 per set. In the Vulcan Invitational Stefanski had 45
kills in four matches played. An Oswego, Ill. native, Stefanski is
majoring in English.
Kate Stefanski
Q: From Oswego, Illinois, which is a good distance from
Winter Park. What made you decide to come to Rollins?
A: "When I started my college search I thought
I wanted to stay close to home. I was looking at schools that were
as close as 15 minutes from my hometown. I heard from Sindee, she
asked me to come out for a visit and I came out here and fell in
love with the program and campus, which it is easy to do."
Q: Your dad played college basketball, but no one in
your family plays volleyball, so how did you begin playing this
sport?
A: "It was pretty random. It was just kind of
during middle school. I pretty much did everything that I had time
to do in terms of sports. I went out for the volleyball team at my
middle school and the coach was like, hey you should try being in a
club. I tried out and I made it."
Q: Tell me about your experience, before you began at
Rollins, playing club volleyball for Fusion South.
A: "Fusion South is absolutely incredible. In
my opinion the absolute best club in the nation. My experience
there was absolutely incredible. I made all of my best friends
there and I learned so much about myself and about the game."
Q: Your brother recently got married and just a week ago
you had a birthday, what did you get to do to celebrate
both?
A: "I got to go back home to celebrate my
brothers wedding, unfortunately I missed our game against PBA, but
it was awesome to be able to celebrate with my brother and with my
whole family. It was really exciting. My mom actually traveled down
to Florida for my birthday for about a week so we had fun."
Q: Who has motivated you the most during your
career?
A: "I think it is really important to be able
to motivate yourself and to be able to get up and have to go to
practice or work out and understand that your not just going
through the motions; that you are doing these things to get better.
Outside myself I would say my parents are my two biggest
motivators. My mom is a huge help to me, always encouraging me and
is there when I am having a rough game or week."
Q: What is something no one knows about
you?
A: " Some people know this but I am not a
secretive person, so I collect first editions of books. I am a
crazy book worm and people think it is super weird because they
walk into my dorm and it's like a tiny little library."
Q: How has this coaching staff helped you improve your
game?
A: " We have a great coaching staff. I think it
is really important for athletes to remember that no matter how
good you get and no matter how successful you are on your team and
in your conference you can always get better. Just yesterday
afternoon at practice we had a great practice, it was super
productive and I am always getting better because of our coaches. I
think it is hugely important for every athlete to remember."
Q: Last year you suffered a season ending injury. This
year you have been able to go through the season unscathed and have
a productive sophomore season. How difficult was it to recover and
maintain your competitive level?
A: "My left foot, I had stress fractures
between my little toes. We didn't really know what happened, but if
you ask Coach Snow she will tell you it is because I got too
excited when points were won and I stomped my feet. I don't do that
very much anymore but it was really difficult to be out especially
at the end of the season because it was tough to watch my team play
without me and not even be able to practice and contribute as much.
I am still kind of struggling with my toes a little bit because it
is not completely healed and it is just one of those things that if
I play on it, it is going to hurt and it might get worse, but there
is never a second where I don't want to be on the court practicing
with my team."
Q: You are an English major, what would you like to do
with your degree?
A: "I would like to go into publishing, maybe
become a journalist. Be a writer, but no one pays you straight out
of college to be a writer. I am really passionate about literature
and I just can't get myself to do something more sensible that I
don't love as much."
Q: So far in your career, what has been your favorite
memory?
A: "When we did that tournament at the
beginning of this year. We did all of the bonding activities. This
year our team is so different, we are so close and we just had so
much fun with all those different challenges. Especially when we
had to think of the skit and other teams did danceoffs. It was so
much fun we still laugh about it all the time. I absolutely love
this team this year, we have great chemistry, we all love each
other and I am super excited to see where we go with the
postseason."
