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Senior Camila Santiago has been playing volleyball for the past eight years. She was introduced to it at nine years old when she was exploring different options for sports.
“I watched some girls playing volleyball one day, repeated their movements, and it just clicked,” Santiago said.
She fell in love with the sport and began going to practices and eventually began playing in games, having her fair shares of wins and losses.
Santiago is the libero of our girls varsity volleyball team. Her job is to keep the ball from touching the floor, hustling and saving the ball as much as possible.
“I love my position,” Santiago said. “I love seeing myself get a good pass and having it end in a point. I also love diving and just pure hustle plays.”
The biggest obstacle she has had to face during her volleyball career involves her mindset. She often focuses too much on her mistakes and takes the game too seriously without keeping calm.
“Volleyball is a huge mental game,” Santiago said. “I found that sometimes I let it be so negative but I’ve learned to just have fun and not think too much.”
Her negative thoughts have blocked her from reaching her utmost potential, but she has persevered, not letting her thinking impact herself during and outside of games with the help of trusted adults.
“I became mentally strong by surrounding myself with people who give good advice,” Santiago said.
She asks for and takes advice from coaches who she could trust and count on to help approach a problem she might be dealing with from different angles.
“I’ve felt like I wanted to quit 1,000 times but I think every athlete has felt that,” Santiago said. “Wanting to quit just comes with the whole mental part.”
Though she has had thoughts of quitting the team her motivation remains intact. She has come a long way and recognizes how much her abilities have broadened over the years.
“What kept me motivated to keep playing is the fact that I can always get better and because I love to see a better me,” Santiago said.
Her biggest accomplishment is her growth in the sport. A positive attitude has helped her keep going along with her acknowledgement that there is always room for improvement.
“Watching myself get better at the sport is by far my biggest accomplishment,” Santiago said. “Winning is a great feeling when you give a game all you got and to see hard work pay off is everything.”
As her ups consist of winning intense games, her downs consist of making mistakes and losing on her senior night.
“Even though it ended in a loss, I’m proud of my senior night because I played my heart out,” Santiago said.
She has mixed feelings about having completed her final school volleyball season but is sure that her volleyball journey isn’t over.
“I feel both sad and happy about it being my last year on the school’s team but I play club volleyball so I’m not done just yet,” Santiago said.
Santiago plays for Starlings Granada Hills and is one out of two captains for the club volleyball team.
Although she will be walking the stage soon and saying her last goodbyes to her school coaches and teammates, she has thoughts of pursuing volleyball after high school.
“I don’t have a direct plan of playing volleyball in college but I’ve always loved the idea of it,” Santiago said. “Wherever I go I’ll always be doing something volleyball related.”
She is grateful to have had such an amazing sport to look forward to for most of her life. It has given her abilities, such as confidence, perseverance and trust, that she is able to apply in everyday life.
“Volleyball is an important part of my life because I’ve grown up with it, have so many memories with it and playing it has taught me so many things,” Santiago concludes.
