Brianna Nottingham
Nottingham started her journey with volleyball in the fourth grade and later moved to the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) and clubs. She started playing volleyball with the CYO in fourth grade to “just start playing.”
She wanted to remain calm when she found that she had made varsity.
“I tried to keep my excitement contained at tryouts just for other people’s sake, but at home I was very excited,” Nottingham said.
She went into tryouts with hopes that she would make a team with players at her level, not expecting that team to be varsity.
Although Nottingham is the only freshman playing with all upperclassmen, she feels very welcomed and encouraged by her teammates. Nottingham remains calm, reminding herself she’s not used to varsity level gameplay.
“I’m very new to this high of a level so I just try to adjust and have high energy the whole time,” Nottingham said.
Daniel Voelker
Voelker was first introduced to water polo by his sister, Kylie Voelker, who is a San Marin Alumni. He later chose to play club to improve his game play. Voelker feels that being on varsity water polo is fun, yet tough due to the amount of conditioning that the players do to prepare for match play.
“Practices are tough, there is a lot of conditioning.”
He plays as a wing for the water polo team, and one of his goals is “to be leading score.”
Playing against upperclassmen on a varsity level does not seem to intimidate Voelker.
“I played club for a long time and I play up a lot, so it’s like the same, if not easier,” Voelker said.
Voelker discusses how head coach, Patrick Quinn, is very open to new ideas or improvements.
“He’s a good guy, he’s very open to new ideas and I like him,” Voelker said.
