Senior Brooke Spindler has always been drawn towards team-centered sports. Whether it was the fact that the past three generations of Spindler women have played volleyball or Spindler’s strive to improve herself, the sport of volleyball runs in Spindler’s blood.
Spindler completed her final year of volleyball in May 2024. Combined with various injuries and knowing her journey was not meant to continue into college, Spindler set a halt to her athletic career. However, Spindler will forever remember the life lessons she learned through the sport.
“I’m really proud of how I ended my last season. I made close friends and ended on a high note, which made all the challenges worth it,” Spindler said.
Each sport comes with its own obstacles; for one, volleyball is very much a mental game. Although it may be challenging, the cognitive hurdles Spindler has overcome have shaped how she approaches not only the ball on the court but also day-to-day life off the court.
“My coach told me volleyball is a game of mistakes, and as soon as I was told that I stopped trying to be so perfect all the time and that’s kind of true for life too. Like, a mistake in life could lead to one path that you might not have ever planned on going down, but it could be the best thing to happen to you. So, like, I guess it’s changed my perspective in that way,” Spindler said.
The sport of volleyball forces its players to be faultless. Every misstep can be seen as letting down one’s team. For Spindler, her errors on the court fed her negative self-talk on and off the court. Eventually after trials and tribulations, Spindler has learned to grow from this thread of mistakes.
“There’s such a mental side to the game, I know for me, I would ruminate about mistakes I made during the game, and then I would keep making mistakes. So I would have to get out of my head and be like, okay, that points done, it doesn’t matter. So definitely my overthinking and perfectionism played into volleyball, and I know a lot of volleyball players struggle with the mental aspect,” Spindler said.
With the support of her mom, Spindler was able to learn to live with her perfectionistic and overthinking tendencies. While one cannot evolve past these traits, Spindler can now focus on her personal development rather than her worries.
“My mom would help me practice in the backyard. I would be hard on myself, or get down she would always try and tell me you have to compare yourself to how you were a couple weeks ago. Instead of comparing yourself to other girls, she always tried to help me keep it in perspective, to only compare myself to myself,” Spindler said.
Even though Spindler took a hiatus from the sport in her younger years, she is grateful for the experience and everything she learned.
“Getting back into volleyball after quitting was one of the best decisions I made. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me grow in ways I didn’t expect,” Spindler said.
