In the morning you wake up at 5am. You go workout and train for an hour and then head off to school. Afterwards you go to volleyball practice for a couple of hours. Then it’s around time to have dinner and you go back to do some more training for another couple of hours. You then finally end your day, go to sleep and repeat. Well, this is the schedule that Allie Chandler had followed every school morning in all her three years of middle school. She kept pushing herself with her deep passion for volleyball, and not too long later, made varsity freshman year.
Allie is a freshman at Rocky Mountain High School. She is a star athlete and a supportive teammate that has proven herself day after day. She first picked up a volleyball at the age of 6, and since then she’s grown to become the determined and accomplished player she is today. From training early mornings to maintaining a positive mindset, Chandler has shown her dedication to becoming the best player she can be.
However, she experienced other sports before finding volleyball. It all started when she was 4 years old, a dancer at Studio C Academy of Dance. Studio C was like a home to Chandler. She had become very close with the staff and her teammates, but it didn’t compare to the fact that she didn’t enjoy dancing. As she walked into dance tryouts, she immediately started tearing up and made it clear dance was not the route she wanted to go. Chandler decided to join a volleyball team at the YMCA, and that’s where her journey started. She then advanced to a competitive team at Idaho Crush and fell in love with volleyball later deciding to join her middle school’s program.
Carlotte Evans, a teammate of Chandler’s from middle school says, “Me and Allie have been teammates for years now and I’ve been able to watch her grow into such a strong person. When I first met her, she was super friendly and was a key source in helping me and all our other teammates adapt to the team better. She was a great leader and was always so supportive and helpful to her teammates. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen Allie not trying her best the entire time during practice. I would say that Allie has inspired me to not give up and keep fighting for what I love!”
Chandler has always had a heart for being a part of a community and she helped make that happen by being there for her teammates but more than that her friends.
Even with her having an outstanding work ethic, it can become quite stressful and can be a lot on her plate.
As Chandler said, “It’s been pretty hard juggling both school and volleyball with how much of school we miss for out-of-town tournaments. When we leave school early or miss a couple days it can be hard to pick everything up when I come back. I try my best to get some work done by taking it with me on the bus ride but there’s just never enough time.”
Despite the fact that catching up on schoolwork can be challenging, that doesn’t stop her from trying her best. Chandler stays motivated by thinking forward to her future as an athlete and pushing herself as much as she can to get any bit closer to her main objective. Everyone has goals and Chandler has goals that help her accomplish great things in volleyball. Goals can also help us strive for things that seem out of reach. They help push us into being the best version of ourselves, and these goals that Chandler has set will hopefully help her make a college volleyball team she has been longing for since she was a little girl. She claims that ever since she can remember her end goal that has kept her going is to play in college volleyball. She hopes to attend a college in Utah like Brigham Young University (BYU), or Utah Valley University (UVU). With all this said, Chandler is very proud of her success and accomplishments and all of her work paying off in the end.
