Over her four years with the program, women’s volleyball captain and outside hitter senior Sydney Johnson has proven her skill in the game.
Johnson received the title of Owl Athlete of the Week for the week of Oct. 24. She had a strong week on the court, performing 41 kills, 13 digs, and eight service aces within the team’s last four games.
The Brentwood, N.H. native first stepped on the court in middle school. “When I was in seventh grade, my older sister decided to try it because she was a freshman in high school…so I decided to do it with my friend and we ended up loving it,” Johnson said. When deciding if becoming an Owl would be the right choice for her, Johnson said she had to separate the educational and athletic environments in her mind. “I wanted to make sure I loved the school before I thought about sports,” she said.
KSC ultimately checked both those boxes. “I loved the school, I loved the downtown [area], the education program is awesome. And then I met coach [Robert] Weiner and he was really nice and he helped me out a lot, and I’m glad I came here,” she said. The feeling was mutual — she also ended up being the right fit for KSC’s women’s volleyball program, according to head coach Robert Weiner.
When Weiner received an email from Johnson during her junior year in high school about her interest in playing at the collegiate level, he had to go see her play. She ended up being the perfect fit for the program.
“At that point, I was looking for a specific outside hitter, she hit every point. It was all there,” he said. “She’s gotten significantly better over her four years in Keene, but the basic wiring was in place when I saw her as a high school junior.”
“She was possibly one of the best two or three players in the state [her junior] year, and her high school coach was hoping she might go higher, play Division I, play Division II, and he didn’t quite understand why no one else was pursuing her, and I was like, ‘I’m pursuing her! Me, me, me!’ So, in that respect, we got lucky,” he said.
As a player and an individual, Johnson said she has learned a lot about self-discipline and leadership skills through volleyball. “Volleyball is a game of mistakes and everyone is going to make mistakes, so I think becoming mentally strong through it all is important,” she said.
Many athletes experience troubling times in their sport, and Johnson is no different. She recalled a time at Keene State when she had to take a step back and let other teammates take over one of multiple roles on the court that she had tried to perform by herself.
“At first I was really upset with myself because I wanted to be able to do it all, but we have these amazing underclassmen so they were able to kind of help me out and take my role in the back so I could focus on working in the front row, and I think that’s an important lesson to learn, that you can’t do it all yourself,” she said.
Johnson said she hopes that her underclassmen teammates are learning how to be good team players from her leadership. “You’re six bodies but you’re one team trying to go towards the same goal and I think it’s really important to help each other and pick each other up, and I hope they’re learning that from me…if everything is going according to plan,” she said.
One thing Johnson has learned from her time as an Owl is that sometimes things won’t be perfect, but that doesn’t make doing what you love not worthwhile. “In sports it’s different everyday, and you’re going to have good days and bad days, and I think just the aspect of pushing through no matter what [is important] because it’s going to get better,” she said.
Weiner said that Johnson brings a specific level of experience and knowledge to the program.
“She is the only player we have with pre- pandemic memory,” Weiner said. “She is the link to past Keene State teams.”
He continued, “She is a terrific all-around volleyball player, I mean she can play, she can do a lot of different things. She’s a terrific leader…we asked her early in the season if she wanted a co-captain and she went, ‘No, I got this,’ and she does.”
Weiner said Johnson is a prime example of what it means to be a team player.
“After three years for us of never coming off the court, this season we’ve limited her role defensively a little bit because we have someone who does that job better,” Weiner said. “Rather than complain about it, we just said, ‘Syd, this is what we’re going to do, and she rolled with it, happily, and I think that that is a really important thing to teach the team. It’s about us, not you.”
Weiner said that Johnson has the exact type of attitude and drive that makes for a good team captain.
“It’s been really fun to watch her grow into this leadership role, and I’m of the opinion that – I’ve been here 18 years – she’s one of the best two or three captains we’ve ever had,” he said.
As Johnson is wrapping up her senior season with women’s volleyball, Weiner said he hopes she leaves Keene State knowing that she made an impact, regardless of how the season ends.
“I hope she walks out with a sense that she did something that was fun and important and involved lots of other people and that she was a huge part of it,” he said.
Piper Pavelich can be contacted
at ppavelich@kscequinox.com
