Speaker 1: Hi, I'm timany Oshinsky, and this is Serving Pancakes NOE.
Speaker 1: Not a podcast about food. This is a podcast about
Speaker 1: volleyball and more to you. A pancake is a fluffy,
Speaker 1: syrup drenched breakfast food, but in volleyball, a pancake is
Speaker 1: a high effort move when a player flattens her hand
Speaker 1: against the ground to keep the ball in play. And
Speaker 1: that's us digging into high efforts that are moving sports forward.
Speaker 1: Listen in as I talk with people making the biggest
Speaker 1: impacts on global volleyball and women's sports perspectives, insights, and
Speaker 1: behind the scenes stories, all with the side of pancakes.
Speaker 1: Today's episode features the best setter at the Tokyo Olympics,
Speaker 1: Jordan Poulter. Raised in Aurora, Colorado, Jordan was a two
Speaker 1: time All American at Illinois, where she led the team
Speaker 1: to a final four appearance. Jordan has been part of
Speaker 1: the US women's national team since twenty eighteen and was
Speaker 1: the youngest member when they won their first ever Olympic
Speaker 1: gold medal in Tokyo, and she'll be back defending her
Speaker 1: title this summer in Paris. Hi, Jordanskay have some pancakes.
Speaker 1: We have to start what's the Jordan Poulter special?
Speaker 2: Where are the bananas and the walnuts?
Speaker 3: You know, that's a great question. I didn't get any
Speaker 3: think I'm not picky.
Speaker 1: That's what we love about. Yeah, yes, So I want
Speaker 1: to start way back when before you ever.
Speaker 3: Played volleyball, what did you want to be when your crew?
Speaker 2: I feel like every kid changes, you know, like each
Speaker 2: week they want to be something different. I remember at
Speaker 2: one time I wanted to be a vet tam. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The idea of being with dogs and animals seemed really fun,
Speaker 2: and I think that dream was surpassed by I don't know.
Speaker 2: At one point, I just wanted to be someone who
Speaker 2: just traveled the world. So I don't know what that
Speaker 2: would have entailed. Flood didn't. Maybe there was always, I think,
Speaker 2: for me, a dream of wanting to be in the Olympics.
Speaker 2: You know, when you would draw a photo of what
Speaker 2: you want to be. I remember when I was young,
Speaker 2: drawing a picture at the Olympics and then being like
Speaker 2: old official like that might not be yah, teachers saying yeah,
Speaker 2: I remember. I remember being like, I don't know if
Speaker 2: that's really.
Speaker 3: A tagable, but dream big Jordan, but not that big.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that you didn't listen to that teaching.
Speaker 2: It's interesting right to think about what you hope to
Speaker 2: aspire and then kind of get away from. Like for me,
Speaker 2: I don't know that I was ever constantly throughout volleyball
Speaker 2: thinking I want to be an Olympian. But I think
Speaker 2: at a young age had to have been the four Olympics,
Speaker 2: remembering watching it on TV and it's sticking. Not necessarily
Speaker 2: wanting to be a volleyball player, but just having that
Speaker 2: American flag on your jersey and representing something bigger than
Speaker 2: yourself at the highest level seemed really cool.
Speaker 3: So when did you get introduced to volleyball?
Speaker 2: My dad actually coached high school volleyball team. Well, I
Speaker 2: was growing up. My sister and I grew up running
Speaker 2: around in a gym and form of babysitting. Yeah, just
Speaker 2: well they were practicing. We kept ourselves busy running around
Speaker 2: and playing with different volleyballs or watching. So I think
Speaker 2: I started playing organized volleyball maybe when I was in
Speaker 2: third grade and.
Speaker 3: Your dad coached. He coached to you.
Speaker 2: Eventually he did coach me eventually.
Speaker 3: What was that like some stressful car rides?
Speaker 2: No, I I think that we both agree looking back
Speaker 2: that if it had been at any other time past
Speaker 2: the age that I was thin. He coached me when
Speaker 2: I was twelve for a couple of years, and then
Speaker 2: coached me when I was fourteen per year, and I
Speaker 2: think if we had gone beyond fourteen years old, it
Speaker 2: would have been Nah, it would have been some some
Speaker 2: kas in the house. Does he still coach? He does,
Speaker 2: on and off. He just finished coaching a club season
Speaker 2: for a Beleague fourteen see it all right?
Speaker 4: Up?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So when did you know that volleyball wasn't going
Speaker 1: to be your sport?
Speaker 3: What was it that clicked?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 2: I feel like a part of it had to have
Speaker 2: been that I grew up around it and just saw it.
Speaker 2: And I think being always in a gym with older
Speaker 2: girls that I could look up to and aspire to
Speaker 2: try and get to where they were kind of was
Speaker 2: the thing in front of me. But I love anything
Speaker 2: that involves a ball, So my sister and I would
Speaker 2: play every sport imaginable in our backyard and try everything
Speaker 2: and had a lot of fun with it. But I
Speaker 2: think because volleyball was so accessible to me was what stuck.
Speaker 2: But I always say that if I had had the
Speaker 2: chance to play basketball, I think I would have liked
Speaker 2: the physical interaction with the other team, like you don't
Speaker 2: get much of that in volleyball.
Speaker 1: No, It's funny because a lot of your teammates who
Speaker 1: did play basketball preferred not to do the physical anymore,
Speaker 1: which is why they enjoyed playing volleyball.
Speaker 3: When did you know, though, that you were going to
Speaker 3: be not just good but good.
Speaker 2: I had the fortune of playing up a lot, so
Speaker 2: I was always one of the younger ones on the team,
Speaker 2: playing with older girls who were either one or two
Speaker 2: years older than me, And so I feel like you
Speaker 2: learn pretty quickly. You're humbled quickly, and you learn faster
Speaker 2: honestly when you're in an environment that forces you to
Speaker 2: be better or you know you won't thrive or you
Speaker 2: won't make it. So I think probably sometime early in
Speaker 2: high school as a freshman came in and made varsity,
Speaker 2: like a lot of my teammates, and you kind of go, well,
Speaker 2: this might be something that I could run with or take,
Speaker 2: and I think I speak for a lot of us,
Speaker 2: when you just constantly tried to get to that next thing. So,
Speaker 2: you know, freshman making varsity, then it's like you're in
Speaker 2: high school and you're trying to see if you can
Speaker 2: get a scholarship somewhere to play in college, and that
Speaker 2: what's next, what's next, What's next? And so we have
Speaker 2: such a large pool of athletes in this country with
Speaker 2: our college system for volleyball, and I know our national
Speaker 2: team staff watches a lot and wants to make our
Speaker 2: program the best it can and bring in the best
Speaker 2: talent they think might be suitable for the future. And
Speaker 2: so when cors calls, you know, you answer and you
Speaker 2: you come.
Speaker 3: They look good. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: So it was fortunate to get the opportunity to get
Speaker 2: my foot in the door, and I'm lucky to still
Speaker 2: be here.
Speaker 1: We're born in Illinois. It was Yeah, when did you
Speaker 1: move to Colorado?
Speaker 2: My parents moved out to Colorado when I was two,
Speaker 2: I think, so I'm high. Yeah, so all of our
Speaker 2: families back in the Midwest, but I grew up in Denver.
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, I wanted to give you a quick fact
Speaker 1: about volleyball in Colorado to set the scene. The Midwest
Speaker 1: is a hot spot for girls and women's volleyball. That's
Speaker 1: why places like Nebraska and Wisconsin are almost always in
Speaker 1: the conversation when you talk about the best players, clubs
Speaker 1: and schools for the sport. But Colorado is gaining momentum
Speaker 1: and has amazing athletes thanks to players like Jordan and
Speaker 1: her USA teammate Haley Washington, who's from Colorado Springs. When
Speaker 1: Jordan was a senior, her club team front Range eighteen
Speaker 1: Black was ranked eleventh in the nation and going back
Speaker 1: to Team US, Jordan and Haley made up a sixth
Speaker 1: of the gold medal winners in Tokyo and both will
Speaker 1: be heading back to Paris. The Rocky Mountain region doesn't
Speaker 1: look so i rocky to me. Now back to the interview.
Speaker 3: Beautiful Tenver. So what drew you to Illinois for college?
Speaker 2: I think a mix of who that coach was at
Speaker 2: the time, Kevin Hanley, who is now the head coach
Speaker 2: at Stanford and in combination with the team at that
Speaker 2: time made the championship against UCLA. I think it was
Speaker 2: twenty eleven. So it was just a lot of right
Speaker 2: things at the right time in that regard, and having
Speaker 2: had grandparents from central Illinois, my mom's from Central Illinois.
Speaker 2: You know, both my parents growing up were Illinois fans.
Speaker 2: A lot of yelling at the TV during basketball games,
Speaker 2: so it just seemed like a great foot for me,
Speaker 2: and I loved my time at University of Illinois and
Speaker 2: wouldn't trade it for anything.
Speaker 1: You were the top three recruit in the nation, the
Speaker 1: top setter when you graduated high school. But how did
Speaker 1: you decide on becoming a setter.
Speaker 2: I've got to say that it was one of those
Speaker 2: things that wasn't my choice to start. You know, I
Speaker 2: was one of the smaller ones when I had first
Speaker 2: started playing volleyball, so I was eight years old playing
Speaker 2: with twelve year olds, so it was four years younger,
Speaker 2: and it was kind of like, oh, well, you're definitely
Speaker 2: not big enough to be one of our hitters, and
Speaker 2: we need somebody else to say because we've got our
Speaker 2: libro set. So it just, you know, by lucky, the
Speaker 2: draw was kind of what I was led into, and
Speaker 2: fortunately enough for me my personality and my want for control,
Speaker 2: it fits well when being a setter. No, I'm just giving.
Speaker 1: Apparently makes for the best setter in the country, I suppose,
Speaker 1: so it helped. So being that highly touted going into college,
Speaker 1: did you find yourself humbled a bit or did you
Speaker 1: fit in immediately? What was kind of your transition from
Speaker 1: high school club to college.
Speaker 2: I went to Illinois and earned the starting spot, and
Speaker 2: the current center at the time was a senior. So
Speaker 2: was a freshman coming in and taking a senior's position,
Speaker 2: and that had a learning curve to it for sure,
Speaker 2: and kind of had some ups and downs through the season.
Speaker 2: Was benched for a brief period of time, and then
Speaker 2: re earned my spot and we finished out my freshman
Speaker 2: year going to the Sweet sixteen. But every level there's
Speaker 2: a jump in physicality, there's a jump in IQ and
Speaker 2: I think for me, trying to get to know women
Speaker 2: who have played together for a long time in the
Speaker 2: short amount of time, had to figure out how to
Speaker 2: ford relationships quickly, you know, similarly to when you come
Speaker 2: to the national team and those girls who've been playing
Speaker 2: together for ten plus years and you come in Brennan
Speaker 2: bushytail just you know, have to have to form these
Speaker 2: relationships and build trust and equity as authentically and quickly
Speaker 2: as you can.
Speaker 1: Mentally, when you're going through that initial phase freshman year,
Speaker 1: bench not bench starting, taking over senior's position, how did
Speaker 1: you mentally prepare yourself and get through that.
Speaker 2: I don't know that there was anything that could have
Speaker 2: prepared me. I think It's one of those life lessons
Speaker 2: until you're in it, you know. The only way I
Speaker 2: was through because I wasn't, you know, necessarily satisfied with
Speaker 2: what was happening in the gym. I kind of self
Speaker 2: taught piano in my dorm room. Oh wow, yeah, our dorm.
Speaker 2: Our dorm had piano rooms, and so I was like,
Speaker 2: you know what, this sounds kind of fun. We could
Speaker 2: rent the rooms for an hour for free, and so
Speaker 2: I just take an hour almost every night and sit
Speaker 2: and try to equivalate, you know, the chords that you
Speaker 2: learn on guitar and figure out the ham positionings on
Speaker 2: piano and sort of that's kind of how I self taught.
Speaker 1: Okay, can we take a second to just commend Jordan
Speaker 1: for teaching herself piano, because wow, that takes a lot
Speaker 1: of patience and dedication and just amazing. But I also
Speaker 1: want to point out that playing an instrument could help
Speaker 1: you become a better athlete.
Speaker 3: I mean, think about it.
Speaker 1: Both playing a sport and instrument need coordination, collaboration, and
Speaker 1: self confidence, and both skills can help each other. When
Speaker 1: you're stressed or anxious about your athletic performance, you can
Speaker 1: relax by playing an instrument like music therapy or if
Speaker 1: you're frustrated after trying to learn Hotel, California after the
Speaker 1: nth hour, you can take that frustration out on the court.
Speaker 1: But the biggest issue is time management. When can you
Speaker 1: find the time to practice an instrument while still training
Speaker 1: and performing at a high level. Well, Jordan was able
Speaker 1: to find that while competing at a high level in volleyball.
Speaker 1: And if Jordan can do it, so can you. Are
Speaker 1: you a chord player or can you read the notes?
Speaker 2: I can't read music, but I and tabs and chords.
Speaker 1: See, that's actually the fun way because that's like piano
Speaker 1: bar playing, and you can play anything.
Speaker 2: That's the more social way, right, And that's what I
Speaker 2: use it for as like a fun hobby social you know.
Speaker 1: So did you find that cathartic or was it just
Speaker 1: sort of a distraction?
Speaker 2: I think both. Actually cathartic in the sense of I
Speaker 2: was doing something that was enjoyable and challenging and I
Speaker 2: was getting better and learning, and yeah, it was a
Speaker 2: good way to detach and it was something that I
Speaker 2: could do solely by myself and control the pace at
Speaker 2: which I tried to attack it. There was just a
Speaker 2: lot of fun, creative freedom in it that I don't
Speaker 2: think that I could have found anywhere else.
Speaker 1: And you were a film major at Illinois, it was
Speaker 1: how did that work?
Speaker 3: So as I ended up becoming a film major.
Speaker 2: I think, like a lot of people who here, when
Speaker 2: you're a film major or media in cinema studies, it's like, oh.
Speaker 3: Nice, so you're going to work at a restaurant.
Speaker 2: But you know, being in the fortunate position of getting
Speaker 2: a full Red scholarship, I wanted to do something that
Speaker 2: I enjoyed. I wanted to be in classes that I
Speaker 2: wanted to go to and I and.
Speaker 3: That's what college is kind of I think so too.
Speaker 2: But I did start out in the business school, and
Speaker 2: after you can one O two.
Speaker 5: I.
Speaker 2: Tailed it out of there.
Speaker 3: The opportunities are endless when it comes to that.
Speaker 1: You said this before, but senior year, the US women's
Speaker 1: national team game calling and brought you on board. And
Speaker 1: so what was it like playing with these women who
Speaker 1: now their life is just volleyball and professional sports? Did
Speaker 1: you learn a lot about the next phase in this
Speaker 1: world if you wanted to go pro again?
Speaker 2: It's such an interesting jump for US Americans to go
Speaker 2: from college to professionally, which you know, up until this
Speaker 2: year you had to go abroad to play and make
Speaker 2: a decent amount of money. And so for me, coming
Speaker 2: out of college, I fell I had the perfect balance
Speaker 2: of school, social and sport. Then you leave all that
Speaker 2: and it's all volleyball, and it's all just Yeah, you're
Speaker 2: having to figure out how you find that balance in
Speaker 2: other aspects. And for me that was pretty challenging, or
Speaker 2: a pretty rude awakening, I would say, But kind of
Speaker 2: like I touched on earlier, I think in life you
Speaker 2: have to go through some hard things to grow as
Speaker 2: a human and be better moving forward. As hard as
Speaker 2: that experience was for me, I think I'm better for it,
Speaker 2: I guess now in hindsight. But if young girls don't
Speaker 2: have to leave America to experience high level volleyball, that's
Speaker 2: one of the reasons that I think a lot of
Speaker 2: us feel so compelled to to be a part of
Speaker 2: League One, you know, is to provide that choice and
Speaker 2: have the option because we never had the option before.
Speaker 1: Did the girls give you advice since you were still
Speaker 1: in college, did they give you advice on the next
Speaker 1: step in life?
Speaker 2: I think as much as they could. People are very
Speaker 2: forthcoming with their experiences and things that they've learned. But
Speaker 2: I think the essence of it all is really finding yourself.
Speaker 2: And the more the more that you become comfortable with yourself,
Speaker 2: the easier, and that everything else becomes both inside and
Speaker 2: outside the gym. You know, when you make that jump
Speaker 2: from college to pro there's a lot of imposter syndrome
Speaker 2: or just feeling like what am I doing here? And
Speaker 2: the growth curve is pretty big. But controlling what you
Speaker 2: can and being open to learning and growing and keeping
Speaker 2: yourself curious, I think would be my advice if I
Speaker 2: could go back and tell my former giving.
Speaker 1: Yourself when did you know, yes, I'm definitely going to
Speaker 1: be playing professionally, that this is something that I want
Speaker 1: to continue doing and pursuing.
Speaker 2: Probably my junior and senior year of college was one
Speaker 2: in those conversations with both my coaches at Illinois at
Speaker 2: the time and with national team staff were happening.
Speaker 3: Did you know where you wanted to go?
Speaker 2: So I graduated in December of twenty eighteen, so I
Speaker 2: graduated a semester early from my graduating class, and that's
Speaker 2: the middle of the overseas season. So I was not picky.
Speaker 2: I was very lucky that a team who was doing
Speaker 2: very poorly in Seri one of the Italian League wanted
Speaker 2: to make a change to try to save themselves from
Speaker 2: a relegation, and they took a chance on a young
Speaker 2: center out of college. So I then spent the next
Speaker 2: four years after that playing in the Italian League, and
Speaker 2: it was a really great place to learn and to
Speaker 2: get better and to meet friends and people from all
Speaker 2: walks of life and countries that I never would have
Speaker 2: had I not gone. I don't know, it's weird for
Speaker 2: all of us now. I think kind of being on
Speaker 2: the other side of our overseas life, you know, kind
Speaker 2: of mourn it in a way because for as hard
Speaker 2: as it was, there were so many beautiful things in
Speaker 2: friendships and memories that come out of it. It's a
Speaker 2: bittersweet thing, but I'm really excited for the picture.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. So let's talk about Tokyo for a second.
Speaker 3: Because you were the onest player on the team during
Speaker 3: that run. You get named.
Speaker 1: Best senter in the Tokyo Olympics, which, like that must
Speaker 1: have been so cool. You win gold, but you're twenty
Speaker 1: four at the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I turned twenty four during the Olympics.
Speaker 1: So you're twenty three turning twenty four during the Olympics.
Speaker 1: What was going through your mind when it came to
Speaker 1: I just went gold. I'm twenty four years old. What
Speaker 1: do I do now? What's the next goal?
Speaker 2: Exactly right. I don't know if dreams are dreams are
Speaker 2: dreams because they're this like huge attainable thing that you
Speaker 2: hope to one day you know, achieved or accomplish. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Not you just don't think it happens
Speaker 2: that that early, or I feel really fortunate that it
Speaker 2: happened at all, because a lot of people don't get
Speaker 2: to achieve their dreams. But there was there was a
Speaker 2: period afterward of like, oh, well, okay, no, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: what I mean, you try to do it again? Right?
Speaker 2: But I think for me, being alongside of the eleven
Speaker 2: other women that I got to be teammates with in
Speaker 2: the took Olympics, I think all of us wished that
Speaker 2: for as high a moment that that was winning gold,
Speaker 2: that our friends and family could have been there to
Speaker 2: experience that with us, or celebrate and relish in that
Speaker 2: alongside us. And so for me, the new dream became
Speaker 2: to be able to be wearing my country on my
Speaker 2: chest and to be competing on the biggest stage in
Speaker 2: the world and have my mom, dad, and sister in
Speaker 2: the stands in that experience with me. So that's a
Speaker 2: good dream. That's the new dream.
Speaker 1: So I know you've talked about this a lot in interviews,
Speaker 1: but there's probably people listening to this.
Speaker 3: I don't know the story, so I know you know
Speaker 3: exactly what I'm about to ask you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in twenty twenty two, your car got broken into
Speaker 1: and your gold medal was stolen. Listening to the interviews
Speaker 1: that you've done, you know what you just did. Now
Speaker 1: you're laughing. You know you got it back, which is
Speaker 1: I did miracle.
Speaker 2: It is a miracle.
Speaker 3: But I had to ask.
Speaker 1: When it first happened, what actually was going through your mind,
Speaker 1: because I don't think you were laughing.
Speaker 2: No, well, no, no, but I wasn't crying either. It
Speaker 2: was more like a God, you're so stupid. You're so stupid.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: It was more of a disappointment in myself for a
Speaker 2: couple of reasons. How could you forget that you put
Speaker 2: it in your car?
Speaker 3: I would have forgotten too. If it makes you feel better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I you know, I try to spin it
Speaker 2: and say, yeah, I'm just not so attached to it
Speaker 2: that I like think about it all the time. No,
Speaker 2: I think also just knowing where I was living at
Speaker 2: the time and having been just negligent and understanding, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe let's not leave your garage open and leave your
Speaker 2: car unlocked, and you know, just things like that where
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, I should put a little more thought
Speaker 2: into into.
Speaker 3: This very good life lesson.
Speaker 2: It is a good life lesson. You know. One of
Speaker 2: my best friends, Beth, she always told me never to
Speaker 2: leave anything valuable in my car because smashing grabs, and
Speaker 2: clearly I didn't listen to her. I had made peace
Speaker 2: with the fact that I would probably never see it again,
Speaker 2: which to me, did not take away from the actual
Speaker 2: accomplishment itself. You know, as cool as the actual metal
Speaker 2: is to me, doesn't mitigate the magnitude of the accomplishments.
Speaker 2: And then, twist of fate. I got a call while
Speaker 2: we were in Canada playing. Actually I was on my
Speaker 2: trainer's massage table getting me some work done. I only
Speaker 2: have or something, and I got a call and was
Speaker 2: told that the metal had been recovered.
Speaker 3: All right, you're going to love this.
Speaker 1: Jordan is very casual about how her metal was recovered.
Speaker 1: But here's what actually went down. A woman was leaving
Speaker 1: her office through the back door one evening to walk
Speaker 1: her dogs when she spotted a fast food bag on
Speaker 1: the ground outside her door. She opened it up and
Speaker 1: was inside a gold Olympic medal. Yes, Jordan Poulter's gold
Speaker 1: Olympic medal. The woman called her husband, who owned a
Speaker 1: barber shop nearby, to tell him of her discovery, and
Speaker 1: he was like, it's probably fake, but bring it over.
Speaker 1: In another twist of fate, a friend of theirs who
Speaker 1: happens to be a cop, was coming in for a haircut,
Speaker 1: so they showed him the medal and he said it
Speaker 1: was real and it was stolen and that's how Jordan
Speaker 1: got her medal back. So glad that you have it back.
Speaker 1: Is it an essay spot now it is? You don't
Speaker 1: need to tell me where. I don't want anybody else
Speaker 1: to know where it is. But I'm glad that it's
Speaker 1: now an assaie spot. Yeah, but you still take it
Speaker 1: out every so often show.
Speaker 2: Oh, whoever wants to see it. I'm very happy to
Speaker 2: show anyone. Yeah, it's I think it's so cool when
Speaker 2: people want to wear it or hold it. I feel
Speaker 2: like part of the victory is getting to share it
Speaker 2: with any other person or American who feels the same
Speaker 2: and a weight of what goes behind when they one
Speaker 2: of those. So for sure.
Speaker 3: So there's a little bit of a low, a little
Speaker 3: bit of a high.
Speaker 1: But then in December there was another low for you
Speaker 1: that year when you were playing in Italy. I believe
Speaker 1: he used the word gnarly. You had to gnarly it
Speaker 1: was really injury. So can you explain what happened?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was playing for my professional team Navara over
Speaker 2: in Italy and we were playing an away match and
Speaker 2: I went up for a tight pass and at the
Speaker 2: top of my jump, I thought the opposing little blocker
Speaker 2: kicked my knee and felt my knee like hyper extend
Speaker 2: backwards and was told that that was my ACL at
Speaker 2: the top of the jump, just oh fucking And then
Speaker 2: on the way down everything else kind of kind of gave.
Speaker 2: So yeah, did my ACL and sale PCL and meniscus,
Speaker 2: and then had some other stuff in there too. It
Speaker 2: was really difficult to get home from Italy to America
Speaker 2: with all that going on.
Speaker 1: I can imagine So what was it like though, suffering
Speaker 1: an injury like this obviously season end day, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: being away from your support system.
Speaker 2: I feel like the shock value of just trying to
Speaker 2: understand what the next thing that I have control over
Speaker 2: to do kind of kicked in for me, and it
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, the next thing that I can do
Speaker 2: is try to get a flight in the next couple
Speaker 2: of days and head home and get this checked out
Speaker 2: by our doctors with TBSA and see what's going on
Speaker 2: and get a second opinion and hopefully get on the
Speaker 2: path to surgery. So that was kind of where my
Speaker 2: mind went. It wasn't so much wishing that my parents
Speaker 2: were there with me or anything. My mom actually offered
Speaker 2: to come out of it. I'm just sitting around, You're
Speaker 2: gonna be no help to me, or like it's not waste,
Speaker 2: It's not worth your time to come all the way
Speaker 2: out here. I'll be home, I'll be fine. But I
Speaker 2: know how hard I think it was for them on
Speaker 2: the flip side, being so far and not being able
Speaker 2: to help too child.
Speaker 1: Then you're back in the States, you're rehabbing, you're trying
Speaker 1: to recover, but.
Speaker 3: All of your teammates are abroad. So what was that Like?
Speaker 2: It was lonely, to put it. To put it lonely,
Speaker 2: I feel like I had mentally prepped so much for
Speaker 2: what was ahead in terms of what I physically had
Speaker 2: to go through, the milestones that I had to hit,
Speaker 2: and like the plan was very clear in that regard.
Speaker 2: So for a long time, I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: people have been telling me that this is going to
Speaker 2: get mentally really difficult, and I for ten months was
Speaker 2: smooth sailing. You know, Yeah, I get, I get this
Speaker 2: is hard, but I haven't. I don't feel like I've
Speaker 2: endured anything mentally emotionally that has taken me out of
Speaker 2: like myself. Then, yeah, my teammates headed off to their
Speaker 2: overseas season and it was just me in our gym
Speaker 2: and Anaheim with Kara, r trainer, and Brandon, our strength
Speaker 2: coach and coach, and Tama one of our assistants, and
Speaker 2: it started to become just Groundhog's day, you know, just
Speaker 2: showing up. And there came a point where I was
Speaker 2: then able to start using my body again in more
Speaker 2: volleyball like movements on the court. And I think the
Speaker 2: reteaching of how to use your muscles and use your
Speaker 2: body in combination with just not having you know, any
Speaker 2: of my teammates who are also some of my best friends.
Speaker 2: You know, in that environment too, felt really isolating and
Speaker 2: lonely in my day to day, my Monday through Fridays.
Speaker 2: So I think it scratched at something that I had
Speaker 2: never experienced as an athlete before and kind of said earlier,
Speaker 2: until you're in something and the only way out is through,
Speaker 2: I don't think you realize the value it has until
Speaker 2: you're on the other side of it. And I do
Speaker 2: think that I want to have a new appreciation for
Speaker 2: just what this sport offers in terms of how lucky
Speaker 2: I am to get to do such daily collaboration with
Speaker 2: others and work to try and l and lift up
Speaker 2: those around me.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I think, especially being a setter, you rely so much
Speaker 2: on your teammates. You're the middleman. You rely on your
Speaker 2: passers and your attackers. Without without either of them, you're nothing.
Speaker 2: You're just really So there is a newfound, I think, appreciation,
Speaker 2: and not that I didn't have it before, but there's
Speaker 2: a new enlightened, I pick approach that I have after
Speaker 2: this experience.
Speaker 1: I saw on the Love website that your motto is
Speaker 1: low expectations, high hopes yolo.
Speaker 2: I don't remember putting the yellow in there, but I
Speaker 2: do like that. I like YO and I live once.
Speaker 2: I think expectations is yeah, the thief of pe of
Speaker 2: a lot of joy and a lot of potential happiness.
Speaker 3: What brings you joy?
Speaker 1: What off the court makes you happy and joyful and
Speaker 1: makes you smile.
Speaker 2: A lot of things. I think my friends and loved
Speaker 2: once for sure bring me a lot of joy. I
Speaker 2: would say my hobbies bring me good pure joy where
Speaker 2: there's no end goal. It's just a fun thing to
Speaker 2: pass some time. And I think hobbies are cool because
Speaker 2: you're constantly approving and getting better. And hobbies like what
Speaker 2: I've played the guitar a little bit and piano at
Speaker 2: the piano a bit, and I enjoy longboarding are my
Speaker 2: main ones. But I think I'd like to dip my
Speaker 2: toe into DJing. Oh, it would be a fun hobby.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's really really dumb to say nowadays,
Speaker 2: I feel like every millennial or sillennial wants to wants
Speaker 2: to start DJing. But I think it could be a fun,
Speaker 2: really fun thing to learn when you're only planning on
Speaker 2: doing it for friends or small gatherings, be fun.
Speaker 3: Was your music your guitar, piano? Was your family musical?
Speaker 2: My dad was a drummer and a band in college,
Speaker 2: and he I think is heavily influential in my musical
Speaker 2: taste and just my exposure to different kinds of music.
Speaker 1: Well, going back to volleyball, you're still so young. They
Speaker 1: have plenty of years to play. But thinking about when
Speaker 1: it is going to be all said and done in
Speaker 1: twenty years, what do you hope your legacy will be.
Speaker 2: I hope that my legacy alongside honestly, not not just
Speaker 2: me personally, but the other women who have chosen to
Speaker 2: be a part of this leak. I hope that our
Speaker 2: legacy is that we created the path for the opportunity
Speaker 2: to the next major professional sports league in America.
Speaker 3: Where do you hope to see volleyball in five to
Speaker 3: ten years from now?
Speaker 2: I hope to see volleyball on my TV at least
Speaker 2: three times a week. I love it. I hope to
Speaker 2: be able to turn my TV on to any major
Speaker 2: network and be able to see volleyball. I love it.
Speaker 1: Well, Jordan, thank you so much. And now I have
Speaker 1: to say pancakes. So I was wondering if you could
Speaker 1: do something for me, and that's uh, play a little
Speaker 1: guitar for me.
Speaker 3: So we got we got one.
Speaker 2: Hey, I'll play guitar whenly have you sing? Oh?
Speaker 3: I will sing. Let's do it. I'm gonna bring it up.
Speaker 3: Do you like to sing?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: But you just singing your brittany voice.
Speaker 3: Do you want me to I? Yeah, I can try.
Speaker 5: This is a story about a girl you mean, lucky
Speaker 5: her limn.
Speaker 6: She wakes up and a knock, knock, knock on the door.
Speaker 6: It's time to make up, perfect smile and it's you.
Speaker 6: They're all waiting.
Speaker 2: For they there.
Speaker 4: She love please this allie, well go and they say
Speaker 4: she's so lucky, she's a star.
Speaker 6: But she cry cry, cries in her.
Speaker 4: Lonely hot thinking if there's nothing missing in my life,
Speaker 4: then why do FEISTI comingn.
Speaker 1: Ha ha.
Speaker 3: That was amazing.
Speaker 2: It's awesome.
Speaker 3: Oh cheers, Joan. That was amazing.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you so much for coming, for playing,
Speaker 1: for having some pancakes, and you're for having me. Serving
Speaker 1: Pancakes is an iHeart women's sports production. You can find
Speaker 1: Serving Pancakes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. I'm your host Tiffany Oshinski. Anya
Speaker 1: Olivarez is our senior producer. Our executive producers are Carrie Stett, Tamaradikey,
Speaker 1: and Lindsay Hoffman. Our marketing lead is Jawara Parker. Our
Speaker 1: theme music is Pancakes by Eric W. Mast Junior special
Speaker 1: thanks to Jordan Poulter. We'll be back next week with
Speaker 1: Annie Drews, a lefty opposite hitter who also helped Team
Speaker 1: USA when their first gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and
Speaker 1: who will be back this summer in Paris. Stay tuned
Speaker 1: for what we serve up next.