Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Tifney Oshinsky, and this is serving pancakes. Nope,
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 button volleyball. A pancake is a
Speaker 1: high effort move when a player flattens her hand against
Speaker 1: the ground to keep the ball in play. And that's
Speaker 1: us digging into high efforts that are moving sports forward.
Speaker 1: Listen in as I talk with the people making the
Speaker 1: biggest impacts on global volleyball and women's sports perspectives, insights,
Speaker 1: and behind the scenes stories, all with the side of pancakes.
Speaker 1: Today's episode features the greatest woman's indoor volleyball player from Indiana,
Speaker 1: Annie Drews. Annie is an Olympic gold medalist who has
Speaker 1: been a member of the US national team since twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen and will be competing this summer in Paris. An
Speaker 1: All American at Purdue University, she was named the twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen USA Volleyball Fee Indoor Player of the Year, and
Speaker 1: she played on.
Speaker 2: The US collegiate national team.
Speaker 1: She has played professionally in Puerto Rico, Italy, Turkey, and Japan,
Speaker 1: where she's been recognized with multiple Best Opposite and MVP Awards.
Speaker 2: Hi, Annie, how are you are you?
Speaker 3: Thank you sound blanks for having me already? Did like
Speaker 3: all the hard words?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, pancakes. They're not too hard to make.
Speaker 2: You like pancakes, I'm hoping.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: Well, how do you like them?
Speaker 3: Maybe a little fruit two blueberry pancakes.
Speaker 1: So Annie, I have to start from the very beginning,
Speaker 1: and one of the first questions I have to ask
Speaker 1: you is your name is actually Andrea.
Speaker 2: So why Annie.
Speaker 3: That's a really great question. I thought. I'm thirty years old,
Speaker 3: I should probably know the answer.
Speaker 4: I'm actually named after a babysitter that my parents really
Speaker 4: loved for my two older siblings. And I was actually
Speaker 4: born on Christmas Day, and this like sweet babysitter came
Speaker 4: over at sixteen, gave up for Christmas Day to be
Speaker 4: with my siblings. While with my parents went to the
Speaker 4: hospital at Hackney. So that's why they named me Andrea.
Speaker 4: But I don't know why Annie. They call me Annie
Speaker 4: Ann in college briefly people call me Andy for a while,
Speaker 4: so kind of just.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 1: I mean, Annie's Andrey's very pretty too, But I whatever
Speaker 1: works for you.
Speaker 2: I go by Tiff or Tiffany whatever you know people
Speaker 2: want to call me.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, yep.
Speaker 1: So let's go back to your childhood a little more,
Speaker 1: a little after you were born on Christmas Day.
Speaker 2: How did you get into volleyball?
Speaker 4: I feel like I've had a really funny like path
Speaker 4: in volleyball, especially like through childhood.
Speaker 3: So I played in elementary school.
Speaker 4: I played for my elementary school team for a small
Speaker 4: club team, a local team.
Speaker 3: Wasn't doing any crazy travel or anything like that. It
Speaker 3: was very local club in elementary but like just literally
Speaker 3: like probably two months of like local terms.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but kids.
Speaker 4: Now are like traveling all over and getting on planes
Speaker 4: and doing these big things. So it felt very simple
Speaker 4: compared to how.
Speaker 3: Things are now.
Speaker 4: But then actually I remember going to my parents when
Speaker 4: I started middle school of being like, I don't.
Speaker 3: Want to play volleyball anymore.
Speaker 4: I want to be a cheerleader and I want to
Speaker 4: be a competitive hip hop dancer. So that was like
Speaker 4: Karch Loves's story, our national team coach, that was like.
Speaker 3: My calling for a minute. I love it, and I
Speaker 3: loved it. I had a lot of fun. I did
Speaker 3: miss competing.
Speaker 4: I remember like being on the sideline of a football
Speaker 4: game and getting like so into it, and then they'd
Speaker 4: be like, you're supposed to just like stand to be still,
Speaker 4: you know, wait, but in between cheers and stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 4: and then I just had a huge growth spurt and
Speaker 4: I think I just missed the competing aspect of my friends,
Speaker 4: and so straight out for my high school team and
Speaker 4: got back to volleyball.
Speaker 1: Then, So the love of dance and being a cheerleader
Speaker 1: did that come from an early age? Did you love
Speaker 1: dancing when you were a little kid.
Speaker 4: Honestly, No, I come from a big basketball family. My
Speaker 4: brother's seven years older than I am, and so in
Speaker 4: elementary school I watched him play college.
Speaker 3: Basketball, and I just remember seeing.
Speaker 4: High level cheerleaders and dancers that like have to at
Speaker 4: something that I was like, they're like so pretty and
Speaker 4: they look they're having so much fun and it is
Speaker 4: a really cool skill, like just learning how to do
Speaker 4: the tumbling and the stunts and things like that.
Speaker 3: But learned quickly that it was not.
Speaker 4: Something I was the best at, and then found my
Speaker 4: way back to volleyball and definitely haven't regretted it.
Speaker 2: I can understand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did gymnastics when I was little, and there
Speaker 1: was a point when I hit eight, like I think
Speaker 1: I was eight years old, and it got very competitive,
Speaker 1: very fast.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And at eight I was like, um, I'm good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I just saw I mean, I saw the cards.
Speaker 4: I was like, you know what, I am six foot two,
Speaker 4: I've got big feet, I've got big hands.
Speaker 3: This is gonna go downhill quickly for a girl like me.
Speaker 4: And I was like, I can be much better suited
Speaker 4: in a different sport.
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, let's talk hype for a second, because volleyball
Speaker 1: is definitely a tall person's game. On the current US
Speaker 1: Women's Olympic volleyball roster, the average height is six feet
Speaker 1: two and a half inch, with middle hitter Dana Reki
Speaker 1: the tallest at six foot eight and libero Justine Wangarantez
Speaker 1: the shortest at five foot six. Gotta give a little
Speaker 1: love to the short players who are usually Libero's right,
Speaker 1: and Annie is just above the average at six foot four.
Speaker 1: I also just want to point out, real quick, Annie
Speaker 1: isn't the only player who pursued other sports before a
Speaker 1: growth spurt derailed their plans. Both Jordan Larson and Ronnie
Speaker 1: Jones Perry competed in gymnastics, but how to stop dude
Speaker 1: being too tall? So thank goodness volleyball gave them a
Speaker 1: place to compete all right. Back to Annie, how old
Speaker 1: were you.
Speaker 2: When you hit your growth spurt?
Speaker 4: Probably freshman year of high school, maybe the end of
Speaker 4: eighth grade.
Speaker 2: Was that awkward for you?
Speaker 1: Or were there other girls that were the same height
Speaker 1: as you that you kind of like fit in? Because
Speaker 1: I have never been tall. Yeah, I was the only
Speaker 1: time I was ever tall is in first grade. I
Speaker 1: was in the back row of my class picture, and
Speaker 1: then every other year after that, I was always sitting
Speaker 1: down there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't know if it was awkward.
Speaker 4: I came from a really tall fan, so I felt
Speaker 4: very normal around my family, and then once I found volleyball,
Speaker 4: I kind of played my freshman sophomore years, I was
Speaker 4: playing on an eighteen's team, so I was playing with
Speaker 4: a lot of girls who were also maybe a little
Speaker 4: taller or around.
Speaker 3: The same height. So I think once I found my
Speaker 3: niche in volleyball, I felt very normal.
Speaker 4: I will say I think it's gotten a lot easier
Speaker 4: now with fashion. I remember like crying trying to find
Speaker 4: a prom dress long enough, and I think as time's
Speaker 4: gone on, it's gotten a lot easier for tall girls.
Speaker 4: Being a tall kid twenty years ago or fifteen years ago,
Speaker 4: I think that holy was just maybe logistically harder to
Speaker 4: find things and fit in. But I found my confidence
Speaker 4: with it pretty early and realized it could be a
Speaker 4: huge advantage in the sport. And also being left handed,
Speaker 4: so I saw it more as an asset than like
Speaker 4: a confidence breaker.
Speaker 1: And before you got to volleyball, because you said that
Speaker 1: your family was a big basketball family, did you feel
Speaker 1: pressure to play basketball at all or did you just
Speaker 1: know that volleyball was kind of the sport that you
Speaker 1: wanted to be part of.
Speaker 3: I tried basketball. I was just so.
Speaker 2: Not good at it.
Speaker 1: Before Annie continues explaining why she chose volleyball over basketball.
Speaker 1: The reason I brought this up is because her family
Speaker 1: has a history of amazing basketball players. Her dad was
Speaker 1: a star player at Ball State University and coached at
Speaker 1: Elkhart High School for ten years. Her brother, Derek remains
Speaker 1: the all time leading scorer at Elkhart, then went on
Speaker 1: to play at Western Michigan, and her grandfather, Dwayne Peterson,
Speaker 1: averaged a double double his final two seasons at Michigan.
Speaker 1: State after seeing a sectional scoring record at Elkhart High
Speaker 1: back in nineteen fifty two. But Annie's choice to step
Speaker 1: on to a different court seems like it was the
Speaker 1: right one, given that she's about to compete in her
Speaker 1: second Olympics.
Speaker 2: All right, now, back to Annie.
Speaker 4: I just felt like the coordination was just so not
Speaker 4: natural for me, and all of the running. I remember
Speaker 4: really not enjoying running, and so I think volleyball was
Speaker 4: a way to still use my height and to use power,
Speaker 4: but it felt just a lot more natural for me.
Speaker 4: So never really had the pressure to play basketball, but
Speaker 4: I definitely tried it and learned pretty quickly. I was like,
Speaker 4: it's not for me.
Speaker 2: So you started volleyball in high school.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like a late bloomer in a
Speaker 1: way when it comes to joining the sport, because nowadays
Speaker 1: you hear kids, I mean I started at twelve, A
Speaker 1: lot of kids start when they're younger. So do you
Speaker 1: kind of feel like a role model for the kids
Speaker 1: who start sports late?
Speaker 2: In a way?
Speaker 4: I definitely would have classified myself as, yeah, like a
Speaker 4: late starter maybe in some ways a late bloomer.
Speaker 3: And I think even.
Speaker 4: Through college I had a good college career, but I
Speaker 4: think when I got to the national team, I was
Speaker 4: definitely one of those people who had a lot of
Speaker 4: potential but definitely was maybe a skip and.
Speaker 3: A beat behind.
Speaker 4: So not just like in high school, but throughout I
Speaker 4: feel like I've had a really unique path to my success.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I definitely think that I.
Speaker 4: Hope that I've been able to make other people feel like, oh,
Speaker 4: maybe there is a chance if I just stick with
Speaker 4: it a little longer, if I look at it from
Speaker 4: a different lens.
Speaker 3: Because that was totally my reality.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I definitely think being a late bloomer is
Speaker 4: very possible and pretty common, especially for tall girls that age,
Speaker 4: so I would hope.
Speaker 1: So, so, what was like the recruiting process for you
Speaker 1: to go to college. Did you know that you wanted
Speaker 1: to go to a Big ten school? Did you know
Speaker 1: that you wanted to play? What was that like?
Speaker 4: So I grew up in a small town in northern
Speaker 4: Indiana near South Bend, so really close to Notre Dame,
Speaker 4: and I think maybe my college interest started there. Knowing
Speaker 4: Notre Dame at the time, that was where our high
Speaker 4: school and club teams would go and like watch some
Speaker 4: of their games and kind of saw volleyball like on
Speaker 4: the big stage or at like the big level, and
Speaker 4: so I think that's kind of how it started. But
Speaker 4: I learned quickly Northern Indiana is the hub of Big Ten.
Speaker 4: Like you drive two to three hours in any direction
Speaker 4: and you're at like a Big ten school, and Big
Speaker 4: Ten at the time and still to this.
Speaker 3: Day, was one of the strongest, if not the strongest
Speaker 3: volleyball conference.
Speaker 4: So I think I just realized that there was a
Speaker 4: lot of good volleyball really close to home, and that's
Speaker 4: kind of how I started learning. Due was one of
Speaker 4: the first schools I looked at for do A Notre Dame,
Speaker 4: and then I kind of expanded the search from there.
Speaker 4: But ultimately I think I ended up choosing Prudue for
Speaker 4: a lot of reasons, but it felt like a place
Speaker 4: that could develop me well, but also I could have
Speaker 4: a lot of chances. Especially early on, I think I was,
Speaker 4: you know, to that late bloomer aspect. A lot of
Speaker 4: places wanted meet a red shirt, kind of develop and
Speaker 4: wait my turn, and I just really wanted to play,
Speaker 4: and I wanted to play all the time from point
Speaker 4: one my freshman year. And you know, I think I
Speaker 4: commend people who have patients at that age to think otherwise,
Speaker 4: but I was.
Speaker 3: Like, I just want to get out there.
Speaker 4: So Perdue was this awesome opportunity that allowed me to
Speaker 4: kind of have both this like high level program and conference,
Speaker 4: but also get me on the floor pretty early. And
Speaker 4: not only that, it was two and a half hours
Speaker 4: from home, so knowing I had friends from high school,
Speaker 4: friends from club volleyball going there, whether it's to be
Speaker 4: students or to be student athletes, and knowing my parents
Speaker 4: could be pretty involved, I could see them a lot.
Speaker 3: It was like it became kind of a no brainer
Speaker 3: at some point.
Speaker 2: That's so nice. Does your family really close?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say so.
Speaker 4: I have an older brother who's seven years older, and
Speaker 4: I'm an older sister who's two years older.
Speaker 3: And my brother, I think just being a little bit older.
Speaker 4: You got married when I was like in high school
Speaker 4: or maybe my freshman year of college. So having another
Speaker 4: sister and then his kids also now are eight and four,
Speaker 4: and so just having them kind of be alongside me
Speaker 4: in my career through college but also professionally made me
Speaker 4: like kind of put a new importance on volleyball and
Speaker 4: just like I'm not just doing it for me or
Speaker 4: for the paycheck or for the glory. It's kind of
Speaker 4: to show them like what's kind of out there if
Speaker 4: you work hard at something. So definitely very close to
Speaker 4: my family and excited that they'll get to see me
Speaker 4: play a.
Speaker 3: Lot more life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so sure.
Speaker 1: Now I've read that you weren't actually sure if you
Speaker 1: wanted to play pro and keep going after college. So
Speaker 1: what did you want to do when you graduated? What
Speaker 1: was kind of your thought process if you didn't go pro.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was a hospitality and tourism management major, so that's
Speaker 4: basically kind of like a business and managerial degree for
Speaker 4: hotels and restaurants and launching events things like that.
Speaker 3: And I definitely enjoyed that side of things.
Speaker 4: And I think a lot of college athletes, after spending
Speaker 4: four years totally dedicated to something, you kind of do
Speaker 4: wonder what's like on the other side. So I definitely
Speaker 4: like flirted with the idea of not playing and looked
Speaker 4: heavily at that. And I got an offer to play
Speaker 4: professionally in Puerto Rico right after college, which was pretty
Speaker 4: common at the time to leave like right after Christmas
Speaker 4: and the holidays your senior year and go play in
Speaker 4: the spring in Puerto Rico. And I think, honestly, with
Speaker 4: the pro side of things, I for a long time
Speaker 4: time wasn't sure like how long I wanted to do this.
Speaker 3: I still struggle with that sometimes how long I want
Speaker 3: to do this?
Speaker 4: But I feel like I'm very connected to my faith
Speaker 4: and I feel like God has put small opportunities in
Speaker 4: front of me and just like nudged me to say yes.
Speaker 4: And so it wasn't looking at my career ten years
Speaker 4: ago being like I want this decade long pursuit of
Speaker 4: an Olympics, and it wasn't like that for me. But
Speaker 4: it was a lot of little moments of God being like,
Speaker 4: here's this opportunity and let's think about it.
Speaker 3: And then like nudging me in that direction. And it's
Speaker 3: been beautiful.
Speaker 1: It was gonna say, are you glad that you have
Speaker 1: chosen this path and that you're still doing Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3: And every year it takes on new meaning.
Speaker 4: I mean now with all the opportunities coming up to
Speaker 4: play at home and all the opportunities for college players,
Speaker 4: just my hope is that this next year I can
Speaker 4: help in some ways like lay a brick into something
Speaker 4: that in the future my kids or my niece. They'll
Speaker 4: have options to pursue playing after college in a lot
Speaker 4: of different ways.
Speaker 3: There's not just one one route to do it.
Speaker 4: And so I'm super grateful of the career I've had,
Speaker 4: but I think just super grateful of the ways God's
Speaker 4: used volleyball to teach me more about like the world
Speaker 4: and like myself and what all this can look like.
Speaker 3: So I hope that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: And you get to travel to all the different countries
Speaker 1: to play. So what has kind of been your favorite
Speaker 1: location if you even have one, Can you give me
Speaker 1: an example of something that you absolutely loved or an
Speaker 1: adventure that you got to go on from traveling and
Speaker 1: playing internationally with these teams.
Speaker 4: We have like our pro seasons, which are about six
Speaker 4: to eight months, and then we spend the rest of
Speaker 4: the time with national teams. So I preface that because
Speaker 4: if anyone's listening and they don't really know about how
Speaker 4: the schedule works, half the year is in a foreign
Speaker 4: country with foreign teammates and you're playing for like one club,
Speaker 4: and the other half is typically traveling with Team USA,
Speaker 4: and that's where we represent, you know, the United States,
Speaker 4: and where we try to pursue things like an Olympic
Speaker 4: gold medal, So two.
Speaker 3: Very different experiences.
Speaker 4: I've loved overseas playing profess because learning to live in
Speaker 4: another culture, in another country is just the most eye
Speaker 4: opening thing, the most humbling thing you can ever do.
Speaker 4: Like you think you know something about yourself or about
Speaker 4: the world, you live somewhere else and you're like, oh
Speaker 4: my gosh, like I have so much more to learn.
Speaker 3: So I think that part's been really cool. Obviously. The
Speaker 3: glamorous side is people see what we do on off
Speaker 3: days and they see us on like a.
Speaker 4: Boat in Italy or like on a food tour in Japan,
Speaker 4: and it's like, oh my gosh, I want to do that.
Speaker 4: But the day to day is really hard but really rewarding,
Speaker 4: so I'm glad I got to learn those lessons. And
Speaker 4: then with national team, yeah, we've just we've really been
Speaker 4: all over and getting to see different styles of volleyball
Speaker 4: has been really fun. How to do different countries run
Speaker 4: their offensive and defensive systems, but also how they just
Speaker 4: like develop their youth differently and what they prioritize.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's more of a volleyball answer, I guess,
Speaker 3: or a life answer.
Speaker 4: But the travel has been amazing, but just like I've
Speaker 4: learned so much along the way, and I feel like
Speaker 4: I'm always still learning.
Speaker 1: What is a day today life like as a professional
Speaker 1: walklleyball player.
Speaker 3: Oh that's a good question.
Speaker 1: I always wondered that because I'm thinking because I mean,
Speaker 1: I played club and I was going to play in college.
Speaker 1: I was recruited to go to Penn State, and so
Speaker 1: that was like the dream.
Speaker 2: But then I got into film.
Speaker 1: School and I was like, that's that's you know for me.
Speaker 1: I graduated high school in O four, so there was
Speaker 1: no to me that I did not know about professionals.
Speaker 2: So I went academics over athletics.
Speaker 1: And then I always think back now, I'm like, huh,
Speaker 1: could I have done that?
Speaker 4: But it would have likes so cool and you're doing.
Speaker 3: Get like a volleyball capacity that's like really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and I'm loving this that was, but you know,
Speaker 1: there's always that thought like what would life have been like?
Speaker 1: So I'm always curious, like what would my life have
Speaker 1: been like had I played professionally like you are, you know,
Speaker 1: attempted to even try to play at the US well,
Speaker 1: which I don't think I could have, But I.
Speaker 3: Think that's an interesting question. There's a lot of variants.
Speaker 4: It depends on like what country you're playing in or
Speaker 4: if you're talking about like a professional day versus like
Speaker 4: a day with TV USA. But generally for being I'm
Speaker 4: typically a pretty early riser, Like I'm a morning person.
Speaker 3: I'll wake up, have coffee.
Speaker 4: I like to do some like devotional journal prayer time.
Speaker 3: Before I leave the house.
Speaker 4: That to me is like have like kind of a
Speaker 4: slow morning at home for myself, and.
Speaker 2: Then it's very nice like meditate that morning for you.
Speaker 4: It's I just I love being up early and it's quiet.
Speaker 3: And then I think, for me, when I can make.
Speaker 4: Volleyball feel like a part of my day versus my
Speaker 4: whole day. Typically I tend to like hold things a
Speaker 4: little looser and feel more relaxed to them.
Speaker 3: Make sense, So.
Speaker 4: Slow morning and then head to the gym. Typically starts
Speaker 4: with some like warm up and like rehab activities.
Speaker 3: So as an opposite, that means get your shoulder ready.
Speaker 4: I've had some foot and heel problems throughout my career,
Speaker 4: like nothing major, but just make sure I'm getting a
Speaker 4: good warm up for those things activating well. And then
Speaker 4: typically we'll have ball practice maybe in the beginning part
Speaker 4: where with more like people in your position, and we're
Speaker 4: doing more like skills specif work like we'll have an
Speaker 4: attack period of time and I'll have a blocking period
Speaker 4: of time and a serving period of time, and then
Speaker 4: as the day goes on.
Speaker 3: We'll do more like six on six volleyball or competition willeyball.
Speaker 4: And then after that typically we'll either go right into
Speaker 4: strength and conditioning where we have a weak program and
Speaker 4: a little bit of cardio, or we'll have lunch and
Speaker 4: then do that and then yeah, in the evening, maybe
Speaker 4: take I don't know, late afternoon and take a nap,
Speaker 4: get a coffee. I like to take an afternoon walk
Speaker 4: just to kind of shake out the body after the
Speaker 4: longboarding of moving, and then cook dinner and watch some
Speaker 4: film a lot of days just to kind of see
Speaker 4: how you did that day, or watch some things about
Speaker 4: your next opponent, and then chill time like do my nails,
Speaker 4: watch a movie, visit with friends, play games, things like that.
Speaker 2: It's your like go to movie genre.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I feel like my husband and I have really
Speaker 4: grown to love like Netflix documentaries.
Speaker 3: I like nothing that like specific.
Speaker 2: But just learning things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and some of these are just so wild you
Speaker 3: just can't look away. And I'm like, I love that.
Speaker 4: I think Apple TV does a lot of great shows,
Speaker 4: So yeah, I guess maybe less movies and more like
Speaker 4: find a show and whether we're together or doing long distance,
Speaker 4: like Okay, tonight, we're watching episode four or something like that.
Speaker 1: So you got married a month after you won the
Speaker 1: gold medal in Tokyo.
Speaker 2: So what was that like?
Speaker 1: Going from training trying to make the twelve man roster
Speaker 1: making it Olympics, ending up playing a.
Speaker 2: Lot and then winning gold. Yeah, and then a month
Speaker 2: later getting married, Like what but what was that realer?
Speaker 3: Closer?
Speaker 4: I like, it was like the most chaotic month, Like
Speaker 4: I look back and it was seriously such a blur.
Speaker 3: I think my husband and.
Speaker 4: My support system and my planner we kind of said,
Speaker 4: once July hits and planning is off the table, I
Speaker 4: don't need to know anything, like if my caterer quits tomorrow,
Speaker 4: I will find out when we get home. So we
Speaker 4: kind of just put the wedding on the back burner
Speaker 4: and just made it all about the Olympics.
Speaker 3: And then, yeah, the Olympics.
Speaker 4: Obviously we had a really amazing story and experience there
Speaker 4: and then it was just probably a week of just celebrations,
Speaker 4: media like.
Speaker 3: Chaos, Like everywhere you went. It was like we had paparazzi.
Speaker 4: But I remember being like in Costco and people being like,
Speaker 4: I just saw you, like on NBC, you just want
Speaker 4: this gold medal and it was just so funny. But yeah,
Speaker 4: some media stuff, phone calls, things like that, and then
Speaker 4: a week of chill time in Indiana with my family
Speaker 4: just kind of off the grid, and then we just
Speaker 4: flent right into.
Speaker 3: All the wedding fun. So it was really cool.
Speaker 4: It was what was really special was seeing a lot
Speaker 4: of my national team teammates and coaches in my small
Speaker 4: town court fields at my wedding, just like three weeks after.
Speaker 4: I think that was just a really special, like visual
Speaker 4: I'll never forget. These people could be like anywhere in
Speaker 4: the world right now and they chose to track it here. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so that was like my eyes did not know what
Speaker 4: to do with that image because it was like my
Speaker 4: world's colliding.
Speaker 2: So that's amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was chaos in the best way.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Indiana, did you know that the Indianapolis Star
Speaker 1: they did like a best of sports by the Numbers
Speaker 1: and for eighteen they had Peyton Manning because Peyton Manning,
Speaker 1: but you were the honorable mention. If Peyton Manning didn't exist,
Speaker 1: you would have been number eighteen for best in sports
Speaker 1: of Indiana.
Speaker 2: Did you know that?
Speaker 3: I did not know that, and that was my college number.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's kind of that's pretty funny, oppressive.
Speaker 1: Out of the whole state of Indiana for number eighteen,
Speaker 1: they chose you. I mean, like I said, behind Peyton Manning,
Speaker 1: but that's.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, we don't invest.
Speaker 4: But no, it was really cool to see how like
Speaker 4: my high school and my town and our state in
Speaker 4: general really came behind and I felt a lot of
Speaker 4: support throughout the Olympics.
Speaker 1: All Right, one more fun fact for you guys. Along
Speaker 1: with Annie, Indiana has produced a lot of amazing female athletes,
Speaker 1: including w NBA star and Olympic gold medalist Skyler digg
Speaker 1: and Smith, Olympic medalist swimmer Lily King, and US women's
Speaker 1: national soccer team member and Olympian Lauren Holiday. So Annie
Speaker 1: is in some great company there, but she does have
Speaker 1: a unique achievement under her belt as a volleyball player
Speaker 1: from Indiana. So here's Annie to talk about that.
Speaker 4: I'm the first volleyball player to ever be named the
Speaker 4: Olympic in our volleyball roster. So I didn't want to
Speaker 4: carry that lightly. I think it could mean a lot
Speaker 4: of cool things for our sport, in our in our country,
Speaker 4: in our home state. So felt a lot of support
Speaker 4: along the way, which was really cool.
Speaker 1: Well, now you get to play here. I mean, what
Speaker 1: does that mean for your family and your husband? Are
Speaker 1: they excited that you're not going away for months? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 4: Yeah. So my plan actually was honestly to retire after Paris.
Speaker 4: You know, this League one opportunity came around, and I
Speaker 4: versus no, I think I should retire.
Speaker 3: I think I should retire it.
Speaker 4: And the more I learned, and the more I saw
Speaker 4: people signing, and it's starting to come to fruition, It's like,
Speaker 4: I think I've never really regret not doing it. So
Speaker 4: I remember saying yes to League one and calling my
Speaker 4: parents and they were in the car together and they
Speaker 4: were just so funny, just very happy.
Speaker 3: And then an hour later, my dad's like.
Speaker 4: Okay, map Quest says it's three hours and thirty seven minutes.
Speaker 3: To Madison, Wisconsin.
Speaker 4: So my parents, along with all of our parents, are
Speaker 4: just gonna be total groupies, like in the best way,
Speaker 4: which is gonna be really fun.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: So what are you hoping that your legacy will be
Speaker 1: when it's all said and done, when you finally decide
Speaker 1: that you know the opportunity to finally retire presents itself
Speaker 1: to you, what do you kind of hope that your
Speaker 1: legacy is.
Speaker 4: I want to be remembered as like a player and
Speaker 4: teammate who matured.
Speaker 3: Along the way, who was really learned how to be
Speaker 3: good in a lot of different roles.
Speaker 4: And I think that that's something that I've had to learn,
Speaker 4: not always the easy way.
Speaker 3: I just think, you know.
Speaker 4: A lot of your college professional career, you're kind of
Speaker 4: like the big dog, and then you get to the
Speaker 4: national team a gym and you're just so not a
Speaker 4: big fish in a small pond, if that makes sense.
Speaker 4: So I think just learning, how can I be good
Speaker 4: as a starter? How can I be good as a
Speaker 4: non starter? How can I be good as someone who's
Speaker 4: coming off the bench for three points, coming off the
Speaker 4: bench to finish the game, And not just physically or statistically,
Speaker 4: but like mentally emotionally, Like how do my teammates know
Speaker 4: no matter what, they're gonna know what they're gonna get.
Speaker 4: I think that is something that I've really worked hard
Speaker 4: on getting better at, and I hope that that's something
Speaker 4: I can model well and people can see that, but
Speaker 4: also that I can help people with in the future.
Speaker 1: And what advice do you have for kids who are
Speaker 1: starting up in sports volleyball?
Speaker 2: What kind of advice do you have for them?
Speaker 4: Honestly, like, and it doesn't even have to be about sports.
Speaker 4: You just have to find something that you really love
Speaker 4: to do every day. And I think when you're young,
Speaker 4: it can be like my parents sign me up for it,
Speaker 4: or my friends like to do it, but I just
Speaker 4: don't know if that's really going to get you very far.
Speaker 3: And if you just enjoy it, like that's amazing.
Speaker 4: But I think if you really want to see gains
Speaker 4: and improvements and success in something, or you really just
Speaker 4: want to be like satisfied and who you are and
Speaker 4: what you're contributing, I think you just got to find
Speaker 4: something that you really enjoy doing and not do it
Speaker 4: just for other people.
Speaker 1: Lastly, sports, women's sports in general has transformed and involved
Speaker 1: so much since you've played, especially since I've played. Where
Speaker 1: do you see this sport in just women's sports in
Speaker 1: general in five ten years.
Speaker 4: If it's where we want it to be, it should
Speaker 4: be like pretty unimaginable, Like I don't think we should
Speaker 4: be able to know what that looks like. I think
Speaker 4: the cool thing about volleyball, we've seen it grow at
Speaker 4: this like exponential level and we're learning quickly that there's
Speaker 4: interest here and how do we capitalize on that, not
Speaker 4: just for a monetary value, but how do we equip
Speaker 4: the next generation so they can match that level when
Speaker 4: they get there.
Speaker 3: And I don't know.
Speaker 4: What it'll look like, but I'm really excited to hopefully
Speaker 4: help lay a brick. And I think it takes a
Speaker 4: lot of talented people and a lot of experienced players
Speaker 4: just saying yes to opportunities and seeing how far we
Speaker 4: can take these things.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 1: Well, Annie, thank you so much, cheering. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: joining me pancakes and chatting about Paulay.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Serving Pancakes is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership
Speaker 1: with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Production by League One Volleyball I'm your host
Speaker 1: Tiffany Oshinsky. Anya oliverrez Is our senior producer. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Carrie Stett, Tamaradike and Lindsay Hoffman. Our marketing
Speaker 1: lead is Jawara Parker. Sound mixing by Max Lorenzen. Our
Speaker 1: theme music is Pancakes by Eric W. Mast Junior special
Speaker 1: thanks to Annie Drews. We'll be back next week with
Speaker 1: Justine Wangarantis, who earned Best Libero honors at the Tokyo
Speaker 1: Olympics when Team USA won their first and who will
Speaker 1: be back defending her title in Paris. Stay tuned for
Speaker 1: what we serve up next. H