AnnaMarie Starvaggi '21 Recruiting Profile

The biggest influences in my life that have lead me to want to further my volleyball career into college are my sister and my past coach. Sophie is 6 years older than I am and she played volleyball in high school. Watching her guard the back row, as well as the outside and opposite positions, sparked my interest in volleyball. Sophie and I would spend hours in our driveway peppering a ball. She was the first person to ever teach me passing form and always stressed the importance of learning how to overhand serve, at a young age. At the beginning of my fourth club season I was lucky enough to be put onto Coach Matt Ubiel's team. He was my first 'real coach'; he took me outside of my comfort zone and played me the whole way through the rotation, he pushed me to overhand serve more consistently, and perhaps most importantly built my confidence with positive reinforcement. I was lucky enough to play for him for 2 seasons, both of which he never uttered a negative word to the team. His main goals were to make sure the U-12 team was having fun, while perfecting our fundamentals and learning the game.

    Since I am only in eighth grade I have not had many opportunities to overcome any major obstacles so far. The hardest thing I have overcome was the time I broke both the growth plate of my wrist and metatarsal of my foot, while training for a Girls On The Run 5K. 

    I am hoping to find a team to play for that will be a great fit both academically, as well as athletically. At this time I am looking toward a career with the FBI in the BAUnit, as a profiler. To obtain my goal I will be majoring in Criminal Justice and minoring in Human Behavior.