Just like any other day, 11-year-old Sarah Schnell picked up her first volleyball not expecting a few years later she would be going to college because of it. Sarah has committed to James Madison University to play Division 1 volleyball. Schnell is a rising senior that announced her great achievement back in April. 

Starting her volleyball journey, because of her height, she was skeptical. It was a bumpy start for Sarah considering it was her first ever sport playing with a ball. “It wasn’t as easy as players made it seem on tv” or even her first team she continued. Admitting that she was far from the best player, maybe even the worst, it didn’t stop her from taking this challenge and growing from it. 

With her increased training, her level of performance sky-rocketed. As a result, Sarah moved club teams to her current club Miami Hype. Leading her to challenge herself more, learning every position, and mastering it.

Going into her freshman year at Pines Charter she made the school’s girls varsity volleyball team. Just as a freshman, it was known that Sarah Schnell will be making a major impact. Unfortunately, as she was preparing for her very first varsity game she sprained her ankle and had to miss out. After the school season ended,  Sarah realized that she could go further. 

With her parent‘s support and her hard work, Sarah went for college volleyball. Joining her current club team she was assuring herself to be given the best possible chance to improve. With receiving a new load of competitiveness, Sarah’s next step was making sure coaches knew who she was. “I emailed so many coaches maybe for even one tournament I emailed over 100 college coaches to open up my options and see what will come,” she explained.  Wanting to set herself up for the best possible future, she went in giving it her all during her recruitment process. All while balancing school work and keeping up with her practices. Given the work put into her recruitment process ever since her sophomore year, Sarah wanted to be prepared for what will come next in her future. Finally being allowed to have direct communication with coaches the process continued on. 

Finally, after patiently waiting, Schnell received her first offer in November of her junior year but she didn’t stop there. “ I realized that whatever I do at practice I  have to start lifting and heading to the gym to try to get myself more athletic” preaching with “..needing to build myself up to the best version of me so I can set myself up for success”. As the high school season progressed Sarah finished with first team all county and got herself a various amount of awards, “which I was super impressed  and  was super proud of myself, feeling like all the hard work was being shown.”

Working nonstop towards her goals, Sarah entered her tournament in Kansas City with a ton of college coaches watching. With high expectations they were very much reached, having to win one more game to be top 10 in the country. Sarah showcased her skills and assisted her team with 10 to 12 kills in that game. “My performance easily opened up so many opportunities for me and I started getting offers rolling in just the week after.” adding “…now my name was getting known compared to the year prior where no one really knew who I was and that gave me a sense of thrill.”

Now being noticed Sarah had to narrow down what exactly she wanted her future to look like. Back in March JMU started contact leading to conversations on Zoom, to then offers, to then tours all in the same week. “ I visited during spring break and it was beautiful, the environment around it, and most importantly the culture of the team itself.” Just a few weeks later she said “Let’s go for it” also speaking about how great the opportunity was to be able to play for a top 25 college volleyball university. Just recently returning from a camp in July ger thoughts were “That was just the best confirmation ever, I love it there and I’m so excited to go up there next year and see what‘s next for me.”

The future Duke is more than ready and excited to pursue a long-awaited dream for the next year. Still needing to go through one last final year of high school, Sarah Schnell has set herself goals to finish her senior season off strong by trying to achieve a 3-peat district win by the Lady Jags.