"It's a challenge every quarter.
But that's what you want: to be challenged
in every aspect – as a student, as an athlete,
as a leader." - Courtney Thompson
Courtney Thompson
The NCAA's Top Volleyballer (and a Heck of
a Student, Too)
Is it any wonder the Business School
is home to so many Husky sports stars whose athletic
prowess is matched by their performance in the
classroom? Listen to Courtney Thompson, starting
setter for the outstanding UW volleyball team:
"My sales management professor, Jack Rhodes,
was telling us about the training for his first
sales
job – they would be filmed and critiqued
in front of everyone and performance results
were publicly posted. It was really intense and
a lot of people couldn't handle it. I leaned
over to Carolyn Farny (a teammate), and said, ‘That
sounds familiar. We do that every day.' "
What you don't do every day is win an NCAA
Championship, as Thompson and her teammates did
late in 2005, crowning a nearly perfect season.
As the team's "quarterback," Thompson
played a central role, and was honored as the
nation's top female collegiate volleyball
player – the first Husky Athlete to receive
the Honda Award in any sport. Despite the training,
the travel and the travail getting to the top,
Thompson also managed to make the second-team
Academic All-America team. It wasn't easy.
But, then, that's never the point for the
hard-charging Thompson.
"
My experience as an athlete is so different from
the student that's not competing," she
says. "I can't stay up all night
and study for the test, because I'm going
to be bad in practice and it's going to
affect the team. Time management is critical.
It's a challenge every quarter. But that's
what you want: to be challenged in every aspect – as
a student, as an athlete, as a leader."
After graduation, Thompson will challenge herself
to play professional volleyball, and hopes to
make the US team that will compete in the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games. Beyond that, her many
off-court career aspirations include eventually
working as a university athletic director. But
what about the really near future? Is there anything
left to accomplish after bringing home the school's
first NCAA volleyball title?
She smiles. "We do it again."
|
