Sep 29, 2016 4 min read

A year ago, Abby Gibbons didn’t think she was good enough to play high-level volleyball.

“I was so not confident in my volleyball abilities,” Gibbons said. “Coming from a small area, a small rural town, I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I can do this. I love the game. I just don’t know if I’m able to do this.'”

The junior defensive specialist from Waynesburg High School, who plays club volleyball for Pittsburgh Elite, filled out recruiting questionnaires and received generic, impersonal messages from college coaches over the course of her freshman year, but many athletes aspiring to play at the next level go through that process.

Something that happened at the start of her sophomore year was different, though. It was a college coach, a Maryland assistant, inquiring about her, seemingly out of nowhere. Gibbons hadn’t reached out to the Terrapins and now they were asking one of her club coaches about her?

“That’s when stuff actually took off,” Gibbons said. “I thought I should start taking this seriously. I could actually do something with this.”

While she began looking at major colleges after the interest from Maryland, Gibbons said one place mattered more than the rest. And this spring she committed to West Virginia University, a place she has been to many times.

“It was a dream to play at the next level at WVU,” Gibbons said. “Anything is possible.”

For Gibbons, the process of overcoming self-doubt, which she also dealt with when starting the sport as a seventh grader, didn’t begin until after the initial Maryland interest. It served as a sudden reality check.

Gibbons knew she needed help in advance of club tryouts for the 16-year-old age group. That level is known as one where the mental side of the game starts to matter, according to Gibbons. In many ways, she was already behind the learning curve playing with and against many girls who started playing volleyball in elementary school rather than in middle school, like she did. If Gibbons didn’t change something, she feared that gap widening even more. The assistance of a former division I volleyball assistant coach served as the catalyst for this growth.

Jen Flynn Oldenburg, a Baldwin graduate, moved back to Western Pennsylvania after nine seasons at Illinois and began assisting local travel teams, including Pittsburgh Elite.

Flynn Oldenburg’s guidance during private sessions with Gibbons, where they worked on all aspects of the game, helped her gain coinfidence. The coach helped Gibbons sharpen the fundamentals of her mechanics and trained her to stay focused and not become discouraged while playing.

“You know what? I can actually do this,” Gibbons thought. “I have this ability. I’m just going to take off with it.”

Though some college coaches began inquiring about her, Gibbons took the iniative with the Mountaineers, attending a passing clinic in Morgantown in January to put herself in front of head coach Reed Sunahara and his coaching staff. The camp was geared more for younger players or beginners, but the approach worked for Gibbons as she caught the attention of the coaches and gave them her contact information and club tournament schedule.

A WVU staff member watched her play setter at the North East Qualifiers in Philadelphia over Easter weekend. Gibbons didn’t know the Mountaineers would be there. She played the tournament with a sprained ankle.

“I was freaking out,” Gibbons said. “I hoped I played well enough.”

She did, committing to the Mountaineers the next month, two days after taking an unofficial visit to the campus.

Making her college decision well before even her senior year was scary for Gibbons, but it has freed her up to focus on playing.

“I can actually put all my effort toward my play and helping the other girls around me,” Gibbons said.

With the WPIAL regular season reaching its midpoint, Gibbons has helped Waynesburg (6-1, 8-2 overall) to first place in Section 3-AA, putting the Raiders in prime position to return to the WPIAL playoffs for a second straight season.