Volleyball Newcomer Q&A: Kendyl Reaugh
9/29/2020 1:34:00 PM | Volleyball
Freshman - Outside Hitter - Highland Park, Texas
On her start in volleyball
"My mom was my older sister's volleyball coach for a while. Since my dad traveled all the time for work, I always had to go to their practices. I would watch my sister and I looked up to her a lot. I always wanted to be like her when I was younger. I was hitting the ball against the wall when they were practicing and I was practicing my overhand serve when I was as young as five. My parents made sure we played every sport under the sun, but volleyball was always my number one. I played basketball, soccer and track, but volleyball was always the top."
On the goal of playing in college
"Volleyball in college was always a goal of mine. During my 14s year of club before the recruiting rules changed, I was getting emails with questionnaires and coaches would talk to my club coach. He told me that colleges were interested in me. That's when I realized I could do this in college, so I started really focusing on it. When I was in high school, I quit all my other sports and completely focused on volleyball."
On her older sister's influence on goal of playing in college
"My sister is two-and-a-half years older than me. She was committed to play at Clemson, but she decommitted to focus on track. Now she runs track at OU. I tagged along on visits with her when I was in eighth grade. I went out to California with her to look at schools, but mostly I just saw a lot of pictures and was told what every school had to offer. Her interest in playing in college definitely influenced me and it motivated me too. I wanted to have all these colleges look at me and be the kind of player they wanted. Seeing her go through that process helped a lot."
On when Alabama came into the picture
"I was contacted going into my sophomore year of high school and I had been receiving emails my freshman year. I came on a visit in September of my sophomore year. Right when I got on campus I told my mom that I wanted to go here. I loved how beautiful the campus was and how Alabama has a well-rounded athletics program. I looked at Alabama really early, which scared my mom a little bit. She told me I needed to visit more schools and make sure Alabama was where I really wanted to be. I visited a few more schools, but by the end of October I knew that this was where I wanted to be and where I wanted to play, so I committed."
On her first contact with the new coaching staff
"I talked to her right after she saw me play at a tournament. I had a list of questions to find out what kind of coach she is, her coaching style and what she expected from her players. I also thought it was cool that her and coach Megan [Ailshie] were Canadian because my family is too. It was a good bonding experience."
On navigating the uncertainty of the season
"Just starting in the summer, we had no idea about our schedule or when we were going to start playing. I think our team has a really good, hardworking mentality. We practice every day like we are going to play the next day. We always try to get better. The older girls on the team took in the freshmen right away and taught us how they do things here before the coaches came in for preseason. It was really exciting when we finally had a set plan on who we were going to play. I think we have a great schedule in the fall to give us the chance to prove what we can do in the SEC."
On adjusting to health and safety protocols at practice
"When we first started it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. You're not used to breathing with a mask so that was hard, but I'm so thankful for [athletic trainer] Karah [Sims]. I know she hated reminding us to pull our mask up every two seconds, but in the long run it has helped a ton. I'm used to it by now. It's just another thing to wear on my body for practice and games. I think Karah is doing a really good job of making sure we're being held accountable for our health and keeping our masks on."
On her goals for the year
"We got together as a team and our end goal is to make the NCAA tournament. We want to work hard to get there. We also want to be in the top half of the SEC this year. We want to prove our hard work and what we have to offer."
