Despite her reluctance to play college volleyball, Faith Faamausili has distinguished herself as an up-and-coming player for the Green River Community College Gators.
The Kent-Meridian High School graduate is studying pediatrics at Green River. She said she hadn’t planned on playing volleyball for the Gators.
“I didn’t really think that I would be at a collegiate level,” she said, “but Coach (Kyle) Densley talked to me and I gave it a try and I fell in love with college ball.”
Faamausili recently took honors in the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) as both the NWAC’s Week 1 player of the week and MVP of GRCC’s Gator Classic volleyball tournament.
“I didn’t get to find out until a week later,” Faamausili said. “My coach came up to me and he was like ‘hey, you were offensive player of the week,’ and at first I didn’t believe him.”
The acknowledgement boosted her self-confidence and slightly changed the game for her from something she used to unwind to a more serious past time.
“I never thought I would have something like that as a freshman in college, I usually come here just to play, to get things out and to be away from everything,” she said.
Faamausili says that it’s been a bit of an adjustment to get used to the pace of college volleyball but is excited to make the transition.
“When you step on the court as a college player you already have to know the basics of volleyball,” said Faamausili. “You have to know who you’re competing against, the intensity level is a lot higher.”
She also said it’s been interesting to play with past rivals — some of her freshman teammates include girls from Kentridge and Kentlake.
“We talk about our high school seasons and we talk about ‘we didn’t like that player’ but it’s just something to laugh at at the end of the day,” she said.
As Faamausili moves on from high school, she finds it easy to put old rivalries away and work together with her teammates.
“There’s nothing different, we’re all from Kent, that’s like my family city,” she said. “Coming together on the court it’s really fun because we’re like oh my gosh we used to hate playing against you guys. Now that we’re playing together we’re like one big family.”
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