49er
freshman makes immediate impact
By
Mandy Wright
On-line Forty-Niner
From
the moment she arrived at Cal State Long
Beach, Natalie Uhart knew one thing for
sure, she wasn't in Kansas anymore.
CSULB's
freshman middle blocker from Lansing, Kansas
had often read about the university in volleyball
magazines and dreamed about being part of
a top team.
After
one visit to the campus while she was still
in high school, Uhart was hooked. She thought
the location was beautiful and much different
from her small hometown. More than that,
however, was the quality of the program.
The coaches and the other players are great,
she said.
"The
coaching staff makes good players into great
players," Uhart said.
Uhart
caught the volleyball bug at a young age.
When she was in 3rd grade, her athletic
potential attracted the attention of her
future high school volleyball coach.
"She
said I'd be tall and athletic," Uhart
said.
Her
coach talked her into attending volleyball
camp, and she's been a player ever since.
With a reach well over 10 feet, Uhart has
more than lived up to her coach's prediction.
Although
she is from a small Midwestern town, Uhart
has not exactly been living in obscurity
for the last four years.
She
focused mainly on volleyball in high school,
not finding time for much else besides practice
and studying. As a result, her high school
team went to state three out of her four
years, and went on to win the state championship
her junior year.
Uhart
herself was an all-league selection four
times, an all-state selection twice and
an all-state tournament selection twice.
She was also chosen twice as Gatorade Player
of the Year, and was listed as a Volleyball
Magazine "Fab 50" selection last
season.
In
2002, she made the USA Women's Junior National
Training Team, which is a path that can
lead players to the Olympics. One of Uhart's
goals is to play on the U.S. Olympic Team,
a goal which women's volleyball assistant
coach J.P. Calderon is confident she will
meet.
"She'll
be national team caliber by the time she
leaves Long Beach," Calderon said.
Throughout
her high school experience, Uhart's parents
were extremely supportive.
"I
can't remember a game they've missed,"
she said.
Now
that she's so far from home, their support
hasn't dwindled. They attended the recent
tournament in San Diego, and vow to come
from Kansas once a month to watch her games.
Although
Uhart has played volleyball for most of
her life and held the record at her high
school for digs, kills and blocks, she feels
like she still has a long way to go. She
calls herself a very raw player, with little
technique.
"Sometimes
it's frustrating because I feel like I don't
have all the skills down yet," Uhart
said.
Still,
Uhart is not one to back away from a challenge.
The factor that keeps her interested in
volleyball and motivates her to keep going
is her desire to improve and perfect her
technique.
This
is one of the traits that people most admire
about her, said women's volleyball assistant
coach J.P. Calderon, who works closely with
Uhart. She is willing to do whatever it
takes to improve, he said, and she always
knows where she is in her development, although
she feels she had to start from scratch.
"[The
staff at] Long Beach has basically taught
me how to play volleyball all over again,"
Uhart said.
Calderon
feels that Uhart deserves the credit for
her improvements.
"There's
only certain players in the country that
we feel we can do that with, and when we
recruited her, we knew she was one of those
players," he said.
Although
most freshman players have the opportunity
to redshirt their first season and learn
the ropes, Uhart has jumped right in as
a starting player.
"She's
still learning to go to class right now,"
Calderon said. "She has a lot of maturity,
she's able to handle being a key player."
So
far, volleyball at CSULB has been much different
from volleyball in Lansing for Uhart. In
Kansas, she said, people can't understand
why shewould want to play volleyball, and
it isn't a very well supported sport. In
Long Beach, she has found much more support.
"Here,
people breathe volleyball," she said.
"It's totally different."
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