All right, well thank you so much for joining me, Emma. Um So starting off, when did you realize that volleyball was the sport for you? Volleyball? Oh boy. So I started playing standing volleyball. Um When I was seven years old, right before third grade I was going to new elementary school that had like this try it sports day. Um And I always played soccer um like before then, you know my my Y. M. C. A. Um And honestly like the second I touched volleyball, I fell in love with it. Um I had to kind of fight my mom a little bit to go to the volleyball session because my disability affects my arm. Um And so she was really worried that volleyball wouldn't be the sport for me and she wanted to put me in a position to succeed. Um but I had a cheerleading session after my volleyball session of the trial today that was like our compromise. Um and I actually remember I was seven years old and I remember getting up and kind of sneaking out the back of the chair session to go back to volleyball because I just loved it so much immediately. Um but sitting volleyball really didn't enter my life until 2017. Um So after I've been playing volleyball for 12 years at that point. Really? Yeah, so could you tell me a little bit about your journey to sitting volleyball? Like how you found out about it? Yeah, so it was 2016, I was at a tournament called Big South National qualifier in Atlanta Georgia and I was approached by ref and they're like, have you heard of sitting volleyball? And I kind of brushed them off, I was like, no, like that's not for me, I can play standing volleyball. Um and that was it. And then a year later, same tournament, a different riff came up to me, I was like asking about my arm, he was like, do you have a disability or is this just like how you pass? And I explained to him like, no, I have a disability. Um and he starts showing me all these pictures of sitting volleyball and he's like, do you know what I do for a living? And I just kind of, he's like, no, I really like this means nothing to me. Um and he told me he coached our developmental program, his name was Eliot Blake and I kind of made a comment like, oh, Nina McVeigh because I went to high school with her and she was on the youth team at the time. And so I talked to Nina to, you know, make sure that this man was a real person and kind of wasn't making all this up while he was talking to me. Um and I know that was in april 2017, about three weeks later I went to Virginia with him and a group of like five guys um kind of as an informal try out kind of thing to see if I was worth it to bring out to Oklahoma, which is where our training center is um for a developmental camp And um I went, okay, so I went out to Oklahoma, my mom and I and her friend and my brother actually we drove um it took us 21 hours to get there just so I could train for the weekend. Um but I was 16 at the time, my mom didn't want to actually think it was 15 still and she didn't want to just shoot me out by myself. So we drove um and I hated it, the camp, I didn't really like it, I didn't think the sport was for me. Um I just kind of felt like I was standing volleyball player and that was what I was meant to be, um but I figured I'd give it one more shot, so um that August 2017, 2 months later I went to another training camp and that's where I met Bill Ham Eater, who is my head coach now. Um and he emailed me about two weeks after that camp and asked me to try out for the national team and come to a national team camp and I was like, oh crap like this is, this is really, you know, And so I that November or 2017 went to a national team camp and loved it. Um so it was a quick turnaround from not loving the sports loving the sport, but the team was incredible, the game was so fast paced. It was impossible not to love. Yeah, well, so what are some of the biggest changes for you and the things you had to adapt to? Yeah, so I know my arm, my disability is called a break your plexus injury. Um which means essentially my arm doesn't straighten, like this is as straight as my arm goes, you can kind of see a little bit, um and then it doesn't rotate all the way it stops right here. Um and it's a little bit weaker, um which there's a problem in sitting volleyball because you move on the floor with your hands and my arm doesn't reach the floor. Um At the same time in standing volleyball, I was able to run, I was able to jump and I could get to the ball and so that was taken away from me and that made everything else so much harder because when you can't get to the ball, you can't pass as well. Um and you can't hit as well and you're not gonna set. So that was a huge challenge and that's why I didn't love the sport at first because I felt like volleyball, which I had put years of work into and finally felt confident and was just being taken away from me. Um I came back with time and with a lot of work, but that was by far the biggest challenge and so you go to you and see how do you fit training in with your busy schedule. Yeah, that's so honestly I don't really know all the time. Um I, so I was really fortunate, I don't want to use it to unfortunate when we switched to online classes. It was really easy for me to split my time between living in Chapel hill um and like seeing my family and seeing my friends um and then split my time with Oklahoma and our training center where I would live in team housing and the training full time. So that was not too bad with online classes, but during the school year and we were in person um there were definitely some times where it was kind of like if I thought about it too long, it wasn't gonna work out. So I, my freshman year I had my first international tournament in Japan um in that november um and I was gone for 10 days and I had to miss school for those 10 days. Um and I remember actually having to wake up at three o'clock in the morning in Japan time to register for my classes because that was just kind of the position I was in and that's what you and see was going to give me and that's what we're gonna do. So I love being a unc student and I love being a getting valuable athlete on this team, but those two don't always cooperate super well, so I really kind of preached like communication especially my professors um as early as possible. Um remember before even registering for classes my freshman year like being on the phone with one of my professors to talk about potentially registering for his class and if it was going to be possible to make it work with my training schedule um and then like sending emails all the time just to kind of coordinate um make everything work out. Yeah, communication is key and signing up and tosses is so difficult, but that's another story for another time. So you describe the dynamic between you and your fellow teammates, especially like the team bonding that went into it before you went to Tokyo. Yeah, so my team dynamic is really interesting because we have such a wide range of people in every way, like we have one of my teammates is from Hawaii and then we're from new york and Oklahoma and florida like we're all over the place there. We also have a huge age range, like our youngest team member just turned 18 like 23 months ago and our oldest is 44 years old, so there's a huge like stage of life difference as well. Um but we've really, really been working on, you know, checking it on each other and making sure we're not just keeping up with each other in a volleyball sense but like life as well because even though I can't necessarily relate to my teammates to have kids um I can ask other kids and I can like learn about them and their families and what's going on in their life just to really build that relationship because that relationship and that trust off the court really translates to trust on the court as well. Yeah, for sure. And why number 12? Um So actually they kind of just gave it to me. Um but my brother, my little brother loves it because he was number 12 1st. He's a freshman in high school this year and he's always been number 12, so he thinks I'm trying to coffee him. Um but I just let him have it. Um But they just gave me my jersey one day. It said she's 12 and that was kind of it. I had been for um in high school and middle school. So it's new. Well, one way to be a role model, I guess I would resume copying my 14 year old brother now. Well I guess he had at first, but it's one way that you guys can relate. So could you just describe team usa is journey so far in competition and what lies ahead. Yeah, so I um I wasn't on the team in Rio in 2016. I was even playing something valuable at that point, but my amazing team mates won gold in Rio. So coming here, coming to these games, it was our first gold medal. Um and sitting valuable coming here was like a new thing because we've always been, you know, like the hunter like trying to get gold, trying to win it for the first time. We were like the underdog and now we're defending the title. So it's a new mindset and it's a new way to approach things. Um we won our first match a few days ago against Rwanda and lost yesterday. So that was, it's a tough loss. We're still like learning from, its only what we can do. Um it was to china who actually has won every other gold medal in sitting volleyball and it's usually the gold medal match up as us in china. So big game tomorrow more tomorrow night for us tomorrow morning for you guys um against Russia that will conclude our pool play and if we can, if we win that game well, advanced crossovers and then hopefully there's a gold medal match in our future. Um The journey has been, it's been rough, but it's honestly been one of the most fun things I've ever been a part of and I absolutely love it. So yeah, well I love to you tomorrow night. I I really cross my fingers for this. Us a goal. Yeah, me too. As in everybody. Um and lastly, what is your personal goal in Tokyo? My personal Tokyo. I've got a lot to learn here. I mean obviously personal gold team goal come home with the gold medal. Um, but I've got a lot to learn. I'm really fortunate to beyond the best team in the world. Um We have been the best in the world for a few years now and that's because of some of the amazing veterans on this team. Um and being able to learn from them these last four years and now getting to see them in a paralympic environment. I'm learning more every day. Um, my sitting valuable career is definitely just getting started. Um, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I'm definitely still a rookie, so I really want to just absorb as much as I can so I can keep the legacy of this team going. Of course. Well, thank you so much for taking the time and good luck tomorrow night and the rest of your. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.