Volleyball out and about in Fairbanks community
May 22, 2012
907-474-6807
5/14/12
This spring, the Alaska women's volleyball team took time aside from class schedules and off-season training to get out in the community.
The Nanooks made three visits to middle schools in April in order to promote living a healthy lifestyle, what it means to be an athlete an being a Nanook. The team twice visited Randy Smith Middle and went to Tanana Middle one time.
“We want to connect with the youth because we have quite a few athletes around town we know through them coming to our games,” assistant coach Mallory Larranaga said. “We don't know as many as we'd like to know, so we want to connect with them too.”
Team members were able to touch on being a lifestyle athlete, eating healthy, making smart choices and finding ways to be active even if the young athletes aren't in season or don't have access to a gym, court, net or coach. The 'Nooks also did drills with the young athletes as well.
“When we get to help the younger athletes, we never know if there's going to be another Fairbanks all-star,” Larranaga said. “We never know if there's going to be another All-GNAC player right here in Fairbanks unless we encourage them and show them that there are ways around staying in the gym just in season. Fairbanks has a lot to offer and just because we don't have the competition that the Lower 48 has doesn't mean we have fewer athletes. It's all about opportunity that they're given.”
In addition, the Alaska spikers went around the university's campus a couple weeks ago giving out free Starbucks coffee to professors and administrators and staff both athletically and academically. This effort was simply to thank university members for all the support given to the volleyball program throughout the 2011-12 year.
They also assisted in Saturday's Stomp Parade in town as they prepared and served countless hot dogs to military personnel and family members of the military. The team worked three separate booths throughout the day to help with all the efforts of the event.
“We really want to show who we are as an athletic department in terms of student-athletes,” Larranaga said. “They work as hard if not harder than any other student because of their schedules but they care about this community because the community cares about them.”