More: 'Are we looking over our shoulder?' Negative fans contribute to shortage of officials. It's hard to get up and jump that high in the sand and I was like, 'Yeah, this girl's gonna be good.'" "I picked her to be on my team this one time, and she was absolutely smacking the ball out of the sand. "A couple of us would go down to the sand volleyball courts and just mess around," said Kruger. I had to get used to words that she didn't really understand or terms she didn't really understand."īut even before volleyball practice had started, Kruger knew Ossola could play an important role on the team. "At first, it was difficult," said Kruger. "It took us a while to get on the same page, just volleyball and communication wise. One of those new setters was McKinley Kruger, who met Ossola before the year started when she introduced herself at enrollment. "A timeframe when Camilla really took off, I remember the Rossville tournament," said Johnson. "We had her in the middle. I saw her hitting out of serve and receive on the right side, on the left side, and I was like, 'Gosh, she's a threat no matter where she's at in the front row,'" Training them plus adding a new team member was an adjustment that took time and communication. ![]() Johnson was installing a new system she hadn't run in the past that involved training two new setters. There was a pretty high volleyball IQ as well." "I saw immediately an athleticism in her," said Johnson. "She had a decent vertical and phenomenal arm swing. When I got (to Silver Lake), I was like, 'Oh my god, please just don't make me play volleyball again,' and then when I started playing, everyone made it fun."īeyond initially meeting Ossola shortly before the season began, Silver Lake coach Sarah Johnson's first impressions of her on the court were positive. "If you're good there, you're just playing on the best team kind of like the varsity team," said Ossola. "I just hated volleyball so much. The structure there made her not enjoy the game as much, but she decided to give it a chance in Silver Lake. Italy doesn't have school teams, just club teams. She didn't know how her skills would transfer to the United States. This was Ossola's sixth year playing volleyball. More: These 3 Topeka-area QBs expect to take big steps in leading their teams this season Camilla Ossola finds her passion for volleyball again Like be home by 9 p.m., I was like: 'Are you kidding me? I go out at 9 p.m. I never had a curfew in my life, and it was so weird. When I got there, as an exchange student and as a teenager in high school, they had a lot of rules and I had no idea about that. "I grew up without many rules here," said Ossola on a Zoom call last week from Italy. She felt welcome from the start.Īdjusting to the workload school-wise - and even new teammates on the volleyball team - wasn't as difficult as the rules. Ossola arrived last July a week or two before the fall classes began at Silver Lake. ![]() More: Keep an eye on these 5 Topeka-area high school running backs this fall I didn't even know it was an American state." "I had no clue where Kansas was," said Ossola. She had been to the United States twice with family prior to coming to Silver Lake, going to Florida once, and New York and Washington, D.C., on her other trip. She had wanted to come to the United States to study since junior high. She earned First Team All Mid-East League honors. Ossola helped Silver Lake to a 28-9 record with a team-high 223 kills and 62 blocks. Ossola will stay in the United States to continue her academic and athletic career at Johnson County Community College. Camilla Ossola came to Silver Lake from Italy to spend a year as a foreign exchange student.Īnd in that year, she rediscovered her passion for volleyball.
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