October 18, 2023
NJP celebrates those who never take the path of least resistance and are true leaders, setting the stage to be amazing role models that open the eyes of the NJ Volleyball community. Many NJ high school players have aspirations to join their volleyball skills with their academic future at the collegiate level. Sometimes, when the stars align, and your academics or athletic accomplishments are recognized, opportunities exist that are outside the box and different from the norm. When we see these situations unfolding, NJP wants to bring them to life and inspire other players in high school to push their limits and reach for these opportunities.
Sofia Bell is an excellent example. The Tenafly senior won a state championship last season along with getting consideration for NJ Player of the Year honors. And her choice for college, which you will read about below and in upcoming installments, was not typical. We have asked Sofia to share her experiences as a senior, her championship run to a group title, her selection process for college, and the experience playing volleyball abroad and being a student at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. We applaud her for having the fortitude to travel, live outside the country, meet new friends that are 3,000 miles from home, and expand her mind in a cultural experience that will build knowledge and maturity.
Here is Sofia’s first installment…
Going into my final high school volleyball season was a very exciting, yet emotional time. After being a part of the Tenafly Volleyball program since 7th grade, everyone felt like a family. Throughout the years, I had watched the seniors graduate year by year, and it was always very upsetting as an underclassman to watch the teammates who mentored and cared for you leave for college. And as soon as I knew it, It was my turn to be a senior, and my last season had begun. Since my freshman year, I had played with great players that have gone through this program, but I knew that my senior class was special. Tenafly has always had good players, but it’s been a couple of years since it has had a very strong class of seniors, and I think that we were one of them.
The most memorable part of last year’s season, my senior season, was the love and passion that we all gave each and every game, especially us seniors. All of us seniors have played volleyball for a long time, but specifically, Callie Milionis, Anna Taufield, Meghan Koehler, Rylie Theurkauf, and I have all been playing together for Tenafly since 7th grade. Our journey went from winning middle school games 25-0 with Callie’s aces, to being the freshman babies who floated from JV to Varsity and sang at the top of our lungs in the back of the bus. To having to step up and win the state sectional our sophomore year, to being leaders of the program for the underclassmen as juniors, and finally being seniors, and giving it our all, knowing we were something special and this was our last chance to do something great. All us girls have such great chemistry on and off the court, and having gone through all the typical ups and downs of volleyball together did nothing but make us closer as teammates and friends. I think the biggest part of why we were able to achieve so much throughout our (class of 2023) high school volleyball career was because us seniors all had the same goals and ambitions. We all trusted that the rest were going to give their all to win and to be better for themselves and the team. This is how I believe we created history for Tenafly’s volleyball program. This is why our class was able to make Tenafly proud by winning the state championship for the first time since 1982 (40 years).
Although the pure determination of our team played a large part in why we were able to win the state championship, there was a lot more that most don’t see that went into it. Our coach, Jeff Koehler, has always told us since we first started out in the program, “You won’t get until you’re a senior when you tie your shoelaces up for the last time, understanding that there’s no more tomorrow”. This is exactly how I felt before every single game my senior year. Especially when it came to states. We knew that if we lost, that was the end of it, and so we played for each other, so we could play together one last time until there were no more games that we could play. So, when it came for the state championship final, we knew that win or lose, it would be our last game, so we were going to do all we could to finish our last season on a win, and make history.
The game was tough. A lot of us girls were under the weather, but we knew there was no other time to play than now. We lost the first set, which definitely fueled our fire as we gave our all in the second set, fighting for the tiebreaking set, which was very back-and-forth. I remember all throughout the third set, there were so many different emotions on our side of the court. Some of the girls, including myself, began to get emotional halfway through the set, knowing our last points were approaching. As each point was earned, us seniors looked at each other wanting to finish and win, but also not wanting our last game to come to an end. Then, the score got into the 20s, and I had just rotated into the front row. I knew that it was my time to give it my personal 110%, as Meghan told me she was going to set me. It’s weird, I hadn’t noticed it until articles as well as my friends and family mentioned it, but I had this accidental trend of winning the last point of our games with a kill of any sort. This trend was of course continued the last game, our state sectional final match, as I was set by Meghan Koehler, hit the ball, it was returned, I was set again and then got the point by tooling the block. At that moment, I dropped to my knees out of pure relief, but I was ready to hit another 3 balls if necessary. I just wanted to get the point for us, so we could finally be champions, as we had worked so hard to be.
After our (Tenafly) extremely memorable and successful season, many of my teammates and I were awarded incredible titles/awards. I myself was awarded 1st Team All County, 1st Team All League, and nominated for Player of the Month and Player of the Year. Although I am extremely grateful for having been nominated for these awards and have been lucky enough to win some of them, I owe it all to my amazing team, as I would’ve never been able to achieve such awards without them and our success in being the 2023 State Champions, 2023 League Champions, and 2021 & 2023 State Sectional Champions. In the picture above, I am holding the plaque for the award of All County Player, which I was so honored to be invited to and proud to attend with my coach Jeffrey Koehler and his daughter, my senior teammate and setter, Meghan Koehler.
By the time the season ended, I had already decided not to play club for the rest of the year. Although I had just finished the high school season on such a high, I knew that the possibility of me going abroad for school was very high, and I wanted to prioritize spending time with my family, friends, peers, and most importantly focus on my applications and grades for college.
Studying abroad for the entirety of my undergraduate college career was always an option for me since the moment the discussion of college began my sophomore year of high school. Both my parents being Spanish, my dad had introduced the idea to study in Spain from very early on. I was not entirely convinced that this was something I wanted to do, but it had never left my mind from that moment on. As the talk of college got more serious my junior year, my parents helped me by researching other European schools I could apply to. By the end of Junior year, I was entirely open to the idea of studying abroad, but still didn’t want to completely shut myself out from studying in the US. The beginning of my Senior year, I applied to 21 schools: 2 in Italy, 2 in Spain, 4 in the UK, 10 in the US, and 1 in Ireland (Trinity College Dublin). I always knew that the most important thing for me to get out of my college experience was a new view of the world and having endless opportunities available. This was something that I never felt I would get out of the American college experience, even with the common semester abroad tradition.
As most other American high schoolers, I had spent my Junior and Senior year traveling to visit schools I was applying to. However, I had not visited most of the schools in Europe except for one in Spain and another in London. So, when the admissions began rolling in, and I was accepted into Trinity College Dublin, I knew that I had to go visit, as it soon became one of my top options. Fast track to the end of April, my mom and I took a couple days off from school and flew to Ireland to go visit TCD. The first thing we did when we landed was go see the university. I had seen pictures and videos of the campus before, but the feel of the school and environment is something that can only be felt in person. I didn’t want to decide too quickly, but I remember telling my mom that out of all the schools I visited, I felt the most comfortable at Trinity and I could envision being here for 4 years.
Most of the trip was exploring the city (Dublin), because I knew that I had to love the city and the country, not only the school, it being in the city center. A couple of weeks before this trip, I had reached out to the volleyball coach at Trinity, stating that I would be visiting the school and I asked if it was possible to come watch the team practice. She very kindly said yes and even invited me to practice with them. Once in Ireland, I was a bit nervous, as I hadn’t brought any of my gear, so I had planned to watch the practice. After entering the gym and seeing all the facilities had to offer, my mom and I went up to the hall where the practice was taking place. Immediately, all of the girls came and introduced themselves, along with the coach. The girls then began warming up as I spoke with the coach, and after a wonderful conversation with her about my playing history, the volleyball team, and the schedule and level of play. Once we had gotten to know each other, she told me to go warm up and practice with the girls. I didn’t want to give off a bad first impression so I did, with no equipment, wearing a sweater, yoga pants, and running shoes. I took it easy, but I got a good sense of the level of play and the coach’s style of instruction, which I felt was compatible with the way I like to be coached. I was extremely pleased at the end of the practice and told the coach that if I committed, I would be back in September for tryouts.
Despite having narrowed down my options, the weeks approaching the date of May 1st (college commitment day) were very stressful for me as I had a very big decision to make. Most of my peers were torn between schools in our home state vs. across the country, meanwhile my top options were in 3 different countries (Ireland, Spain, and the US). I couldn’t seem decide whether or not I should stay in the US, play volleyball at the collegiate level, and be close to my nuclear family, go to Spain and be with the rest of my family, be in the city of Madrid, which I consider a second home, or go to Ireland, a country I hadn’t spent more than 3 days in and start a completely new chapter of my life. In the end, I decided to go to Trinity College Dublin for many reasons, but most importantly, it was the hardest option. I was going to be living alone with no family, I would have to learn to commute in an unfamiliar city as I would live off-campus, I would have no meal plan, and have little to no mutual acquaintances. I knew that no matter how hard the adjustment would be, I would graduate college with knowledge and experience I would have never had the opportunity to attain if I were to have stayed in the US or Spain, places I was comfortable in.
Although I was involved in the recruiting process to play volleyball in college, I ultimately chose to focus on my academics, as it has always been my priority. However, I was delighted to find out that Trinity College Dublin has a volleyball team. Although intrigued at first, I was a bit hesitant about trying out for the team because of the commitment as I had just made the decision to prioritize my academics by going to a world known university overseas, away from home. But, as I researched the team and then visited the school and played with the volleyball team, I was convinced that my time playing volleyball was not over. Although prestigious, the commitment of playing volleyball is not too extreme, and I found it manageable for my schedule. Now, I find myself a month into this new journey, and so far it is going so well. We have already played a couple of volleyball games, I have exams coming up soon, I am learning to be independent in a foreign country, and I am beyond eager to see what else is to come!
