Paige Stevens, Volleyball (Class of 2008)

Reflecting back on your experience as a student athlete at Neuqua Valley, how has being a student athlete impacted your years following high school?

Being a student-athlete has impacted my life in many ways. I think the time management aspect of learning how to balance my studies and practice and everything else that comes along with being a student athlete is just such a good life skill that I had to learn in order to be successful in both my studies and being an athlete. So that is something I carried through till today and I will continue to work at that but that is something that is extremely important and helped me get through all of those years.  

What do you recall as your most impactful or memorable experience as a student athlete?

I have two. One from a volleyball standpoint: beating Naperville North, we had never beat them to date and that was such a cool win, very exciting, just one of those wins that you’ll never forget for the rest of your life.The second is the relationships I built. I still am best friends with a couple of my teammates to this day, and  I would not be as close to them as if we weren’t volleyball teammates at Neuqua. 

If you could advise present and future student athletes, what would you share with them?

The biggest thing I would share is to learn from your losses. They’re gonna come, and if you dwell on them, they’re not going to make a difference. But if you sit back and learn from how you could’ve done something different, how you could apply that for the next game, the next test, the next challenge in your life, you’re just going to progress that much further towards success. 

What does it mean to you to be inducted into Neuqua Valley’s Hall of Fame?

It is an incredible honor. It’s amazing. I don’t want that. Ugh, I knew that question was going to get me. I mean, I don’t care if people think I’m emotional…  It is an absolute incredible honor. I am so excited to be here. It is something that I can’t wait to tell my grandkids today, so I can’t wait. 

What do you love about the sport that you play, and what keeps you going?

So volleyball was a sport that I picked up a little bit later—7th/8th grade. I played soccer from the moment I could walk; it was a new exciting sport for me. My height obviously helped with that, so it was really fun. I met a lot of good friends from that, and it’s a really fun sport, it challenged me, and I haven’t played in a couple of years, but I need to get back at it and I know that I will. 

Who would you say has helped you most throughout this journey that you’ve been on for so long, and what would you say to them?

My teammates and my coaches, I would not be here without them. At least one of my teammates is gonna be here supporting me tonight, and I am so thankful for that. Volleyball is a team sport, so I couldn’t have done this without the coach that put me on the team, the teammates that gave me the pass, that got the kill. I would not be here without them.