Participating in high-level youth sports when living in a rural area can be a challenge, but Emerson Grossman’s love for volleyball is taking her places.
Coached by her coach mother to start playing in middle school, the 6-foot Cassville junior fell in love with the sport in seventh grade. This summer, she was on one of 136 teams in the 17 Classic division of the 49th AAU Girls National Championships in Orlando, Fla.
“My mom was the coach in the beginning, and she had to push me to play because I didn’t want to,” Grossman said. “It’s the first sport I played that I actually understood. I tried basketball and other sports, but they just didn’t click like volleyball does. It’s just the atmosphere of it. It’s difference from other sports was new to me, and I fell in love with it immediately.”
Despite another almost miss at high school, saying former coach Brianna Kleine had to convince her to join the squad, Grossman began pursuing the sport at a high level.
“My mom heard off different clubs in the area, and we started with BC Power, which is a club in the Cassville area,” she said. “My mom said if I want to pursue volleyball in high school and college, I needed get into a club for more touches and more reps. We tried it, and we liked it, and now, I am playing for THR33 Volleyball Academy in Springfield.
In her fourth year with the team, Grossman said it’s an eight- to 9-person squad that travels regionally for tournaments.
“We are very close-knit, and we get used to each other,” she said. “We travel to places like Tulsa and Kansas City, and we have some tournaments in Springfield.”
The AAU tournament team was of a different breed, hand-picked by the coach and entered into the open division with 135 others.
“It was a little chaotic because we only had seven practices, an only one where we were all there as unit,” she said. “Surprisingly, we were very cohesive. We had girls from all over, like Clever, Springfield and Rogersville. We all liked each other and loved playing with each other.”
The THR33 VBA 17 team went 4-5, winning 11 sets and losing 13, finished 31st overall. The first-place team was from Texas, winning 13 total games, and other states represented in the top 10 include Illinois, Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Tennessee.
“It was insane to step in and actually see all of these girls,” Grossman said. “There were international teams and girls from everywhere. It was really fun and exciting to see all this competition. Some games, it felt like I was playing against college girls. It was great competition and great to see what they were doing different and how I could incorporate that into my game, as well.”
Incorporate, she did.
“I started playing back row this year, so I watched how they read the block and the hitters and move around the court,” Grossman said. “When they were in the front row, I watched their hitting form and how they open up more, arch, slam through and pull their hips through.
“I started incorporating that while I was down there playing and noticed huge difference hitting balls down and reading where balls were going to dig them up. It was tiny stuff I was fixing.”
Grossman said experiences like the one she had in Florida are helping her get to where she wants to go — a DI program.
“It’s my dream to get to that next level,” she said. “And going to places like Nationals, I get to see my competition for college to know what I need to be working at. My dream right now is to go to the University of Arkansas, but I am still very open to playing DII or DIII. But yes, DI is the dream.”
In the meantime, Grossman is putting in the time, about 2-4 hours per day at least five days per week touching a ball.
“When school is done, club practice will be twice a week from November to April, and with a lot — a lot — of weekend tournaments. We pretty much play volleyball almost year-round.”
Grossman will be a third-year varsity starter for Cassville this fall. She is an All-Conference returner and a twoyear Academic All-State player.
