From the East coast to the West coast, and now in the Heartland, Ball State Men’s Volleyball’s Patrick Rogers has found his volleyball home.
The Cards are looking for a 3-peat with a MIVA Volleyball championship on the line this week in Muncie.
🎬: Dane Massey
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depending on where you grew up and like how you got involved in the sport you probably started out playing something else you know volleyball just has this kind of gravity that sucks you in and with Pat starting so late it was just a matter of you know just kind of Fate for him really just kind of like kept putting himself in the right place at the right time and finding his path and then ending up here at Ball State I was just excited to go play college volleyball I wasn’t uh sad or anything or think of anything too serious wasn’t stressed out I was just excited to play college volleyball and and see how the first season went St Francis college has announced the elimination of its 21 team ncda Athletics program due to the financial impact of the covid-19 pandemic it’s back to the drawing board on how they’ll finish out their college careers without their sport I look at that and I think then like how much more luck is there involved in him getting to Ball State and uh and because he’s so young in the sport in experience he has so much room to grow and I think he’s he’s just scratching the surface of what he’s capable [Music] of feeling like you’re top dog that’s the new y by it was awesome it was uh always busy always doing something they they going around and and um there’s a lot of access in in New York City to uh to do stuff play volleyball play beach volleyball some good courts in New York City um it’s only 15 minutes away so yeah it was awesome I played basketball since I could remember it was the first sport I really took seriously and I uh I played up until senior year of high school until that was over and I think I was the best ated out of all the sports but my favorite on was basketball my sister’s always played volleyball so I was always around it and uh never really played a competitive setting and my parents said I should try it and I did one year and it was uh not in my position now I was a middle originally because our one of the teammates one of the middles I was uh playing with broke his pinky first Tor me so the rest of year I had a play middle um yeah and then and then uh I switched positions the next year it was fun it was it was my first year and I uh it was a lot of older guys I lived up to it was an 18th team and I was 15 and a lot of guys I looked up to on that team and still do I originally committed to Pepperdine and um decommitted from there cuz they had two new coaches that left and uh so I committed to a school that I knew who the coach was and trusted who the coach was and um my freshman year was there and it was good and and uh unfortunately the program got sh shut down [Music] so they brought us into a um into the auditorium all the athletes at the school and said um basically the programs being shut down so there was a lot of people that were sad and and I was also affected by that and um yeah it was it was a rough time it was like dang you know like it just just that’s it you know and everybody had to find a new place to transfer and it was it was not fun I was just hoping someone would pick me up and so I could play somewhere [Music] else any any [Music] anywh he spent some time with the national team this summer and so did I we were just in two different groups of the national team uh and when I heard he was getting invited I flew out there and observed a training and um and had a chance to kind of meet with him a couple times so um so yeah it’s been it’s been a huge blessing to have them a part of the program and and glad that we were uh able to kind of take this like recruiting interest and actually come to the point where we are now where he’s on the team and and doing such a good job I don’t really have much expectations I just hopefully want to uh win a uh mea mea tournament I want to Wi that with the with the team and and I think we’re able to he’s been good ever since he’s entered this team a later addition to the team only a sophomore his first year playing at ball but he’s certainly been making a huge impact you know we want him to be a leader in his own way I think that’s become a big part of uh of what he’s kind of evolved into is you don’t need to be a loud voice in the gym to be a leader uh how do you lead without being outspoken and that’s through my actions and and and my way I carry myself and then how I manage myself in competition you know um there’s moments you know in a couple games where he’s really got into it and it fires the group up um and I think he’s learned how to figure out a way to leverage that to benefit our team I don’t need to play super high and super low I just need to find a balance on the game and when he plays steady like that it just has a positive impact with everybody else that’s around them on the court sh
