ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Falling in love with beach volleyball at a young age has set Addie White up to pursue and conquer her dreams.
After driving by an outdoor court filled with volleyball players when she was in the sixth grade, her interest in the sport began.
Though White didn’t get into playing the sport in the traditional way that most players do.
“I never played indoor volleyball. I’ve always been into beach volleyball which is different than a lot of people,” said White, after an early morning practice last week. “I started playing in sixth grade. I just kind of fell in love with it.”
Being one of the younger girls in her North Carolina club, the influence of her older teammates played a big role in what the beach volleyball player would do with her career.
“I was able to watch all of the older girls from my club. They all went into college and I decided I really wanted to do that,” said White, who is from Apex, in the state’s northeast. “I couldn’t imagine myself not playing the sport competitively so that was also a big factor.”
About 90 schools across the USA offer NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III programs in beach volleyball.
White knew her options were few compared to the over 330 schools offering DI indoor volleyball programs.
“I was literally looking at a map because there’s not many beach volleyball programs in the country,” said White, on her experience at applying to college. “I was looking at Florida. I emailed the coach (at Eckerd College) and she emailed me back and then a few phone calls later I was here.”
White continued to make her dreams come true and committed to the Tritons back in 2021. She is now in her freshman year and sees volleyball as always being a part of her life.
“I want to keep playing beach volleyball for as long as possible,” said the Tritons player. “I want to stay in the community and maybe coach kids in the future.”
In her freshman season White is 3-8 overall, going 2-3 with Joelle Coulter and 1-5 with Anna Jupin.