Volleyball: Amy has best of both worlds in US

Former Otumoetai College volleyball player Amy Hunter wants to play in Europe when she finishes studying in the US where she has a sports scholarship. Photo / John Borren

The skies are, they say, so blue in Amy Hunter's new home, Alabama.

The former Otumoetai College student will resume her studies later this year in the southern state after spending two years at Albany State University in upstate New York on a volleyball sports scholarship.

Back in her home town for the northern hemisphere summer break, when she returns it will be to Alabama State where there will be the advantage of being closer to her aunt and of being able to play beach, as well as indoor, volleyball.

"My family lives in North Carolina, so it's only a six-hour drive rather than an 18-hour drive," she said.

There are other advantages.

"Alabama has a beach programme as well so at the end of this year I'll be playing indoor, then I'll be able to play beach, so I won't have an off-season - it's going to be cool 'cos the off-season is pretty boring - you just train and you don't get to play."

The move also makes sense academically as Hunter is looking at using the psychology tutoring she has from Albany, to take up health sciences and possibly move into studying neuroscience.

Albany has, though, been good to her, and still holds the attractions it had when she first went there two years ago.

"I really like the place - the campus is really nice and it has the number one nanotech programme in the whole nation. I got on with the coach and the team right from the word go, but I just wanted to be closer to my family."

Hunter left Otumoetai College in the middle of 2013. By then she was a regular in the New Zealand under 19 team.

"I'd been playing under 19s every year since I was 15 and there was interest from the women's team, but I never took it any further because there were so many other things going on."

She is still on the Volleyball New Zealand radar.

"The New Zealand team still get in contact with people who are overseas - they still want us to come back and play for them and are willing to have us."

Being in the States has brought a lot more versatility to her game.

"I just played in the middle when I was here - I didn't even know I was being moved to another position so right from the word 'go' I was starting in a new position that I'd never played before. But the one thing I loved about Albany was that you practised everywhere. My passing and serving and every aspect of my game got a lot stronger and a lot more consistent. So if you didn't [normally] play back-row, but needed to play back-row, or you needed to serve and you don't normally serve, then you could."

The level of training was also something new.

"The fitness was a bit of a shock at the start - we had our fitness test which was horrible, but that was the worst I ever had. After that I knew that you had to push through everything. All the training and the drills weren't there just to have fun, you had to go work for a couple of hours and that was it, then you could relax."

Players were given nutritional guidelines and, as a psychology major, the coach was "really big on the mental side of things".

With a squad of 13 players, Hunter knew that it was only by showing up well at practice and performing well that she would get to play.

While there were academic advantages in heading to the US, the main driving force was the benefit it would have on her game.

"I knew if I went over there I could study anything I wanted to - I'd sort of limited myself here. I am doing a science-based programme that I couldn't have done here unless I took bridging classes.

"But the main driving force was volleyball because I wanted to play volleyball after the States."

Her longer term goal is to play in Europe and being based in the US has opened her up to the possibility of being spotted by European team scouts. But it isn't the be all and end all.

"If Europe doesn't happen, I'm not going to be devastated - but I'm definitely going to keep playing wherever I end up, I'm not going to stop after the States."