{"id":3512,"date":"2023-10-17T20:33:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T00:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=3512"},"modified":"2023-10-17T20:34:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T00:34:06","slug":"mackenzie-calhoun-sets-her-sights-on-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/mackenzie-calhoun-sets-her-sights-on-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Mackenzie Calhoun Sets Her Sights on the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>By Shivali Shah, Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After playing volleyball for almost a decade, Mackenzie Calhoun is in her last high school volleyball season. Calhoun is a setter on the girls varsity volleyball team and plays for Columbia Volleyball Academy in the off season. As a Division 1 commit for Lafayette college, Mackenzie is at an exciting point of her volleyball career.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her love for volleyball blossomed when she was just ten years old, but she became serious about the sport when she was twelve and joined a club team, \u201cplay[ing] ever since.\u201d As Calhoun grew, her love for volleyball grew as well, and she gained an understanding of where she wanted to take her volleyball career. \u201cI was fifteen, that\u2019s when I realized I wanted to play in college. And, I quickly realized that was one of my biggest goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Calhoun accomplished her goal this past summer when she accepted an offer to Lafayette College. The decision to commit to Lafayette was easy for her, especially since her father previously attended the college. But, the recruiting process was \u201csuper stressful\u2026 Originally they weren\u2019t really looking at me, but there was a coaching switch and the [new] coach actually really liked me.\u201d&nbsp; Though it was stressful, the process helped her \u201cfigure out what [she] wanted\u201d and ultimately helped her prepare better for college and her future in volleyball.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Support from her teammates also motivated her to strive to play D1. Calhoun has a strong connection to her teammates and feels that one of the main reasons she performs well is because of the encouragement of other players. \u201cOne thing about volleyball is that it\u2019s a team sport, which is something I really love about it because you can trust your teammates. Even if you\u2019re not performing your best in situations, they\u2019re there for you and they have your back.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like in any sport, there are always stressful situations, whether it be a big game, a high stakes tournament, or even a make or break point. How an athlete deals with this pressure is crucial to their performance. Calhoun uses not only the support from her teammates, but also a good mindset to deal with stress or nerves, \u201cOne thing that I do is I try to not let my emotions get in the way of playing. So, no matter what I\u2019m feeling, it\u2019s more so just playing every point the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through the highs and lows, Mackenzie Calhoun has always tried her best and persevered. And though she is off to play Division 1, high school volleyball will always be a memorable experience. \u201cIt is so special to be able to make connections on a team and learn lessons through the sport.&nbsp; I\u2019ve learned so much in volleyball alongside people I enjoy playing with and enjoy being around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Shivali Shah, Staff Writer After playing volleyball for almost a decade, Mackenzie Calhoun is in her last high school volleyball season. Calhoun is a setter on the girls varsity volleyball team and plays for Columbia Volleyball Academy in the off season. As a Division 1 commit for Lafayette college, Mackenzie is at an exciting&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[773,286,269,211,285,19,225],"class_list":["post-3512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-d1","tag-journalism","tag-rhhs","tag-river-hill","tag-river-hill-high-school","tag-sports-2","tag-volleyball"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unnamed-13.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3515,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions\/3515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}