Photo by: (Ben Solomon/Rutgers Athletics)
Dig R Knights: Shealyn McNamara
Oct 27 | Women's Volleyball
Every day Shealyn McNamara wakes up looking to make the most of her day. For her, every day is a chance to learn and grow.
"My goal is just to be better than I was yesterday," she said while mentioning her favorite quote.
The quote - "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward" – by Vernon Law.
"I do love to learn," she said of her drive. "That's been the biggest motivator. I feel like life is the best teacher too. There is so much that you can get out of every single day, but it is up to you to see the lessons that are being presented to you and learn from them. Working through adversity has been the biggest catalyst to being my best self."
Growing up, there was one roadblock to volleyball for McNamara.
"My earliest memory was absolutely hating volleyball," she laughed. "I couldn't pass, I couldn't serve and it was just misery. I thought I was never going to play this again."
Being tall for her age made McNamara a perfect candidate to play volleyball, but she instead wanted to focus on Irish step dancing. Still, her dad kept planting the seed about playing on the way to and from dancing lessons.
"My whole journey with volleyball was crazy," she remembered. "I only really started playing right before the summer before my freshman year of high school, which is pretty late to start. One of my friends dragged me to lessons with her. I thought it was just a way to have fun and be active. One of the coaches there was the freshman coach at my high school. It was one of those funny chance things where she saw me and she figured out I was going to go to South Forsyth High School."
Soon afterward, McNamara was invited for a tryout.
"I showed up to tryouts and I thought 'yeah, I'm not really expecting to make a team. I'm a dancer, so it doesn't really matter.' Next thing you know, I made the freshman team."
Then one day out on the court, the switch flipped for the Cumming, Georgia native and volleyball was a part of her foreseeable future.
"I remember being out on the court and I didn't know what it was, but all of a sudden I was a completely different player," she recalled. "After that day, I remember feeling like this is the sport for me."
From not wanting to touch the ball to two years later, McNamara found herself committing to play Division I volleyball and go on to make the 2015 Georgia State Championship along with all-state honorable mention and all-region honors.
However, all those Irish step dancing lessons did have a huge payoff for the middle blocker.
"Weirdly enough, that served me very well when I finally did get into volleyball," she noted. "I had really good footwork and really good timing, which for my position is something that that you definitely need to have."
Fast forward, now McNamara is up for her next challenge and that is helping the Rutgers volleyball team continue to trend upwards in the top conference in the nation with head coach Caitlin Schweihofer and her staff.
"After my first conversation with Caitlin, I just knew I wanted to play for her at Rutgers," she said of her experience of transferring from Auburn. "She was so honest to me. She laid it all out there and did not beat around the bush. She told me exactly what she thinks my experience here is going to be. It's her first year and a growing program. We are expecting to get better and put the program in a position to continue to grow. I liked it because it showed that these coaches have a lot of integrity. I wanted a head coach that I knew I could trust and that I knew not only were great coaches but were great people."
And just like that Rutgers went to the top of the list.
Now that McNamara has arrived "On The Banks", she finds practice suited to her style.
"The coaches have a plan, they know exactly what they want to get out of every single day," she explained. "We come into the gym, work our hardest at it and know what we are going to accomplish. You can see the improvement and we're improving literally every single day. I've really enjoyed that because one of my biggest pet peeves is when people waste my time. To walk into the gym and know this is high-quality volleyball and I'm going to get a lot out of every single day, it makes me want to be in the gym all the time. I know when I'm in there I'm getting better and I'm accomplishing stuff."
"The one thing the staff has really been stressing the past couple of weeks is playing the exact same way in the fifth and final set as we come out playing in the first," McNamara stressed of the effectiveness of practices thus far. "They don't want any change in energy. It's an all-out effort, going as hard as you can be and maintaining that high level to the very last point. The staff wants it at a consistent level where you can play your best volleyball the whole match through."
Energy is something that you will see from McNamara once she steps foot on the court as a Scarlet Knight. When asked to describe to herself on the court the word "fierce" came to mind.
"Well, it's funny because off the court, I'm a very chilled person," she smiled. "For whatever reason, when it comes to volleyball and I step on the court, I become a different person. I just want to get after it and it is fun have that kind of competition."
McNamara is equally competitive in the classroom too. A three-time recipient of SEC Academic honors, she is currently working towards a Master's degree in health administration.
"My ultimate goal has always been to practice medicine," she noted. "I don't know if I want to go the MD route or if I want to be a PA, but I definitely want to end up practicing medicine. In going to go to grad school I was going to do something that I knew would help me in my future. As for health administration, obviously that's still in the medical field, but it gives me a totally different perspective than practicing medicine."
And in taking that route, McNamara always sees the lesson to be learned.
"From what I've heard, there's often a big gap between people practicing medicine and the administration and their views for medicine or their views for whatever institution you may be working at," she said. "For me to be able to see both sides of the spectrum and to have training, knowledge and practicing it on the administrative side, I immediately knew that is a very valuable quality to have. I know that's something that I can put into practice that's going to help me no matter what I end up doing."
In the meantime, McNamara will continue the balance of receiving a top-notch education and the life of a Division I student-athlete all while looking for the lessons to be applied along the way to make herself a better person.
"My goal is just to be better than I was today," she reiterated. "I don't like to put down numbers like 'I want to have this winning block' or 'this many kills this season'. I'm going to be one percent better than I was today. When you look back over a season, it's exponential - the amount of growth. I feel that's kind of the same with this team. We're expected every single day to get better. We're trying to build a platform for future Rutgers volleyball teams to take the steps needed to make us super competitive in our league. Each day and every day, we are all trying to see improvement."
Everyday McNamara and the Scarlet Knights step on to the court is another day to get better.
For previous stories in the Rutgers Volleyball's Dig R Knights Series:
"My goal is just to be better than I was yesterday," she said while mentioning her favorite quote.
The quote - "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward" – by Vernon Law.
"I do love to learn," she said of her drive. "That's been the biggest motivator. I feel like life is the best teacher too. There is so much that you can get out of every single day, but it is up to you to see the lessons that are being presented to you and learn from them. Working through adversity has been the biggest catalyst to being my best self."
Growing up, there was one roadblock to volleyball for McNamara.
"My earliest memory was absolutely hating volleyball," she laughed. "I couldn't pass, I couldn't serve and it was just misery. I thought I was never going to play this again."
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"My whole journey with volleyball was crazy," she remembered. "I only really started playing right before the summer before my freshman year of high school, which is pretty late to start. One of my friends dragged me to lessons with her. I thought it was just a way to have fun and be active. One of the coaches there was the freshman coach at my high school. It was one of those funny chance things where she saw me and she figured out I was going to go to South Forsyth High School."
Soon afterward, McNamara was invited for a tryout.
"I showed up to tryouts and I thought 'yeah, I'm not really expecting to make a team. I'm a dancer, so it doesn't really matter.' Next thing you know, I made the freshman team."
Then one day out on the court, the switch flipped for the Cumming, Georgia native and volleyball was a part of her foreseeable future.
"I remember being out on the court and I didn't know what it was, but all of a sudden I was a completely different player," she recalled. "After that day, I remember feeling like this is the sport for me."
From not wanting to touch the ball to two years later, McNamara found herself committing to play Division I volleyball and go on to make the 2015 Georgia State Championship along with all-state honorable mention and all-region honors.
However, all those Irish step dancing lessons did have a huge payoff for the middle blocker.
"Weirdly enough, that served me very well when I finally did get into volleyball," she noted. "I had really good footwork and really good timing, which for my position is something that that you definitely need to have."
Fast forward, now McNamara is up for her next challenge and that is helping the Rutgers volleyball team continue to trend upwards in the top conference in the nation with head coach Caitlin Schweihofer and her staff.
"After my first conversation with Caitlin, I just knew I wanted to play for her at Rutgers," she said of her experience of transferring from Auburn. "She was so honest to me. She laid it all out there and did not beat around the bush. She told me exactly what she thinks my experience here is going to be. It's her first year and a growing program. We are expecting to get better and put the program in a position to continue to grow. I liked it because it showed that these coaches have a lot of integrity. I wanted a head coach that I knew I could trust and that I knew not only were great coaches but were great people."
And just like that Rutgers went to the top of the list.
Now that McNamara has arrived "On The Banks", she finds practice suited to her style.
"The coaches have a plan, they know exactly what they want to get out of every single day," she explained. "We come into the gym, work our hardest at it and know what we are going to accomplish. You can see the improvement and we're improving literally every single day. I've really enjoyed that because one of my biggest pet peeves is when people waste my time. To walk into the gym and know this is high-quality volleyball and I'm going to get a lot out of every single day, it makes me want to be in the gym all the time. I know when I'm in there I'm getting better and I'm accomplishing stuff."
"The one thing the staff has really been stressing the past couple of weeks is playing the exact same way in the fifth and final set as we come out playing in the first," McNamara stressed of the effectiveness of practices thus far. "They don't want any change in energy. It's an all-out effort, going as hard as you can be and maintaining that high level to the very last point. The staff wants it at a consistent level where you can play your best volleyball the whole match through."
Energy is something that you will see from McNamara once she steps foot on the court as a Scarlet Knight. When asked to describe to herself on the court the word "fierce" came to mind.
"Well, it's funny because off the court, I'm a very chilled person," she smiled. "For whatever reason, when it comes to volleyball and I step on the court, I become a different person. I just want to get after it and it is fun have that kind of competition."
McNamara is equally competitive in the classroom too. A three-time recipient of SEC Academic honors, she is currently working towards a Master's degree in health administration.
"My ultimate goal has always been to practice medicine," she noted. "I don't know if I want to go the MD route or if I want to be a PA, but I definitely want to end up practicing medicine. In going to go to grad school I was going to do something that I knew would help me in my future. As for health administration, obviously that's still in the medical field, but it gives me a totally different perspective than practicing medicine."
And in taking that route, McNamara always sees the lesson to be learned.
"From what I've heard, there's often a big gap between people practicing medicine and the administration and their views for medicine or their views for whatever institution you may be working at," she said. "For me to be able to see both sides of the spectrum and to have training, knowledge and practicing it on the administrative side, I immediately knew that is a very valuable quality to have. I know that's something that I can put into practice that's going to help me no matter what I end up doing."
In the meantime, McNamara will continue the balance of receiving a top-notch education and the life of a Division I student-athlete all while looking for the lessons to be applied along the way to make herself a better person.
"My goal is just to be better than I was today," she reiterated. "I don't like to put down numbers like 'I want to have this winning block' or 'this many kills this season'. I'm going to be one percent better than I was today. When you look back over a season, it's exponential - the amount of growth. I feel that's kind of the same with this team. We're expected every single day to get better. We're trying to build a platform for future Rutgers volleyball teams to take the steps needed to make us super competitive in our league. Each day and every day, we are all trying to see improvement."
Everyday McNamara and the Scarlet Knights step on to the court is another day to get better.
For previous stories in the Rutgers Volleyball's Dig R Knights Series:
- Senior right side hitter - Beka Kojadinovic
- Senior right side hitter - Kamila Cieslik
- Junior outside hitter - Anastasiia Maksimova
- Senior outside hitter - Yana Kamshilina
- Junior setter - Inna Balyko
- Senior libero - Mary Kate Painter
- RU -
Players Mentioned
MB
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