I went to UC Irvine and long story short, within two months I was cut from the team for doing mushrooms, smoking weed, and partying. We signed a contract saying we wouldn’t do any of those things and someone sent an email and ratted us out. (I got) suspended for a year. A month later I got caught smoking weed in a van at 1:00 in the morning in a parking lot at UC Irvine. The cop knows my coach and tells him enough is enough. He makes an example of me and I’m out.

Cheeky.

That was the first time I, let’s just say, lost what I loved in life. I finished my semester at UC Irvine, met the coach from Hawaii, and Hawaii was like, “Hey, we’ve all been there. You want a second chance? Come to Hawaii.” Boom. I go to Hawaii. We end up being the worst team in the history of the school my first year there. And man, I was still a big party animal. I really didn’t learn my lesson, and I just thought, well, as long as I don’t get caught, as long as I do well in school and I do well in volleyball, who cares?

I did everything you could possibly think of that you would want to do in college. I had a blast, just blindly had the time of my life. I was a real rebel, fuck you Dude. I ended up pulling a prank in the locker room. They called me into the office and said, “Dude, we’re going to suspend you indefinitely.” At the time, I was having shoulder surgery. They said, “You can use the facility to rehab, but we don’t want to see you. You’re not on this team anymore. You’re done.”

I remember talking to my assistant coach, just crying. I can’t transfer to another Division I school. Volleyball is over, or I have to go to Canada. That semester I got a 4.0, I improved my vertical jump by 11 inches. I lost 20 pounds. I was in the best shape I’d ever been in. Every day I was doing some kind of sprint or something in front of the coach’s office. Six months went by and I was constantly asking for a meeting with the coach. Finally, at the end of the semester, the season is about to start. I have this meeting with the head coach and he’s like, “Here’s the deal. You have one more shot. If you make any little mistakes, you’re done. You’re out.”

They were like, “You have to play this position or you don’t make the team.” And I was like, “I’m going to be the water boy. I’ll do whatever I want, please.” Fast forward, I graduated as a two-time All-American, best middle (blocker) in the league. We ended up going to the NCAA tournament my senior year, and completely turned the program around.

This is a classic sports movie.

It’s the truth! Another thing I want to mention is that I’ve been able to turn my life around and become addicted to things that were healthy for me. That’s the new endeavor that I’ve started. Making peace with myself, understanding my addictive personality, and trying to accept some of those things and redirect them to healthy things. That’s been a huge struggle in my adult life as well.