Before Newberg High School junior Audrey Schmitt ever laced up her shoes for the volleyball court, she was a cross country runner.
And she didn’t really like it.
Competing in cross country in elementary and middle school, Schmitt was simply burnt out with the endless miles. Entering her freshman year, Schmitt transferred to Newberg from Veritas High School, searching for a wider selection of sports, eventually choosing volleyball.
She soon attended her first open gym, overwhelmed, unsure and unskilled, suddenly part of a school that contained thousands as opposed to dozens.
Nowadays, Schmitt is composed, confident and quite a bit more talented. It’s hard to believe there was a time the imposing 6-foot-1 outside hitter was anything but.
“Her freshman year she tried out and had only played volleyball for like a couple of weeks,” Newberg head coach Thomas Salness said. “The reason that she's progressed so fast is because she's very coachable, whether it be from my coaching staff, or her club coaches or wherever she's getting coaching. She soaks it in like a sponge and then translates it immediately into her efforts on the court.”
Schmitt and the Tigers have already equaled their win total from last season, sitting at 4-4, a chasm from last year’s 1-7 start through as many matches. Schmitt spearheads the Tigers’ attack, her frame, versatility and dynamic athleticism creating mismatches and scoring opportunities in droves.
Oh, that’s right, and she’s not even a traditional outside hitter, playing middle blocker the last two years before making the transition this year. Standing at the forefront of a new-look Newberg squad, Schmitt and the Tigers recognize excellence isn’t achieved overnight.
It’s forged over many months, and though it might not be completely reached this year, the Tigers retain a broad perspective, seeing the whole picture.
“Coming into this year, the team is mostly in my grade — we’re all juniors. We know each other pretty well,” Schmitt said. “I wouldn’t say we’ve played with each other a lot, but I think that we came in with the idea that we want to work hard and ultimately grow as a team this year, especially for next year.”
Schmitt is rather perceptive for her age. Lots of kids tend to overrate their abilities, or simply expect that if they work hard success will follow.
But that’s not true. ‘Hard work’ is often not enough. Showing up to practice isn’t enough. Schmitt was honest with herself, even as a novice to the game — she wasn’t that good, and unless she invested the right kind of time and effort, she’d remain on the sidelines, a spectator.
“Playing club was honestly the biggest game-changer for me. Freshman year I was on JV2 — we weren’t bad for being JV2, but I wanted to get better,” Schmitt said. “I would be in the student section at the varsity games, and I thought, ‘I want to be up there.’”
Moving to varsity
For the last two years Schmitt has played for Volleyball Alliance, a club based in the Sherwood and Tualatin areas. She joined the group after her freshman year, developing her game through tournaments in Las Vegas and Texas.
It wasn’t enough for her, diving headfirst into beach volleyball soon afterward, competing alongside Newberg teammate Reagan Johnson.
“Beach is challenging, so when you step onto the court indoors it makes you feel so much quicker, like you can jump so much higher and have more ball control,” Schmitt said. “Coming into this year, I think playing club helped me be more versatile, so then jumping to the outside and passing in the back row was just a whole lot easier because of those extra reps in the winter and spring.”
Schmitt has also attended private clinics with Wendy Stammer — a former professional volleyball player, All-American at LSU and current head coach at St. Mary’s Academy in Portland — as part of her offseason training.
That still doesn’t satisfy Schmitt. She’s constantly presenting volleyball opportunities to her parents — her mom, Amy Schmitt, said they’ve had to screen some out because, no, Audrey, you can’t spend every waking hour playing volleyball.
That’s OK, though. Who needs a gym when you have a mom?
“It’s been amazing to watch (her improvement),” Amy Schmitt said. “I shouldn’t be surprised, because as soon as she got the volleyball bug two and a half years ago, literally every night I would get home from work and she’d be like, ‘OK mom, let’s go play.’
“She’d literally drag me out (to our driveway) to play volleyball,” Amy Schmitt continued. “We tease her all the time that she’s completely volleyball obsessed.”
Ah, like mother like daughter. Anyone familiar with the Schmitt’s likely isn’t too surprised with Audrey’s growth and dedication, seeing as Amy Schmitt (Higgins) is a Pacific University hall of famer in volleyball and track and field, at one point holding the school record in the 400-meter hurdles and single-season record of blocks per set.
The volleyball obsession seems to have been passed on. A shared passion means endless support, of course, but also provides Audrey with an extra brain to pick, one that’s highly accessible.
“It’s been really helpful I think for both of us to be able to just give her a place to debrief and to share how she felt the game went, and then for me to be able to share what I witnessed,” Amy Schmitt said. “Sometimes she’ll come out and she’ll have a frustration but she won’t quite be able to put her finger on it, and so if we kind of talk through what that is we can usually identify (it).”
Riding high
It does, however, seem a bit odd that the daughter of a college volleyball player would be introduced to the sport later in life. Part of that is circumstance — Veritas doesn’t offer volleyball — but part of it was intentional, whether consciously or not.
Amy Schmitt wasn’t going to force anything on to Audrey. There was no cringe-inducing delusion of raising a future college athlete from birth, reliving the glory days vicariously through her daughter.
It didn’t matter that Audrey wasn’t immediately enamored with volleyball, because she was into horses.
“She was four-years-old when she started taking lessons. It was funny because she had terrible dust allergies, so we literally had to put swim goggles on her when she would go to horseback riding lessons because her eyes would get so red and swollen from the dust,” Amy Schmitt said. “That was her childhood passion. She absolutely loved it.”
Competing annually at the Yamhill-County Fair since childhood, Audrey bonded with her mom and older sister over horseback riding. She began competing with a rescue horse, a mustang, switching to her current horse Monty around five years ago.
“The past I think three, four years I’ve been able to qualify for state with my horse,” Audrey said. “We do different types of riding and it’s fun. It takes my mind off things, just kind of relaxing being with horses sometimes rather than people.”
Audrey’s time with horses has paid dividends on the volleyball court. Monty unfortunately can’t pass along serving tips; the benefits have been more cerebral, shaping her demeanor from a young age.
When Monty won’t listen, Audrey can’t grow frustrated, shouting the horse into submission. Monty feeds off her — when Audrey’s stressed, he is stressed. When she begins feeling uneasy, he’s already there.
It’s the same out on the court. Players look toward their best in most situations, and if Audrey’s falling apart, it’s likely the Tigers would follow.
“There’s so many nuances to riding a horse,” Amy Schmitt said. “That’s a lot for a four-year-old to learn — how to control their body like that — and I think it’s given her the ability to really assimilate the volleyball skills by having that self-control and discipline.”
Horseback riding and volleyball — two seemingly unrelated activities, but together have shaped Audrey's life thus far, working in tandem to potentially turn her aspirations to reality one day.
“I would love to keep playing volleyball in college,” Audrey said. “Academics are also important to me, but I would love to play at a higher level and continue to improve my skills. I love the game. … I just enjoy it so much, so I feel like I couldn’t stop in a year.”
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