The Started With A Dream Podcast w/ Jacolby Gilliam

When you are away from friends and family for nine months abroad, how do you create your home away from home? In this episode of The Started with A Dream Podcast, professional volleyball player Alli Cudworth shares her journey. Tune in to learn how to immerse yourself in the culture of the country you are playing in.

In this journey, she shares a few things like how she overcame a knee injury in high school. How she figured out how to push herself as an athlete. Lastly, how to create her second home why she plays overseas in Cyprus.

Athletes need a place to call their own. We at 9INE POINT are starting the Athletes Create Athletes Community (ACA) to bring together athletes in a supportive driven, athletic community. – Jacolby Gilliam Listen to the episode on iTunes or Spotify In episode 38 of The 9INE POINT Started With A Dream Podcast we are doing a thing [...]

The post Ep. 38 No Athlete Has To Go Through This Journey Alone – Launch of Athletes Create Athletes appeared first on 9INE POINT.

In this episode of the Started With A Dream Podcast presented by 9INE POINT, Jacolby Gilliam has a conversation with volleyball Paralympian and owner of Zummo Collective, Bethany Zummo. Bethany shares her story on how she became a volleyball athlete, some of the significant challenges she faced along the way. Through this journey, Bethany has grown and developed a new level of self-confidence to be the best she can be at what she loves.

She believes that everyone has their own 'normal,' and you have to embrace your own normal instead of being afraid of not being someone else's normal. Bethany wants other adaptive athletes to know that they are more than able to not focus on the label this is out there as disabled. Because of COVID, her Paralympic title defense has been put on hold for a while in 20202. However, Bethany has spent her time trying to curb the spread of the COVID. By using her sewing skills with the help of her family, The Zummo Collective was started to create filtered masks as a way of helping others and giving back to the community.

Key Points:

Intro (0:11)

The biggest goal Bethany's wanted to achieve as a Paralympian (0:52)

What is normal and why Bethany believes normal can only be self-defined (1:51)

Bethany's first sports journey and some of the major challenges she faced (2:39)

How Bethany hurdled through the challenges she faced to develop and reinforce self-confidence (4:54)

Why it's important to embrace diversity (6:48)

When Bethany realized she was good at the sitting game (10:17)

Self-belief; Why Bethany beliefs that she deserves the best and how she works hard to arrive as the best (11:50)

Why Bethany decided to try the sitting volleyball (15:27)

Some of the fears and struggles Paralympian's face about wanting to not be labeled and why it's okay to not feel okay at first (17:10)

Bethany's dreams of the Olympics and Paralympics pre-COVID and how she was able to mentally carry on regardless of the current situation (21:40)

How Bethany is trying to make the most of the situation to help as many people as she can (26:15)

How Bethany became the mask maker to render as much aid as she could to others (27:00)

Other ways Bethany and her sisters have been giving back to their community (32:34)

Quotes:

"I would love to leave the sport knowing that it can be really competitive and really challenging to play. And that's the goal, I think for anyone, leaving the sport better than you found it."

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"If I met someone who was like a little Bethany, like I would want to do my best to empower them and tell them, like, I know that you, you think you think this way now, and it's okay that you feel this way and it's not your fault that you feel this way."

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Ep. 67 Focusing On What I Can Control With Olympian and Pro Volleyball Player David Smith

In this episode of The 9INE POINT Started With A Dream Podcast, Jacolby Gilliam welcomes David Smith. David is an American professional volleyball player. He is a member of the USA National Team, a bronze medalist at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and the 2018 World Championship, a 2015 World Cup winner, and a two–time Champions League winner. At the professional club level, he plays for ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle. Today, David Smith takes us on his journey from starting as a young athlete, born deaf in both ears, to becoming a world-class and professional volleyball player.

David begins by describing his dream as a young athlete. He talks about growing up with sports and exploring different sports before choosing volleyball. David Smith delves into how he got scouted to play for UC Irvine and how college volleyball dynamics were much different than that of high school. Living as an athlete with a disability, David explains that he focuses on what he can control, putting in the hard work day in and out. He shares the challenges of going pro and living in a foreign country with his newlywed wife. The episode comes to a close as David admonishes younger athletes to keep their confidence going and focus on what they can control.

Key Points:

• David's dream when he was a younger athlete
• Exploring different sports
• Why David chose volleyball
• Getting scouted
• Living as an athlete with a disability
• The challenges that come with playing as an elite athlete
• How to keep your confidence going
• Focusing on what you can control
• David discusses going pro and living overseas
• Balancing a family with the challenges of going pro
• Transitioning into a non-volleyball world

Quotes:

"In the beginning, sports was just a way to be normal."

"I assumed it was going to end when my college ended."

"I knew the way to be at that level was to work day in, day out."

"The key is understanding what I can control."

"Luck is when opportunity meets preparation."

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Flashback to 2020 and the year is almost over. COVID has made a huge impact on all industries including the world of sports. In this episode, Jacolby Gilliam interviews Taylor Milton about her journey to becoming a pro volleyball player to how she has continued to make positive opportunities during times of adversity. Taylor is an experienced professional volleyball player with a demonstrated history of working in the public relations and communications industry. And, when COVID caused her to stop before the season’s end there was definitely a mix of emotions, especially the feelings of uncertainty. In order to express these emotions among team members, friends and fans, Taylor and her friend, Courtney Felinski, created a space, MATCHPOINT COVID, to encourage athletes to virtually share their emotions so they can virtually experience what is going on and be there for each other. MPC gave these players an opportunity to view volleyball from its different perspective while keeping their dreams uniquely alive. If you wanted to share your story, what will write?

In this episode, Taylor shares her journey of sport realization from childhood till becoming a pro player. Although starting off as a multi-sport athlete, Taylor decided, in high school, to stick with volleyball. Being a lover of so many sports make it very heartbreaking to pick one so, why did Taylor decide to pick volleyball. It’s not an easy journey but it’s been reaffirming and quite fulfilling. She talks about her diverse experiences and how its all aided in shapening her personal and professional life. Regardless of the current situation, Taylor believes that being able to keep that spirit of belonging up makes a huge the difference.

Key points:

Taylor’s athlete goal as a younger multi-sport athlete and how she went on to achieve it (00:56)

Being athletic over an athlete will make you better

How Taylor decided that volleyball was what she wanted to

The club level v the high school level of volleyball why it matters

Taylor’s first recognition and how it affected her performance

The kind of growth she experienced in college and how she was adapt

Taylor’s advise to her younger self

The decision play pro abroad and what it’s been like so far (18:08)

Impact of COVID on the season

What MATCHPOINTCOVID is and why it was created

Taylor’s future plans and the kind of interesting skills she has been developing during this period

Sometimes, beautiful results spring from bad situation. It doesn’t make the situation better but it definitely enhances our experience.

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