Kelly Kinney 'excited' to represent USA Volleyball on U19 Women's National Team
WEST PALM BEACH − Summer vacation will start early King's Academy outside hitter Kelly Kinney, one of 20 athletes announced as selections for USA Volleyball's 2023 Girls U19 NORCECA Pan American Cup roster on Tuesday.
The highly-touted Lions star will travel to the National Team Training Center in Anaheim, California from April 30 to May 6.
On the final day, Kinney will find out if she's among a group of 12 players chosen to defend the gold for the United States at the 2023 Girls U19 NORCECA Pan American Cup, held in Ciudad De Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico.
"I've been training for two years to get on this training team and to be selected," Kinney said. "Even if I don't make the team, I think this is really such an amazing, really fun, really good opportunity for me."
If you told Kinney that she'd have a chance to be a member of the National Team this time last year − or ever − she wouldn't have believed you.
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Yes, Kinney had completed a stellar season on the court, smashing 374 kills, hitting .319 to see Class 3A King's to a 19-5 record and region semifinal finish.
But she was only a freshman then.
Just three roster announcements, including Kinney, were born in 2007. That's one reason the 16-year-old ran through her house "screaming" in the middle of the night after checking her email "just for fun" on March 22 to see the invite from the National Team Development Program.
Kinney's mother, Alison, recalled the initial panic that ensued: "I came outside, I was like, 'What's happening here?'"
Seconds later, the mother-daughter duo were sitting on the floor, hugging, crying, and trying to explain the news through the tears to Kinney's dad, who first thought there was a car accident.
"I've been praying for this for the longest time and the fact that it finally happened − it just shows how much of an impact God can have. I play for the person who gave me the talent that I have," Kinney said.
Excited for the opportunity to play under Minnesota women's head coach Keegan Cook, Kinney said, "I would never think this is what's happening to me, but it just shows me how much I've grown and how much I can grow."
How a 'mentally challenging' sophomore season changed Kinney's game
25 games in 2021 were cut to just 14 as a sophomore, when Kinney found herself benched with an abdominal injury for a majority of the 26-game season before coming back for the Lions' playoff run to region semis.
Still, her 117 kills ranked third on the roster. After months of multiple weekly visits to physical therapy, Kinney returned in November, but didn't get back to "100 percent" until mid-January.
"It was definitely mentally challenging − really, really badly −but I think that I learned a lot because I learned to not take for granted what you're given and the opportunity I have to play. Even if it's just high school," Kinney said.
A talent like Kinney, the lone Floridian vying for the National Team, proves that adversities like age or injury are opportunities to stand out.
Of course, being 6-foot-2 − "and still growing little by little" according to mom − helps.
But it's Kinney's competitiveness that has her on the radar of schools like the University of Florida, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Texas, where she'll be camping in the first week of June before being allowed to receive verbal offers on the 15th.
Becoming the GOAT on the outside − and the inside
Modeling her game after players like three-time Olympian Jordan Larson and pro libero Morgan Hentz and Kinney watches endless amounts of her own film and that of teammates and games upon games of college volleyball.
"I also love watching men's volleyball just for the intensity. It's just so fun to watch," Kinney said, detailing a similar love for basketball.
"In volleyball, you don't really see a lot of celebrations. I know basketball is a team sport, but it's more of how much an individual can do in basketball that's cool to see − like a look into a another sport," Kinney said.
Skill aside, Kinney's humble, but dominating presence will be her the edge to go toe-to-toe with the National Team's upperclassmen, as told by the rising excitement in her voice when describing the fuel brought on by the chance to represent the United States.
"It will just teach me so much, like playing selfless. Playing for my team. Playing for the people who can't play and playing for the people who wish they could be where I am," Kinney said.
"Just being able to wear like USA on your jersey and just being able to play not just for yourself, but for your country, it just shows how much of a bigger picture you're in − the millions of people you're representing, who enjoyed watching you and how much − not just pressure on you − but how much want you have to win for your country."
Emilee Smarr is the high school sports reporter for the Palm Beach Post. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: King's Academy volleyball star Kelly Kinney vying for U19 Team USA
