{"id":3630,"date":"2023-05-01T08:10:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T12:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=3630"},"modified":"2024-02-01T15:38:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T20:38:41","slug":"a-wolfpacker-from-wolverine-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2023\/a-wolfpacker-from-wolverine-country\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wolfpacker from Wolverine Country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Ava Brizard arrived at NC&#160;State in 2021 with a host of volleyball accolades, including two-time Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year. During her first year with the Wolfpack, she quickly collected more\u2009\u2014\u2009two-time ACC Freshman of the Week and ACC All-Freshman Team honors. At 6-foot-1, the outside hitter from Novi, Mich., was second on the team in kills and third in digs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Traveling 700 miles from home to play for NC&#160;State and Coach Luka Slabe was a no-brainer. Slabe worked with Team USA women\u2019s volleyball, which won Olympic gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games; Brizard has her own Olympic dreams. \u201cHe teaches me something new every day,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Volleyball wasn\u2019t always Brizard\u2019s sport. At age 3, she started playing tennis, but burned out by middle school. She signed up for some volleyball clinics and joined her high school team, loving the the sport\u2019s fast-paced nature and camaraderie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Brizard-2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Brizard-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Brizard-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Brizard-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Brizard-2.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But her thoughts aren\u2019t too far from her home and her younger brother, Drew, who has autism and is a top player on his basketball team. When she won a $10,000 grant through Gatorade\u2019s Play It Forward program in 2022, she donated it to programs that he participates in through Special Olympics. \u201cNo one goes about life with more joy than he does,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"<!-- wp:ncst\/dynamic-header -->\n<!-- wp:ncst\/default-post-header \/-->\n<!-- \/wp:ncst\/dynamic-header -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":4} -->\n<h4>By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall<\/h4>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Ava Brizard arrived at NC State in 2021 with a host of volleyball accolades, including two-time Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year. During her first year with the Wolfpack, she quickly collected more\u2009\u2014\u2009two-time ACC Freshman of the Week and ACC All-Freshman Team honors. At 6-foot-1, the outside hitter from Novi, Mich., was second on the team in kills and third in digs.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Traveling 700 miles from home to play for NC State and Coach Luka Slabe was a no-brainer. Slabe worked with Team USA women\u2019s volleyball, which won Olympic gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games; Brizard has her own Olympic dreams. \u201cHe teaches me something new every day,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Volleyball wasn\u2019t always Brizard\u2019s sport. At age 3, she started playing tennis, but burned out by middle school. She signed up for some volleyball clinics and joined her high school team, loving the the sport\u2019s fast-paced nature and camaraderie.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":3634,\"sizeSlug\":\"large\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Brizard-2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3634\" \/><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>But her thoughts aren\u2019t too far from her home and her younger brother, Drew, who has autism and is a top player on his basketball team. When she won a $10,000 grant through Gatorade\u2019s Play It Forward program in 2022, she donated it to programs that he participates in through Special Olympics. \u201cNo one goes about life with more joy than he does,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NC State freshman finds inspiration on and off the volleyball court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"NC State freshman finds inspiration on and off the volleyball court.\",\"displayCategoryID\":646,\"caption\":\"Photographs courtesy of NC State Athletics.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[109,116,729,1042,1091,1232],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4994,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions\/4994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3630"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=3630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}