Volleyball: Rockingham star heads for the US

ROCKINGHAM volleyballer Joshua Symons is getting set to embark on a four-year sporting adventure playing for the Mt Olive Trojans in North Carolina, USA.

Symons (19) played volleyball for the Mandurah Baptist College since 2012 before graduating last year and will be one of 10 international new players joining the college’s 20-man team.

He was first introduced to the sport when he was in Year 8.

“I was looking for a basketball team but the school said they had a volleyball team instead and come down,” he said.

“The next day they invited me to go to Melbourne for the School’s Cup.

“I was benched for the whole week but in the four following years I didn’t come off the court.”

He has represented WA in the under 19s men’s team at the Australian Junior Volleyball Championships in Canberra, where he won a bronze medal in 2015 and also in 2016.

After he graduated last year, Symons has been helping out as an assistant coach for the Year 9 girls team twice a week.

He applied to play volleyball in the US in 2015 and sent off a show reel of some of his performances to a recruiting agency.

“I got accepted into the program last year and got about five offers from different colleges,” he said.

After about 15 interviews via Facetime he decided to take up an offer from the Mt Olive College because of its highly regarded volleyball program.

“It’s a pretty small college but they came second in their conference last year and were 15th in the country,” he said.

“They are aiming to go to the national championships and make the final four in the next two years.”

Symons said he would be training up to 13 times a week while also studying business management.

He will fly to the US next month.

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