Featured Athlete: Kennadee Coplen
Kennadee Coplen has been playing volleyball since eight years old.
At first she wasn’t as skilled as she is now. “Starting out was kind of rough,” Coplen said. “I would say around fifth grade is when I was like ‘Yeah, I really want to play this for as long as I can.’.’”
She played volleyball through elementary school and middle school and eventually made it into her Queen Creek High School’s varsity team. Now she’s the setter on the Mesa Community College Women’s Volleyball team. Coplen loves being setter because it’s “like being the quarterback.”
Coplen works well with her team. “We’re all very close, we’re all good friends and we all get along,” Coplen said. At practice, the girls supported and uplifted each other by cheering when others succeeded or even fell behind. It’s all the same to them. It’s all the same to them.
Women’s Volleyball coach Megan Taylor has been advocating for Coplen since she recruited her. Coplen wanted to continue playing volleyball into college, but her grades didn’t make the cut for university. Her club coach reached out to Mesa Community College and Taylor saw her talent.
“Honestly, I was pretty happy about [being recruited]… I ended up coming here and ended up loving it. It was like this is where I was supposed to be, and what I was supposed to do because if I went to a university right away, I would have been super overwhelmed. I think that me coming here and doing well just helped me ease through it all,” Coplen said.
Volleyball has impacted Coplen’s life directly. According to Coplen, she wouldn’t know what else she was doing if she wasn’t playing. One of the main lessons she’s learned: never back down. “You have to push through adversity, because sometimes in life when things get hard you can’t give up. You just have to push through,” Coplen said. “I think volleyball has helped me with that and taught me to push through.”
Coplen plans to continue playing in a four-year university. She’d also like to try beach volleyball because of the differences between them. But in the end, “I’d probably like indoor more,” Coplen said.
Watch Kennadee Coplen and the rest of the Women’s Volleyball team this season until Nov. 1. Their schedule, as well as all other Mesa Community College sports schedules can be found on page 13 in the MesaCC Legend and online at www.mesatbirdsports.com
