Volleyball player
By Leslie Gibson McCarthy
Photograph courtesy of Washington University
Amy Bommarito isn’t a professional athlete and has no intention of becoming one, so it’s doubtful ESPN will ever come calling—but Bommarito’s cool with that. A 5-foot-3 senior volleyball player at Washington University, she plays for the love of her sport. At the NCAA Division III university, she doesn’t even get a scholarship for her efforts. But the team she captains, the Bears, is a perennial powerhouse in Division III and has won eight national championships since 1989—including one her freshman year. In an age of pampered athletes, doping scandals and skyrocketing salaries, the diminutive, bubbly Bommarito is a breath of fresh air.
What position do you play? I’m a defensive specialist-slash-libero (pronounced li-BEAR-o). For my first two years I was strictly a defensive specialist. This past season I played libero. It means I can rotate in for any player in the back row without using a substitution. Typically, once you sub in for somebody you can only go back in for that person in that same rotation. As a libero, I can go in and out for anybody at any position in the back row. I can also serve for one of the six rotations.
How difficult is it, juggling an academic load at Wash. U. with all the travel the team does? Typically our travel schedule isn’t too bad until we get to the postseason; then we start leaving on Wednesdays and missing half the school week. Luckily, the professors are understanding. Sometimes we’ll take tests on airplanes or in hotels. Our coaches and professors have been pretty cooperative.
How do you acquire the mental toughness an athlete needs? I actually took a class at Wash. U. last fall, “Cognitive Basis to Peak Performance,” and we dealt with how to mentally prepare for stuff, how to overcome mistakes. It really helped me relax more last season. We worked on meditation and stuff.
Do you, as a female athlete at a Division III school, ever envy athletes at other colleges? Sometimes you think it’d be great to get all that TV time and attention. But I like D-III. My whole team is out there because we like to play the sport. We’re not getting money to play. Our only benefit is that we’re making ourselves happy by getting to do something we love.
What would you say to persuade people to come watch you play? You can’t beat free admission! Also, people don’t realize what kind of sport volleyball has become. It’s so fast-paced, and each play is new, and there’s a ton of points scored. It’s a fun, quick-moving game, really entertaining to watch.
What are you going to do next year? It’s going to be tough to not be playing volleyball, because I’ve been playing competitively since I was 11. It’s scary going into this season knowing that I’m come next.
Do you want to stay in St. Louis? I’d like to live in another city just to have the experience, but I definitely want to come back here and raise a family. I’ve loved it here.
What would you say to parents who think their child is a volleyball prodigy? Don’t push them too hard, because they have to want to do it. Even if it’s D-I and they’re getting money, they’re going to be practicing so much, it will have to be a passion. Expose them to the better club teams so college recruiters can see them, but definitely don’t pressure them.
Any relation to the restaurant Bommaritos? Unfortunately not. [Laughs.] Nor the car-dealer Bommaritos. I guess I’m just making a name for myself.
Volleyball isn’t the only fall sport featuring nonstop action either free of charge or at a nominal cost. Other suggestions:
High-school football. Pick any corner of the St. Louis area on just about any Friday night and go back to high school. There’s drama, contact, action—and that’s just in the stands. Our pick: The annual Webster-Kirkwood Turkey Day game for the Frisco Bell.
The Missouri state soccer playoffs. Go to Soccer Park in Fenton at the beginning of November and feel the electricity. A couple thousand soccer fanatics will be watching the likes of St. Louis University, CBC, Francis Howell and Rockwood Summit high school teams leave everything they have on the pitch.
Cross-country. Go any Saturday to Jefferson Barracks Park or Sioux Passage Park, stand at the finish line and watch the first kid coming over the last hill, pushing himself to the limit with the number-one rival from another school on his heels. That’s drama.
