Lauren Witte Featured in Ohio State’s Alumni Magazine
12/11/2020 11:00:28 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Ohio State Alumni Magazine invited Ohio State students, faculty and staff to write letters about their lives and work experiences during this extraordinary semester. Here’s what Lauren Witte had to say:
What a year 2020 has been to be a student-athlete at Ohio State! My teammates and I have experienced countless highs and lows since being sent home in March. COVID-19 meant we couldn’t train in person for the rest of the school year, prompting worry and frustration. I wondered how I would prepare for my last season as a Buckeye.
However, our new coaching staff, led by former Buckeye player Jen Flynn Oldenburg, did an amazing job establishing a solid foundation before spring break. They showed just what they had been teaching us: resiliency. This inspired us to make the most of the situation.
Luckily, the NCAA lifted restrictions and allowed us to have virtual meetings with our coaches over the summer. Through daily Zoom meetings, we learned to keep our heads in the game without actually playing it. We created a team culture and core values to get us through this tough time, and our coaches developed a Flip the Switch program to help us focus on our mindsets while facing adversity during the pandemic and beyond.
Seeing my teammates’ hard work held me accountable to work out and practice any way I could — even by passing a volleyball against my childhood treehouse! I also was applying for physician assistant school, working the night shift full-time at my local hospital, taking summer classes and studying for the GRE. The hard work paid off, though: I have been accepted to five PA schools!
This fall, we were hit with news that our season would move to spring semester. We stayed positive and relied on the culture we had built to weather the change. Reminding each other to take it day by day has helped us focus on the now while keeping the big picture in mind.
We maintain our “bubble” within the team to make sure we can keep practicing — 10 feet apart — during all of this. I have five classes, one in person and four online; luckily, time-management and self-motivation skills I’ve developed as an athlete are helping me thrive. Needless to say, this isn’t how I expected my senior season to play out. It has been very tough, but I am so thankful to be at Ohio State while going through it.
