Hello and happy Fri-yay! Today we're highlighting Geena Urango, former Indoor and Beach volleyball stud at the University of Southern California. Geena earned PAC-10 All-Academic 1st Team honors in 2010, and 2nd Team honors in 2009. She was voted a member of the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team Honorable Mention in 2007. She was the Indoor team Captain in 2010, and the 2012 Captain of the Beach team. Additionally, Geena made school history as the first scholarship recipient for the beach volleyball program at USC! Geena is now a professional Beach Volleyball player, competing on the AVP and FIVB circuits across the US and other countries. She holds a B.A. in Communication and a Master's in Communication Management. Here's what she has to say about her experiences with college athletics.
GamePlan: If you could sum up your college athletic experience in one word, what would it be? Geena: Rewarding
GamePlan: What is a lesson you learned while playing college athletics?
Geena: Time management!
GamePlan: What is one of the hardest moments you had to get through while playing college sports, and what did you learn from it?
Geena: Getting less playing time each year. I learned to still remain a supportive teammate, while also realizing there’s more to life than just volleyball and focused even more on my academics.
GamePlan: What is one of the hardest moments you had to get through while going through the recruiting process?
Geena: Cold calling coaches
GamePlan: What is your favorite memory from playing college sports?
Geena: Getting to be the first-ever beach volleyball scholarship athlete
GamePlan: What advice do you have for student-athletes who are trying to play at the collegiate level?
Geena: Branch out and visit schools you at first might not think you’d be interested in. So many more opportunities open up for you that way.
GamePlan: Love this, so true!!
GamePlan: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything? If so, what would you do differently?
Geena: I would take more advantage of everything my school had to offer. From professors to athletic advisors, develop more of a relationship with them to help me in the long run.
GamePlan: What role did athletics play in helping you get to where you are now?
Geena: It paved the way for everything I have attained in my life thus far.
GamePlan: What are you up to now?
Geena: I have continued to play my sport and I currently play on the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball tour.
GamePlan: We're going to expand on this since Geena is modest 🤓 Geena has 4 3rd place finishes on the AVP tour, 5 2nd place AVP finishes, and most recently earned a silver medal in the 2018 Chetumal FIVB 3 Star competition last weekend! She was named the 2016 Most Improved Player on the AVP tour and was the 2017 AVP tour Ace Leader. In addition to playing professional beach volleyball, Geena does some modeling and social media and marketing work.
A big thank you to Geena for contributing to this week's post! Love that you're still pursuing your sport and passion. If you are or know a former college athlete who would like to be featured here, please contact katie@gameplancc.com. Until next time!