Olga Strantzali: First Time Professional
Olga Strantzali is one of the greatest players in Hurricane volleyball history and she recently embarked on a professional career as a volleyball player.
After graduating from the University of Miami in December, Strantzali signed her first professional contract and joined Beziers Angels in France.
A three-time All-ACC selection, Strantzali was named the 2017 ACC Player of the Year after posting one of the most impressive statistical seasons in conference history. She was a two-time AVCA All-America honorable mention selection and was named the 2017 ACC Women’s Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Strantzali has recently started a blog chronicling her experiences as a professional volleyball player and the latest entry can be read below.
Hi guys,
2018 is here and guess what? I’m currently in France, living my dream and doing what I love the most. Now if you ask me how I ended up here, I really don’t have an answer. Everything happened so fast, and the next thing I know is me packing my suitcases after New Years and saying goodbye to my family once again to come here and play for the Beziers Angels.
Beziers is a small city in Southern France with about 70,000 residents and it is considered to be the second oldest French city. The first thing you notice when you drive through this city is the big, yellow buildings and the very old, tight streets. I really love how small but beautiful this city is and I’m trying to explore as much as I can while I’m here. I’ll come back with more details in the next post because I really haven’t seen anything yet.
People here really do love volleyball! Our gym is always packed when we play and there is people waiting in line to get in before we even get to the gym for our warm up. Volleyball games turn into big events for this city and people enjoy good food and live music from our band during our games. A lot of people, when they see us in the street, they recognize us and want to talk to us. Beziers lives for volleyball!
But of course, you can’t have great fans without a great team. My team is now first in the French League, 3 months before the end of the regular season. Yes, European leagues do last very long (October-May), but there is usually only one game per week and practices are not as intense as collegian practices.
My team has 6 foreigners, including me, and it was very easy to adjust to the new way of life here because of them. France has been treating me well so far and I’m just really excited to see how this season will end because I am really excited for this team and what we can do.
While I was here, I visited the Netherlands and Belarus because of the CEV cup, which is the European Cup. Being in a new country every single month and learning new things about it, is a great experience living. My next trip will be this weekend to Barcelona and I’m really, really excited! This time, I’m not going to Barcelona for a game, but for vacation. Barcelona is about three hours away from Beziers and I’m taking advantage of hour 3-day-weekend and visiting this beautiful city.
Love,
Olga
Click HERE to read more of Olga’s blog entries.
