{"id":2829,"date":"2012-03-28T08:38:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T15:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=2829"},"modified":"2012-05-23T13:06:08","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T20:06:08","slug":"charger-hilary-graham-plays-it-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/03\/28\/charger-hilary-graham-plays-it-cool\/","title":{"rendered":"Charger Hilary Graham plays it cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chargers women\u2019s volleyball team were missing key players that day against the Douglas College Royals. Two powers were injured; a middle had dislocated one of her fingers. Coach Chris Dahl had considered second-year right side Hilary Graham as an outside hitter, but these depletions meant other players had to try different positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to step up to fill those starters,\u201d says Graham, who was later named Pacific Western Athletic Association (PACWEST) Women\u2019s Volleyball Athlete of the Week for her part in that victory.<\/p>\n

A tall and strikingly beautiful young woman with clear eyes and a friendly smile, Graham moves with grace common to many athletes who have spent a life lived on the balls of their feet. Graham was very active when she was young and spent a lot of time watching a friend\u2019s sister play\u00a0volleyball. Then, when she got a bit older, she realized the social value of sport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hilary Graham of the Camosun Chargers' volleyball team (photo by Jean Oliver\/Nexus).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was really awkward when I was younger,\u201d she says. \u201cIn grade 10 my team that year won the island finals and I clicked mentally at that point. That win gave the sport that extra \u2018oh, wow, this is really fun\u0143I want to keep doing this\u2019 factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham answers questions about her own achievements by first emphasizing how important her team is to her own performance. When asked how it felt to win the PACWEST award, her humility is overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt it wasn\u2019t my doing; it was my team that lifted me up and helped me to succeed,\u201d she says. \u201cThe coach told the setter to give me more volume, the other girls on the team were passing well; it gave me the opportunity to have a one-on-one situation with the blocker.\u201d<\/p>\n

That coach may have told the players what to do, but he\u2019s not taking all the credit for Graham\u2019s recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHilary clearly has talent,\u201d says Dahl. \u201cIn the two years I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to work with Hilary, she has also shown a remarkable commitment to the kinds of training behaviours I think extremely successful people exhibit.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the accolades in the division don\u2019t mean much if no one\u2019s there watching the games, though. Graham stresses that playing a good game is important but so is having an audience to play for.<\/p>\n

\u201cA player has a relationship with the crowd,\u201d she says. \u201cHearing the cheering gives an entertaining quality to the experience. You\u2019re doing what you love and that feeling is shared.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the future, Graham hopes to continue being involved in the field that she loves, mentioning that she enjoys working with kids in a sports setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching a kid succeed at a skill they\u2019ve been struggling with and seeing that satisfaction on their face, that\u2019s really rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chargers women\u2019s volleyball team were missing key players that day against the Douglas College Royals. Two powers were injured; a middle had dislocated one of her fingers. Coach Chris Dahl had considered second-year right side Hilary Graham as an outside hitter, but these depletions meant other players had to try different positions. \u201cWe had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,74,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-may-9-2012","category-march-21-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2829"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3433,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions\/3433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}