DEBBIE: What were your career dreams as a teen girl?

HOLLY: Well, growing up I knew that it was important that I do well in school because I really wanted to earn a volleyball scholarship. That was my passion. But I knew it was also my vehicle to get into a good school and get a good education. I did not think sports would be my career. It’s something that I love to do…it’s my passion, my hobby. But I was able to get a scholarship, go to university of California at Berkeley, and I actually ended up graduating from UCLA. I got a good education, and my volleyball paid for it. But originally I was thinking I wanted to be an attorney. So that was my original plan going into college.

DEBBIE: So did you have kind of an “aha” moment when you realized, ‘Hey, wait a minute…I can actually earn a living and make a career out of playing volleyball’?

HOLLY: Well, I think it was my senior year at UCLA. I had just finished playing as a collegiate player and I started to train on the beach. And I had played beach volleyball my whole life but I had never played professionally. And I just fell in love with it. I love the fact that you get out of it what you put into it, because no one’s going to train harder then me. Because I loved what I did, I studied the game, and as soon as I started playing I was hooked and it just took over my life. I loved it. It was something that challenged me in every aspect - physically, mentally and psychologically. And there was a lot to learn and I loved the challenge, so I embraced it right away.

DEBBIE: What is your day like?

HOLLY: I do need to be structured in my training and my workout, so usually I wake up, make breakfast for my husband, take the kids to school, go to the gym. I’m at the gym for an hour-and-a-half, hour-forty-five minutes. I usually have a half an hour to have a snack, and then I start training. And that training entails drills with usually three other people or a coach and my partner and it’s three hours of hard drills, repetitive training on the beach. After that I go up, I shower, and I usually still have still have forty-five minutes to an hour of cardio to do, but first I usually I get other errands done that I have to do, like grocery shopping, picking the kids up from school, dentist appointments, whatever I need to do in the afternoon. So basically from about 10:30 to one in the afternoon is when I do my volleyball training. So it’s a long day, and then I have a couple hours to do my “normal person stuff.” Then I usually do cardio from about four to five. By the time 5:30pm rolls around and I shower, it’s time to make dinner, or we’re going out or something like that. So by 9:30pm, I’m exhausted and I’m ready to go to bed. Because it’s a lot of physical activity, and the three hours that I’m practicing, it’s very physical as well as mentally draining because it’s a lot of focus.

DEBBIE: Is that routine what you do every day of the week?

HOLLY: That’s four to five days a week. On weekends I’ll do an hour and a half workout, and I usually take Sunday off. So, I’m doing something six days a week.

DEBBIE: What you do is so much a part of who you are…you know, being fit and your job kind of go hand it hand. How does that work?

HOLLY: Basically I get paid to go to the gym and workout. I mean, I don’t get paid to specifically go and do that, but it’s part of my job. It’s a very important part of my job. I’m one of the shorter players out on the tour. I have to be fit, I have to be strong and I have to make up for those shortcomings in other areas. So being fit and strong and staying healthy is very important for me.

DEBBIE: What is the volleyball season or schedule like? Is there a lot of traveling?

HOLLY: Basically April through November we travel almost every weekend. It starts out really slow in April and May and then picks up…you know it’s international or all over the U.S. every weekend. After the first or second weekend in May, I don’t think we have a week off until November. So it’s a full schedule and it keeps us busy. One of the things that I really appreciate is being home. I love being home and so anytime I can sleep in my own bed I try to.

DEBBIE: How do you deal with traveling so much but still being on top of your game?

HOLLY: Well, it comes with the territory. You have to. Our events take place in other places. So it’s taking care of yourself while traveling, hydrating, eating well and getting a good night’s sleep. Those are all really important to me. I know I’ve done the work to train and I’m shape. I just have to make sure I take care of myself while I’m traveling.

DEBBIE: Can you tell me what some of the biggest challenges of your job are?

HOLLY: I think there’s obviously pressure to compete. I have to do well to make a living. If I don’t do well, I don’t win any money and I don’t pay the bills. So in that respect winning’s really important. There’s pressure on me to do well or I don’t make the money. But at the same time, one of the lessons I learned early on is that I can’t think about the money while I’m playing the sport that I love…I just can’t. Because I remember, probably in my first season, I came to a tournament and I was playing a game that was for about $1,000. And for me…I was a starving student…that was a lot of money. And I focused on the money and my volleyball went out the window. So that was something that I learned early on - I think if you’re too focused on thinking about ‘Okay, this game means this much money,’ then your volleyball suffers. That’s a lot of pressure when you know you have to do well to make a living.

DEBBIE: Do you have some sort of way of centering yourself?

HOLLY: I know I’ve prepared the best I can. The rest is mental. It really comes down to it being mental and working together with your partner. I basically focus on what I’ve trained myself to do and just allow myself to play the best volleyball I can play.

DEBBIE: If there is a glamorous side to what you do, what would it be?

HOLLY: There are a lot of perks to what we do. We get to play in front of a huge crowd of people and it’s a very fun sport. We get to travel all over the country. I mean those things are all perks. Competing in the Olympic Games, I don’t think there’s anything like that. And I’ve been able to do it three times. I’ve also been able to travel around the world various times and see lots of countries. I didn’t travel much until I started playing beach volleyball. Now I’ve been exposed to all parts of the world, all different cultures, and that’s been great. And through our sport you get to meet a lot of amazing athletes and people.

DEBBIE: Is there a highlight you want to mention?

HOLLY: I would have to say the Olympic Games in 2004, getting on the medal stand was amazing for me. I’ve won seventy-two tournaments and all those are super special, but to me, being on the medal stand was number one.

DEBBIE: What was it like?

HOLLY: It’s a blur. It’s something that… as an athlete growing up, it’s something that I dreamed about. It was beyond. It was a blur because it was just so special. I was up there with, in my opinion, five of the best volleyball players in the world. You know two Americans that I really love, my partner that I love and my two best Brazilian friends in the world. That was the podium. I couldn’t have thought of a better podium. Except for us on top. That would have made it better. But otherwise it was a dream come true.

DEBBIE: So tell me about what you see as the future for your job?

HOLLY: After my playing career ends? There are a couple of different directions I can take. I can work for some of my sponsors in player relations. I’ve been in the sport so long, I have TV opportunities to be a commentator. I’d really like to do that. I enjoy that and I’m a credible name and I’m explaining this sport to people who don’t know it. So I’ve dabbled in that a little bit, setting myself up for the future. I’d also like to help working either within the AVP or in some grassroots programs trying to grow the sport and teach people and reach out to people who wouldn’t normally be exposed to the sport.

DEBBIE: Those are great options. What advice you do you have for girls wanting to be a professional athlete?

HOLLY: Well, first of all, don’t set any limitations or don’t let anybody else set any limitations on what you can do. When I first started playing, nobody thought I could do anything on the professional level. I was small, I wasn’t a big name from indoors. I mean, I had a good career but nobody expected I could do anything and nobody cared what I thought. But I believed in myself, I studied the sport, I watched, I trained as hard as I possibly could, and I followed my dreams. It’s a lot of hard work, and in professional sports a lot of times you don’t have a coach telling you what to do. It’s your job, you’re an adult, you have to be really disciplined and regimented, and it’s important to approach it that way. It’s a job. There are some people who think, ‘Hey, it’s great I’m playing beach volleyball…I can hang out at the beach all day’ and some people approach it like that, but they’ll never reach the top level that way. Never. And know that the opportunity you’re getting to play a professional sport and get paid for it is one that everybody would like to do, so treat it special, respect it, always appreciate your fans, always appreciate your sponsors who support you and allow you the opportunity to play a sport you love and make a living doing it. So I’ve never taken it for granted. I’m so lucky to do what I do and get paid, and I love to do it. And some people start kind of complaining and say ”Oh, I don’t get this and I don’t get that” or “This is so hard.” But I say, don’t complain about it because you can go sit in a desk job all day long and work your butt off and get a fraction of the money that is available to you. So I know I’m really lucky and I’m thankful for it everyday.

DEBBIE: How would you answer this question from Fallon, age 18? “Were the sacrifices you made for your career worth it for the success you’ve achieved?”

HOLLY: That’s funny because I don’t feel that I necessarily made any sacrifices. I worked my butt off, but I know that it’s what it takes to succeed, and I don’t feel that I made any sacrifices. Yes, I have to travel. Yes, I miss people’s birthdays and things like that. But it’s all part of the process of doing what I want to do to achieve my dreams, so I don’t feel like I made any sacrifices. I’ve just worked hard and stayed focused and followed my dreams.

DEBBIE: We talked about the challenges of being a professional athlete. What are some of the pros?

HOLLY: I think that some of the pros of playing my sport for a living are that I get to stay healthy and fit. A lot of people who work very hard in a career are behind a desk all day working crazy hours, and fitness takes a back seat. But fitness is part of my job and I’m very fortunate in that respect because it’s part of what I do. On the con side, I’m out in the sun. Skin cancer is a major fear, a major problem with all of us. I mean, we have to really protect ourselves from the sun. I’ve been playing a long time. I had to teach myself to play in a hat and visor. I’ve always worn glasses. And it’s very important to wear sunscreen. In the beginning when girls first come out, it’s all about their tan. But that doesn’t last too long. And not wearing a hat. You know, we all look better probably without a hat on. But for me, that’s not important. I wear a visor, big glasses, and I always have loads and loads of sunscreen on. Because skin cancer is something that will affect all of us. So I would say that’s the biggest con of what we do.

DEBBIE:  Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

HOLLY:  Something specific to our sport is our uniforms and the fact that we play in a bathing suit, and I think that freaks 99% of the women out. I mean, we have to compete in a bathing suit. What woman wants to stand in front of 10,000 people in a bikini? That’s something that I had to deal with at the beginning and I think it taught me to be comfortable in my body. And yeah, you know what, we’re really fit athletes, but at the same time, we have to feel comfortable in our body. For me it’s a machine. I don’t think of it as a sexy thing. This is my machine. I wear a suit that fits me and is comfortable to compete in. But a lot of people are very body conscious when they first come out to try and play beach volleyball, they’re not comfortable in a suit, you feel like everybody’s checking your butt out…whatever. For women, we’re very body conscious. So that’s a big deal, and some people think, “Oh they take advantage of us by making us wear bathing suits to give the sport sex appeal,” but really it isn’t. If I had the choice of wearing anything to compete it would be a bathing suit, because it’s the most comfortable, you can move the best in it, and it collects the least amount of sand (you’d be surprised how much sand we collect). So I think that’s been a big lesson in feeling comfortable in our bodies, that’s a huge thing. Especially for women. I know when I was in high school, I wanted to be really tall and thin. I’m not going to be that. I’m 5’6 ¾” I’m strong, fit, and that’s it. I had to kind of make peace with myself and say, “Hey this is my body and that’s it.” And I think a lot of women need to do that.