Katie Gellerman is far from your average 17-year-old high school junior.
She will be heading to Minnesota next Thursday to compete in the Junior Olympics for womens volleyball. Katie has been a member of the Amador Valley High School volleyball team for the past three years, and was selected to the all-league team each consecutive year. Last season she served as a co-captain of the Dons, along with fellow teammates Janelle Larson and Sophia Dunsworth.
Katie has also been a member of a private volleyball team called the NorCal Volleyball Club for the past four years. She was recently awarded the “All-Star” award by the NorCal team, which is based upon an athlete’s attitude, skill level, and commitment to their team, and was also placed on the “All NorCal Team.” The club team has been traveling to tournaments the entire year to places such as Reno, Las Vegas, Spokane, and many other areas within California.
After a long, hard-fought season, the NorCal 17 Black squad finished second in their Los Angeles qualifier. The second place finish was good enough to win them a bid to the 2007 USA Junior Volleyball Championships in Minneapolis, Minn., which will take place July 5-8. There will be about 80 teams from across the United States and Puerto Rico competing for medals. In the NorCal Volleyball Club’s first bracket they will face teams from Nebraska, Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, and even a team from La Verne, Ca.
Katie and 11 others will be representing the Bay Area, including four of whom are from Pleasanton. Christi Payne, Betsy Sedlak, and Alaynah Seidler from Foothill High, and Katie’s fellow co-captain Janelle Larson will join her.
When Katie realized she would compete in the Junior Olympics she said her first thought to herself was, “Wow, I can call myself a Junior Olympian!”
Yet all this success did not come easy. At the beginning of last year Katie was diagnosed with chronic gastrointestonal disease that prevented her from attending the first week of tryouts. Most adolescent athletes would have thrown in the towel and just concentrated on their well-being, but Katie strived for greatness. She fought hard using prayer, medication and her coach’s guidance to help her fight through the disease.
Katie said she repeatedly told herself “It’s going to take something greater than this disease to stop me from achieving my goals and dreams.”
Despite her setbacks and obstacles, Katie prevailed.
Amador Valley High School womens volleyball coach Rich Cortez said he has had fun coaching Katie through the years.
“It’s exciting to be in the gym with her because you know she’s going to do everything she can physically to make a play or make her team better,” Cortez said.
Katie will graduate next year with the class of 2008 from Amador Valley and, although high school graduation is a special occasion for everyone, it is especially extraordinary for Katie and her family. The Gellerman-Hansen legacy is quite unique. Katie will become the fourth generation in her family to graduate from Amador Valley High School. The legacy began with her great-grandfather George Hansen, who was one of the eight students in Amador’s first graduating class of 1923.
“It’s really cool, and it just gives me that much more school spirit,” she said.
She hopes to attend college on a volleyball scholarship, preferably somewhere on the East Coast. She plans to utilize the leadership skills she’s learned from volleyball throughout her life’s future endeavors such as her studies, athletics and her current career interest of library science.
