Former volleyball star goes pro in France

By Jason Baker

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

For four years, Emily Brown’s focus was perfecting her game in volleyball. For the next few weeks, she’ll be perfecting her French.

“I took it in high school, but I don’t remember it at all,” Brown said.

The former Kansas volleyball star is working on her fluency to prepare for her first full season of professional volleyball in France. The Baldwin City native will be playing for the Nantes Atlantique volleyball team from August through May.

Brown played for Kansas from 2004 to 2007. For the first two years Brown was an outside hitter, then developed the role of setter as well.

In volleyball, the setter is the equivalent of a quarterback in football because the setter makes the decision on who hits the ball. The outside hitter attacks and tries to score on the opponent.

After her college volleyball career ended in 2007, Brown signed with “Bring It Promotions,” a professional volleyball agency. Brown said the agency looked at overseas teams that were interested in American players. She had received an offer from a team in Finland and talked to an American playing on the team to get a feel for what to expect.

“I wasn’t that excited about being in a meter of snow and 21 hours of nighttime, and France was more of my style,” Brown said.

Brown will be provided with a monthly salary and an apartment while playing for Nantes Atlantique. Brown said that the salary for players depended on the country and the level of competition and said hers would be enough to live on.

Although this is Brown’s first full season, this will be her second time playing professional volleyball overseas.

From January 2009 to May 2009, Brown competed for the club Doprastav Volejbal Klub in Bratislava, Slovakia.

“It wasn’t too terrible, but you could definitely tell you weren’t in Kansas anymore,” Brown said.

Brown said she knew a few words in Slovakian, but was able to get by speaking English. While playing for the team, Brown said, her team age ranged from high schoolers to 29-year-olds.

“The coach was fluent in English and most of the players could hold a basic conversation,” Brown said. “It was one of those languages even they said you won’t ever use again once you leave.”

While in Slovakia, Brown traveled and competed against teams across Eastern Europe in countries such as the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary and Poland.

Even though there are professional leagues overseas, Brown said, the crowds that came to watch were no comparison to the crowds she played for while at Kansas.

But Brown remembered when she was asked for her autograph in Slovakia.

“There were these two girls sitting right next to me and I didn’t know they were talking to me,” Brown said. “It wasn’t until another girl who knew some English said to me ‘They want your autograph.’”

The idea of playing professionally came from one of her former teammates, Ashley Michaels. Browns said that Michaels played three years overseas before becoming an assistant at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Brown said Michaels told her about the agency and how to contact it. She and coach Ray Bechard put together a highlight tape of her best performances and it wasn’t long before she was picked up by the agency.

Before her career at Kansas, Brown said, growing up 15 miles outside of Lawrence meant she couldn’t pass up the chance to play for the University. Coach Bechard remembers seeing Brown at volleyball camps and playing against the players in open gym when she was in high school and said she came off as mature for her age.

“She manages herself well,” Bechard said. “She grew up having a good sense of sports and having a want to be involved in sports is apparent with her.”

Bechard said that Brown’s freshman year was when she developed into a leadership role being on a team of experienced veterans.

“There wasn’t a lot of pressure on her because we had a number of talented players like Josie Lima who was All Big 12 for four years, Ashley Michaels and Jill Dorsey,” Bechard said.

Senior setter Katie Martincich played with Brown for three years and trained in setting with Brown during the 2005 season. Martincich said she remembered Brown’s personality during practices.

“She was always goofy and tried to get laughs out of the teammates,” Martincich said.

Bechard said the best time for volleyball players to go professional was right after college when they didn’t have any commitments to a full-time job, and knew what they were getting into.

“We want them to know what they are commiting themselves to,” Bechard said. “The coaches are different; the culture is different. If you know that going in, you won’t be disappointed.”

Martincich said she thought it was awesome that Brown was continuing her career in volleyball.

“It’s a great experience for her and it opens the door for other teammates to try it,” Martincich said.

Brown said it was difficult to have a professional volleyball league in the U.S. that generated money with football and basketball dominating. Brown said most Olympic American volleyball players played overseas in countries such as Russia, Italy, France and Puerto Rico.

“Some of my teammates in Slovakia would ask ‘Why don’t they have a league in America?’” Brown said. “It’s just hard to compete against a multi-million sport like the NBA.”

Brown plans on to finish school with student teaching to get her degree in Health and Physical Education. But in the meantime she is preparing to leave around August 13 to start practice on the August 16.

“That little white ball is helping her see the world,” Bechard said.

— — Edited by David Ugarte

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