A member of the U.S. junior national volleyball team, Cameron Blakely has been playing the sport since age 12.

“I just tried out once, and I didn’t think I was going to make it, but I did!” Blakely said. Since then, Blakely has traveled with the squad to a variety of competitions and training camps. “The first time I went it was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I stayed there for like 10 days; I trained, and then I went back when they invited me back for Christmas at the Olympic training center and I trained there and lived there for about another 2 weeks.”

That said, Blakely has not yet played in the Olympics.  Nevertheless, the experience has been extremely satisfying for the young star.

“One of the reasons I kept trying out and continued to go back was because of the people; I mean, we had practice 3 times a day for 2 hours, and then we had positional work which kind of sucked, but the people are just so great and I love my teammates.”

Blakey has been coached by famous volleyball players Alisha Glass and Stacy Sykora during her time in the Olympic training center.

If she wasn’t playing volleyball, Blakely said she would “probably still be playing soccer.”

She added, “I was a really really big soccer player; I started playing competitively when I was six, and then I kept going with it, but then I quit when I was 9 and I started playing volleyball and I realized I was better at volleyball.”