Spotlight on #8: Katie Fuller

Katie is currently in her fourth and final year of playing volleyball for Oregon Tech. She didn’t see a lot of playing time her first two year, but played a lot last year and this year. Her first year she also played basketball, but “the season is so long and it overlaps with volleyball so much. It got really hard with school, like double practices and everything. And volleyball is like half way over once school starts. That one reason why I chose volleyball, plus I enjoy it more. It’s where my heart lies.”

Katie came here first for the school. Originally, she wanted to go into medical imaging, but ended up ‘falling’ into respiratory therapy. She wanted to be in a medical field, and found that she wanted to be in something a little more interactive than medical imaging: “[in] imaging, they come in there, they take a picture and they peace out. Us, we’re listening with the stethoscope, we take blood, which I like a lot.” ABGs (Arterial Blood Gasket) are her favorite things to do because “I have to find the pulse, hand-eye coordinate the needle, and then when you get it…it’s challenging.”

She goes on her externship at the beginning of spring term, 2008, and hopefully she’ll be going to Bend. “I love Bend. It’s cool. My boyfriend’s parents live in Bend too, so I have a free place to stay.” She’s also really excited to finish school. Katie says finishing her program is her greatest accomplishment.

Just because Katie wants to go to Bend, does not mean she doesn’t like Klamath Falls: “the town is a little boring, but the people are the best. I wouldn’t go anywhere else if I had to do it all over again. It’s awesome. There’s one bar, one bowling alley, and Wal-Mart. It’s boring, but I like it a lot.” She also says the school and student’s do a good job of balancing studies with having fun. “There’s good collaboration.”

Katie started playing volleyball in fifth grade. All growing up she never got the chance to play with her little sister, Beth (#13 above), but this year she has been able to play considerable minutes with her. At Roseburg High School, where Katie graduated from, the freshman class stayed at the middle school. In order to play for the high school, you have to get asked up. They were three years apart so they always ended up apart.

“This year has been awesome” said Katie. “Being sisters, we get in a little bit of fights and stuff, but it’s nothing major; just like dumb things. It’s nothing bad.” Sometimes Katie feels like she has to be the big, protective sister and watch out for Beth. “It’s her first year of college, and my last year of college, and I kind of know what it’s like.” She mainly has to help her with ‘the boy situation’. “She likes it. We’ve talked about it. We’re cool.”

Katie says that the team this year has “a lot more strong hitters. Michelle’s back. Nicole’s here. She’s doing a really good job picking up the slack…our defense is really picking it up. We’re just overall pretty solid right now…we’re where we need to be right now, as far as the season. We’re doing really well. We peaked at like the perfect time.” She says they peaked after they beat Corban. They were the underdog, so “it was a moment for us.” After that game they found out that if they came together, there is nothing they can’t accomplish. “We had doubts in our mind if we could do it, but after that game those were all gone.”

Katie is a quiet leader on the court. Her leadership and quiet motivation are her biggest contributions. She’s “not screaming crazy,” but she swings hard and has a presence on the floor. Over her career, Katie says that “playing volleyball has been awesome. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m really glad I got the opportunity to play for a great school. I got lucky.”

In her spare time, Katie loves hanging out with her boyfriend and friends. She also loves scrapbooking. She’s a little behind in her volleyball scrapbook, but as soon as she finds the time she’ll get it done. She also said it’s hard to find volleyball stickers and it’s an expensive hobby. “I also love shopping. If I could have endless credit cards that would be bomb!”

While shopping in San Francisco this year with the volleyball team, she had her first shoplifting experience. The team was in Payless Shoes buying close-toed shoes to wear to the church they were going to volunteer at. While they were in the store, some person ran out with a pair of shoes. Her thoughts were: ‘whoa this is a big city’, and ‘oh my gosh someone just shoplifted!’ It was quite an experience for her, since she is from a smaller town and has never seen anything like it.