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Match Point Blog: Gianna Gotterba
March 16, 2016 02:36 PM | Volleyball
Living the California lifestyle is a dream most people wish to have, and Gianna Gotterba was able to live the dream growing up. Although she misses her hometown of Stockton, California, she wanted to focus her aspirations elsewhere.
The rising junior on the West Virginia University volleyball team chose to switch lifestyles and see what life was like on the east coast. Many people ask Gotterba, also known as ‘G,’ why she chose WVU.
“I think the deciding factor was just that it was a great opportunity,” said G. “I’m a journalism major, so I think that my opportunities in that field would have been better on the east coast rather than the west coast.”
West Virginia and California lifestyles are completely different. Coming from the sandy beaches to the snowy mountain tops was hard to get used to, but Gotterba wanted to continue her dreams of playing Division I volleyball while pursuing a career in journalism.
“I never really understood how nice it is to live there, no offense, until I came here,” said the California native. “Volleyball is huge in California. It’s super competitive. I grew up going to the beach all the time, and I loved where I lived. I love living here too, except for the snow.”
At a young age, she and her twin sister Katrin were involved in all kinds of sports, but volleyball overpowered them all.
“Me and my sister were always involved in a bunch of sports,” Gotterba noted. “Andy was our best friend since third grade and her dad would always talk about volleyball. My sister and I were like ‘oh we should play volleyball for a year and see if we like it, and we ended up liking it out of everything.”
Her fondness of the sport grew and the competition started becoming more serious as the two liberos signed national letters of intent to play volleyball at the Division I level. Katrin plays volleyball at the University of Pacific, just 20 minutes away from their home. Gotterba was initially committed to San Jose State, but unfortunate measures steered her in the opposite direction, and she was recruited by former WVU coach Jill Kramer.
“It’s actually a funny story. I was committed to another school, San Jose State in California. The coach was new and had some issues,” explained G. “Jill (Kramer), the old WVU coach saw me play, and then the next weekend I was on a plane to visit. This all happened in April or May.
“Everyone knows each other in the club sports world. My club coach was really good friends with some college coaches, one of them was actually my sisters current college coach. They came came up to me and said ‘no G, you should definitely rethink this. Jill Kramer. West Virginia. It’s a better opportunity and a better volleyball school. You should really visit.’”
With such a short timeframe and as the school year came to a close, Gotterba needed to make a decision. On her visit to WVU, she didn’t get a chance to meet the whole team, only rising senior Hannah Shreve.
“Since I got recruited so late the girls were gone already,” said Gotterba. “I didn’t come on my visit until the first week of May. They already took their finals, so the only person I met was Hannah Shreves, and she was awesome and very welcoming. Everyone said its cool here, but I’m surprised that you committed without knowing the team. The situation at San Jose State was not worth the risk, and I was willing to take the risk here.”
Though on opposite coasts, Gotterba and her twin manage to stay in touch. She couldn’t fathom what it would be like without having her sister, best friend and motivator there to support her.
“My sister is my best friend,” Gotterba expressed. “We fight sometimes, but it’s over stupid stuff. She’s been with me through everything. Since we play the same sport and position, we understand what we’re talking about when things are good or bad. My parents are obviously big motivators too, but at the end of the day, my sister gets it.”
The two have been compared their whole life, whether it’s about volleyball or grades, but they each have their quirks about them that makes them who they are.
“Definitely a competition all of the time,” said Gotterba “Honestly, we’ve been compared our whole life with volleyball, so I don’t really like to compare each other even though it happens still. My sister is very outspoken. She is not afraid to tell it how it is. Whereas I’m more soft spoken and try to make my point, but in a nice way. She’s not as shy as me. We always balanced each other out, growing up together, but then again it’s about certain things.”
As an upperclassmen, Gotterba serves as a leader to this team more by her actions. She cares about her teammates and wants them to have confidence in themselves.
“For me, my worse thing is someone who doesn’t make you feel confident or have faith in you,” Gotterba said. “I try to make the girls feel comfortable.”
The 2016 season is approaching and Gotterba can’t wait for the team to come together.
“I’m looking forward to a team that works hard,” Gotterba said. “I know that the girls coming in are going to be on the same page as everyone is now. Right now, our mentality has definitely changed. Everyone is on the same page, whereas in the fall it wasn’t meshing well. Everyone here now is great, and I’m looking forward to having a full team going at it together.”
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