Is There Life After High School Stardom?

Former Southwest standout and current junior outside hitter/middle blocker Brianna Haugen has learned it  pays to be patient. The former walk-on played sparingly as a freshman and sophomore, but her hard work has paid off as she has become a key contributor for the No. 10 ranked Minnesota volleyball team this season.

Patch recently caught up with Haugen to learn more about her expectations for this year and memories of her high school career with the Lakers.

Haugen was named All-City and All-Conference in her sophomore, junior and senior seasons as she helped lead the Lakers to three conference titles. They won the 2007 and 2008 Twin City championships and she was named the team MVP three times and the team captain as a junior and senior.

Haugen appeared in 16 sets as a freshman and 22 sets as a sophomore. She has already appeared in 14 sets this fall and had her first start of her career against No. 3 Illinois last weekend

You are off to a good start, despite playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. You have to be pretty pleased with how well you are playing?

“Pretty pleased. We did get off to a good start. Hopefully, it will continue. We are just going to practice pretty hard and hopefully stay on that roll. We are pleased and doing pretty good.”
You have a lot of great talent on this team. What is your role?

“My role right now is to challenge everyone else on the team and to obviously improve myself. To help everyone to get better, too. That is also really important. To just be ready to go in at any moment, any time. I am mainly outside (hitter) right now. I was middle (blocker) last year and I have been middle for a long time, but I can go in for anyone really.”
I know that you are a competitive person, like most people involved in sports. Is it ever tough to not play as much as you would like to?

“It is definitely tough, but at the same time it helps me to know that everyone on the team is so good and we are so close, that it is all right. I want the team to win. I want the team to do good and whatever role I play in that, if it is on the bench or playing. It is better to do that.”
How about life away from volleyball here? What has it been like to be a student?

“It has been really good. I really like my classes right now. Spanish is a little bit harder (laughing). I am really enjoying it. It gets a little bit tough to get around in the winter, but other than that, the campus is beautiful. I love all the people. It is really good. I am glad that I am close to home, honestly. I thought that I didn’t like that, but now it is kind of nice. If I need something, I can call mom up and be like ‘Hey, help me out’ and she will, which is really nice.”

When you look back at your days at Southwest, what stands out as some of the top highlights for you?

“Everything there. I loved it there. The whole program. I just think my team that I had all the years, we were really tight. They taught me a lot. Coach Jackie (Richter) taught me a lot. Not only just volleyball, but mentality. Beating South was always good. It was a fun thing. I enjoyed it all ”

I know that your schedule is tough, but do you get a chance to get back there much?

“It is really tough. The first year I came here, I went to a couple of games. It has been harder now. One of the games that I wanted to go to was Washburn against Southwest. We have practice, which is a problem since a lot of their games are during our stuff, so that is kind of hard. It is so close, I wish that I could go back more. I still keep in touch with Jackie.

Have you thought about what you are going to do when your playing career is over?  

“My major is geography, so I want to do something to do with, I know it sounds kind of weird, water. I really enjoy geology and geography together, so anything with water or hopefully in South America, somewhere in a different country. I want to travel a lot when I am done.”