Keila Gabriel (12) is the newest edition to the girls varsity volleyball team, but her talents have taken further than our home gym. The 6 ‘4 left-handed opposite hitter has dominated courts all across the United States and has brought her skills overseas to play for the Women’s under twenty-one National team in Japan. This will be her third year of playing international volleyball and she will travel to Japan five times yearly to participate in training camps and tournaments.
“I play on Japan’s national team, so I travel with them a lot,” Gabriel said. “I also went to China over the summer to play in an Asian tournament, and I’ve gone everywhere in the states for tournaments.”
As a Japanese speaker, Gabriel is able to communicate with her teammates, although she is the only teammate who has to switch between two languages. She said she finds moving her brain from one language to another to be difficult. Not only does she switch languages but she also must switch her playing style.
“I am the only half American one that speaks English,” Gabriel said. “So having to switch languages and also switching [playing] styles can be difficult. They are a lot shorter than the girls [in the US] so they’re very defense oriented and are always getting on the floor and diving, so having to switch to that style was kind of hard at first but I’ve gotten used to it.”
She said her ability to adapt to this change has made her better in all areas of the court and has helped her become the all-around skilled player that she is today. Gabriel discovered her passion for volleyball when she was thirteen years old and since then has not left the court.
“I began playing at Wave [Volleyball],” Gabriel says. “It’s the #1 team in California right now.” Gabriel continues to play at Wave, however only during the school volleyball off-season.
At Wave she was able to find connections with many other players which further encouraged her devotion to volleyball.
“I’m on Nia Thompson’s (12) club team,” Gabriel said. “She was the reason why I transferred to Westview from Del Norte, because I have had a connection to Nia through club and highschool, so I wanted to play with her for our senior year.”
After receiving offers from many different universities with awarded volleyball programs, she decided early to commit to Oregon State.
“I was drawn to Oregon State,” Gabriel said. “The coaches are really good, I like the area because it’s close enough to home so I’m not that far away, but it’s also not too close. They also have a good program that’s really up and coming.”
Gabriel hopes to continue to grow her skills in volleyball and ideally play at the Olympic or professional level after college.
“As long as I can tell that I’m improving at something and it makes me happy I want to keep doing it.” Gabriel said.
