Definitely Not Another Prima Donna Athlete

One of the pleasures of watching high school and college athletics is that you don’t usually run into prima donna athletes. You know, those pro athletes, that are all about money, that are all about attitude and whose outrageous actions are always being discussed on sports TV and radio.

High school and college athletes are filled with many wonderful stories, people who seem like genuinely nice people, who play sports for the challenge and the lessons they learn, and not for the money or the media attention.

Case in point: meet Sarah Pavan, University of Nebraska Volleyball star. Pavan won the Honda-Broderick Award last year as the best female collegiate athlete in the country. She was National Player of the Year in women’s volleyball. She is an outside hitter who is a lot of fun to watch; standing 6-5, she powers the ball past her opponents.

Sarah has a 4.0 average in biochemistry at Nebraska. Even that is not all that unusual, as there have been other excellent athletes who were excellent students. Still, getting a 4.0 in biochemistry sounds hard. But here’s the shocking part. Sarah turned down an opportunity to play volleyball on the Canadian National Team (Sarah is Canadian) last summer, so she could take an additional high-level chemistry class and graduate on time in May on 2008.

And despite all of those accomplishments, Sarah Pavan doesn’t play the role of a prima donna. According to her coach John Cook:

Pavan has remained appreciative of all the honors but “was in awe at the magnitude of this award.”

He said her accomplishment will be “a huge deal” in Nebraska, where Pavan has achieved celebrity status.

“When she shows up to speak to grade school kids in her (Nebraska) sweats,” Cook said, “the kids shut up and listen.”

He described his star hitter as humble, quiet and reserved on the court.

How refreshing to know there are still athletes like Sarah Pavan in the world.