Belinda Behnke – Richmond, Virginia

It has been almost six months for me living in the United Stated now. In July 2007 I finally left my beloved city, Hamburg. I always wanted to come to the United States after graduating from High School. Since I did not know about this “volleyball opportunity” before, I was thinking of being an Au Pair or just traveling for a whole year.

But then, luckily, one of my former teammates told me about this opportunity. I really wanted to play volleyball in the States but then I heard about all this stuff that I had to do such as taking several tests, paperwork, videotape etc.

Honestly, without anybody else supporting me, such as Sandra Brunke, I would not be here, today. It was impossible for me to manage all these things on my own. Since Sandra experienced everything on her own before, she was able to answer all my questions and gave me a lot of advices. Finally, after her telling me how to practice and prepare for my tests and helping me with the videotape, I had really good test results and I finally got recruited. The coach, who is now “my” coach, came all the way to Germany to watch me playing.

Being here now, I am experiencing so many new things. The lifestyle over here is so much different. My team is really nice. They help me wherever they can and I even got a spot as a starter. Volleyball and University combined was hard for me in the beginning since I was not used to all this. Now, it is getting really easy.

Having such an opportunity is really great and not everybody gets such one. If you do have this opportunity you should definitely do it.