044. Shawna Santos On Following Your Dreams, Persevering, and Giving Back To Young Athletes

17 Nov 044. Shawna Santos On Following Your Dreams, Persevering, and Giving Back To Young Athletes

In this episode, Andrew interviews former professional volleyball player, Shawna Santos! This episode is filled with many unique and interesting stories from Shawna’s journey into professional volleyball. From a young age, Shawna played many sports, but volleyball became her favorite. Shawna brings inspiration to anyone with huge goals and big dreams. She began competing in the 6th grade and dreamt of being a professional volleyball player from that point on. In 2012, one of the many highlights of her career was making the USA National team. She speaks about her college and professional career and how she learned to master the practice of time management and life balance with sports and school.

Shawna had to work hard and deal with her share of setbacks. She tore both of her ACL’s playing volleyball, first in college and later as a professional. Just after her first ACL reconstructive surgery, she badly broke her pinky finger at the start of her senior season. After her storied collegiate career, she turned down an opportunity to play volleyball in Germany. She didn’t know if she would get another opportunity to play volleyball. During this time, she was enjoying her dream job as a production assistant at Madison Square Garden. A short while later, she received an opportunity to play professionally in the Philippines. She couldn’t pass up this opportunity and was given three weeks to pack up her life in New York, fly across the world, and begin the professional sports career she had always dreamt about.

From her own experience, Shawna has some great advice for overcoming serious injuries. As a successful athlete who has grown through a series of challenges, Shawna has a lot to share when it comes to becoming mentally strong. She speaks about the way these challenges and shortcomings can shape a person into a better athlete. Listen in on this inspiring episode with Shawna Santos about being a well-rounded athlete and remaining a student of the game.