Colorado Mesa University (CMU) volleyball player Gabriela Dias has come a long way from watching her father play beach volleyball.
She moved to the United States at the age of 19 to play volleyball for a community college in Arizona and later transferred to CMU to play her last two years for the Mavericks. In her senior season, the team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but she was named an honorable mention for the All-RMAC volleyball team.
Dias was called undersized, had to move away from all of her family and did not know anyone in the U.S. In December of this year, she will be graduating with a degree in business administration with a concentration in human resource management.
Dias discovered her love for volleyball at the age of 8. The sport is the second most popular sport in Brazil. Her older sisters played volleyball, and her dad was a beach volleyball player.
“When I was little, I would go to watch [my older sister’s] practices and then I started to like the sport,” Dias said.
She followed in her sister’s footsteps by playing for a club volleyball team starting at the age of eight. She was also coached by the same coach her sister had.
At the age of 12, Dias started playing for her school’s volleyball team and a club team. After graduating high school, she still wanted to play the sport she loved.
She looked at several avenues to continue playing, but could not find a place to play in Brazil. When it seemed like Dias would not find a place to play, she talked to a friend who had contacts to college volleyball coaches in the U.S.
Dias’ friend helped her create videos to send out to different coaches. By creating the videos, the head coach of Arizona Western Community College took notice.
“The coach from Arizona talked to me and then offered me a scholarship to play there,” Dias said.
Being in a different environment was tough for Dias. Looking back at the transition, Dias realized she was “brave” moving to Arizona. But the transition was easier because of her coach and teammates.
“It was scary at first, but my coach was an awesome person,” Dias said. “He always had international players at that community college, so he knew how to help adapt players in the area. I also had teammates from other countries and we got close because we were going through the same stuff like being away from our families and not knowing anyone.”
After playing for two years, she decided to transfer to CMU. Dias transferred after CMU volleyball head coach Dave Fleming, who knew her Western coach, watched her practice. He liked her game, and he offered her a spot to play at CMU.
However, the transition to CMU from Arizona was more difficult than her transition from Brazil to Arizona.
While at Arizona she was in a dorm with her teammates, but at CMU she was rooming with strangers. She was struggling to get to know people because of the high demand of being a student-athlete.
“I did not have much time to meet people because when you are a student-athlete you don’t have a lot of free time,” Dias said. “And when you have free time you have to do homework. So I didn’t have any time to hang out with my teammates.”
But with time, she later learned how to adapt to CMU. She became closer to her teammates and made friends with people in her class.
As Dias’ graduation date grows nearer, she has started to think about her future. She wants to stay in the U.S. and get her master’s degree. However, she does not know in what subject she will pursue her degree.
