Forever Pirates -- Kacey Mathieson

I remember my first day at OCC vividly: I got to school two hours early to make sure I had a good parking spot, had all my books in my yellow Patagonia backpack, and literally was sweating through my shirt because I was so nervous for my first day of college. My biggest goal at OCC was to be the student I wished I had been back in high school. For the first time, I was taking my education seriously and knew that in order to succeed in life, I needed to step up my game. 

Growing up, I was an athlete first and school came second. I never prioritized my school work and having dyslexia made learning extremely difficult ... to the point of just giving up.  Something my mom had always told me was she would rather me fail a class than cheat. So the day I came home junior year with an F in math on my report card I smiled and said, "at least I didn't cheat." That paints the picture of the student I was before OCC. 

From a young age, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. Both of my parents teach Physical Education (PE) and they hoped I would follow in their footsteps. I was a declared history major as soon as I started college and never second-guessed it. I knew one day I would become a history teacher. 

I was a full-time college student and worked full time as a barista my freshman year so when Coach Chuck asked me if I wanted to play on the indoor volleyball team, I simply said, "No." Not only was I overwhelmed with life, but I was also burnt out on being an athlete. I had played volleyball since I was 12 and my senior year at Edison High School, our team won State. In my mind, my volleyball career was over when I finished high school. I had no desire to play indoor volleyball ever again and I only played beach with my friends for fun. At this point, to be honest, I was pretty shy. It wasn't that people in my classes were unfriendly, they really were nice! I was just the one who would sit in class and immediately pull out a book to avoid socializing. To give you an idea, my first semester at OCC I read 17 books outside of my school work. I guess you can say I was a bit of a bookworm. 

When spring semester rolled around, Coach Chuck asked me if I would want to play on the beach volleyball team. This time I said yes, and the yes was for two reasons: First, my friend Jadelyn Forgiarini was on the team and she absolutely loved it, and second, I wanted priority registration. 

Chuck, John, and Adrian were the first male coaches I ever had who genuinely cared about me. They not only supported me on the sand but also encouraged me in my academics. My favorite beach memory was every practice we would play a serving game and whoever didn't miss any would get a point. These games were pretty intense because we all wanted the prize and  bragging rights. By the end of the season, I had the most serving points and John gifted me a Lululemon headband (which I still have and use when I do yoga). All the girls were welcoming and made me feel part of the team right away. Little did I know that one of my teammates, Hannah Reid, would end up becoming one of my best friends. She's a rock star and one of the sweetest people I know. I'm so thankful beach volleyball brought us together.

Jadelyn was my partner that year and I couldn't have been happier. We had grown up playing together since middle school and even played in beach tournaments together in high school. We never would have guessed that in college we would be playing together as the #1 seed. Jade and I had a great season and almost made it to state. I remember our last game together at IVC and it was hotter than hot. In the middle of our game I got heat stroke and we took a medical timeout. Jade really wanted to win that day as it was about to be her last game as a college athlete. I knew I had to push through and try my hardest for her. We kept taking as many medical timeouts as possible to buy more time, and even made it to a third set. In the end we lost but our teamwork that day was unforgettable. After the game we had ice all over our bodies, which was a pretty funny sight. Jade will always be my favorite partner and forever a close friend. 

By my sophomore year, I was getting used to being a student-athlete again and was now working at Anthropologie as a stylist. I loved school, my job, my sport, getting a chai latte at the coffee cart every day, and being more involved on campus. Every professor I had at OCC was amazing: Jordan Stanton, Helen McComb, Mark Wishon, and Irene Naesse to name a few, but the professor who had the biggest impact on me at OCC was Brent Ruddman. Every semester, I was on a mission to be in at least one of his classes, sometimes two. He is hands down one of the most inspiring and interesting people I have ever met. Mr. Ruddman made an effort to help not only me, but all of his students further their academic careers.  He was also very supportive of me being a student-athlete and would always ask how my games went if he couldn't make it out to watch. During this time, I was very active in my honors societies and spent almost everyday in the honors center doing my homework or studying. I was a member of Phi Theta Kappa and helped Mr. Ruddman start the Kappa Alpha Tau Iota honors society. 

My second season playing beach volleyball was a blast. Everyday at practice I would talk to Chuck about how nervous I was waiting for my college acceptances. I ended up getting into every school I applied to: UC Davis, UCSB, UCI, UCSD, UC Berkeley and was holding out waiting for my response from UCLA. The day I found out I got into UCLA, my partner Bailey and I were in the playoffs. We had to win both our matches to move onto the next round. Even though my mind was elsewhere, I knew we could do it. By the end of the day, we were moving onto the next round. When I got in the car to drive home from the game, I checked my email and saw that I had done it ... I got into UCLA! It had been my dream school since before I could remember, but a dream I never believed would come true. The first phone call I made was to my best friend and the second call was to Coach Chuck. I was crying on the phone to him telling him the news, thanking him for always supporting me in athletics and in academics. He truly was my #1 fan and I am forever grateful that he was a part of my life during my time at OCC. Had it not been for him asking me to play beach volleyball, who knows where my path would have led. 

Since transferring from OCC in 2019, I moved to Westwood where I started my UCLA career. During my first fall quarter, I not only had a full load of classes, but worked as the Social Media Manager for the women's soccer team, joined a sorority, and also completed yoga sculpt teacher training which led to becoming a yoga teacher at CorePower Yoga. My winter quarter was cut short due to COVID-19 and I have been back at home finishing my degree via Zoom ever since.