By Aaron Quinones
Staff Writer
Saint Rose volleyball player and captain, Jessica Vargas has achieved a milestone of landing 500 kills throughout her volleyball career. From Phoenix College to transferring to The College of Saint Rose, Vargas would have in total 941 kills in her entire volleyball career.
Jessica Vargas is extremely excited about her achievement; “Considering I came from a community college, I’m originally from Arizona so I transferred here just to play Volleyball. 500 kills in two years is kinda big. I think it was a huge milestone for me to hit so I’m pretty proud of it.”
Vargas’ volleyball journey hasn’t been the easiest road. Back in 2022, she suffered an injury on her knee which, according to Vargas, was “Very mentally challenging for me, especially because we didn’t have a lot of players on the team at the time so I had to stay in the game at all times and I’m also a captain so that’s a major reason why they wanted me to stay on the court.” According to Vargas, she didn’t have much time to rehab and would mostly just do ice baths and put pressure or ice on her knee. Vargas was scared to know what was wrong with her knee, but she soon went and got checked out to see what was going on.
Thankfully according to her doctors, nothing serious was wrong. She thinks she had Chondromalacia, which is when your kneecap is rubbing against your bone because the cartilage in your knee is too thin. The doctors told her the way her knee could be fixed is by not playing volleyball anymore, but being the star player she is, she just decided to come back after doing her rehab.
During her rehab, she began to grind over the summer by being in the gym constantly and making sure all the muscles around her knee became stronger so she wouldn’t feel much pain this volleyball season. Luckily, Vargas has not had many problems with her knee, but she did unfortunately get a hip injury which she is currently dealing with.
Taking things off the court, Jessica Vargas is a senior who is a criminal justice major here at The College of Saint Rose. Like most students who play a sport while learning here, it is hard juggling both school work and sports. “Honestly, it’s been kinda tough maintaining both good grades and being an athlete because I have a ton of practices and our coach never really gives us time off to dwindle down. I’ve had a couple of breaking points but I think I’ve maintained myself pretty well.” Vargas talked about how most people who play sports have mandatory study hours, and she feels that helps her focus on the things she needs to do. She’s only taking one class this semester, but although it may seem easy, she has been having a hard time due to the temptations of procrastination.
As previously mentioned, Vargas is from Phoenix, Arizona. She plans on moving back to Phoenix after she graduates from Saint Rose. “I plan on moving back home and I think I’m going to do a cyber security internship with one of my family friends, and just getting a job I can maintain to pay some bills. I want to hop into my career and I’m hoping my major can let me do that with my degree.”
Vargas revealed she would love to pursue volleyball outside of school. “It’s just really hard because in professional volleyball you need to be at a higher level but there are some semi-professional and adult leagues just for fun.” Vargas says she will be taking a year break from the sport once she graduates since she has been playing since the first grade and never stopped. She wants to not only rest her body physically but also rest herself mentally; it’s a lot to be a volleyball player your whole life then graduate and not have anything to do.
To conclude, Vargas gave advice to future Saint Rose students who want to participate in a sport. “I would just say know your balance, know that you can have a social life but it’s not the top priority. Know that your sport does not define you, you may be the best at your sport or you might be the worst, but at the end of the day you should be happy with the person that you look at in the mirror. Letting a sport constantly run your life is not the way to live, and I think finding things outside of the thing that you choose to play is really beneficial and finding different hobbies is honestly really good for your mental health…we are our own worst critic, and I think sometimes we get so caught up in being perfect and we will just never achieve that because no human is perfect.”
