Set a goal. Work hard to acheive it every day - and you can make it happen.
Kennedy Nelson is a perfect example of this type of mindset.
She is an avid sports person, excelling in several sports from volleyball to track and field and barrel racing.
However, volleyball, which she has played since Grade 5/6 is her first passion, and since Grade 9 she has wanted to make Alberta’s provincial volleyball team.
This year she made that dream come true.
Kennedy trains regularly, and has applied and been accepted in Medicine Hat College’s Southern Alberta Sports Development Program since Grade 8.
This means she trains all year long, accepting the regimen her coach gives to work on core strength goals, spending long hours at the gym working hard to improve herself.
This year Kennedy played club volleyball on the Taber Wham U17 team.
Scouts regularly attend games looking for top-end players to fill out the provincial team, and Kennedy said she was lucky enough to get spotted this year.
Kennedy, along with 59 other girls, the top five percent of volleyball players in the province, were invited to the try-out camp from July 3-6. Four coaches joined them along with other helpers. Each girl wore a number and as they ran drills and took advice from the various coaches, they were watched and evaluated.
“They know what they want for the teams,” Kennedy said, adding this year 28 girls were to be chosen to make up two provincial teams.
On Tuesday morning each girl was brought in one at a time and interviewed, and that is when they found out whether or not they made the team.
Meanwhile, Tuesday morning Kennedy’s mom, Jo, was on her way to Calgary to pick-up  her daughter when she got a very excited phone call.
“She said, ‘Mom, I made it’!” Jo recalled.
Now Kennedy has a few days at home to gather up some things and then it is off to Camrose for two weeks of training at Auguson College. Then they will go to Calgary, practice for about a day and a half before the Western Elite Championship from July 23 - 25 in Calgary at SAIT and the University of Calgary.
Kennedy is very excited at the opportunity. She didn’t even mind giving up on the opportunity to be on the Alberta Summer Games track and field team, something she qualified for after a great showing at the provincial track and field meet, bringing home a medal.
“Volleyball is my passion,” she said.
And, between all those sports she still manages to squeeze in time to be a competitive barrel racer. Her mom kind of gets a laugh out of the name of Kennedy’s horse. She said it was a hard go to find the perfect horse for the girl, but this one has been the exact match and the two of them have brought home more than one buckle.
And the horse’s name?
Alotta.
Perfect, says her mom, since Kennedy is always doing a lot of stuff.
Her mom also said that all the hard work, whether exercising daily or searching for the perfect horse, has been good for her daughter.
“It builds character and teaches perserverence,” she said.
As for Kennedy, she is just grateful for her chance to play the game she loves at the level she has long dreamed of, and she is grateful for the people who helped her get where she is.
“I couldn’t do it without the support of my friends, coaches, teachers and my parents who put a lot of miles on that vehicle for me,” she said.