Weber State University Athletics
Photo by: Robert Casey
From Hometown Girl to Wildcat Legend: Sam Schiess' Legacy at WSU
11/12/2021 8:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Growing up and going to high school at Bonneville High near Ogden, Utah, volleyball was always an afterthought for Sam Schiess.
"My freshman and sophomore years, I wanted to play basketball. I wanted to go play college basketball," said the local superstar who turned into a Weber State Wildcat legend. "Volleyball wasn't ever at the forefront of my mind […] I just kind of played (volleyball), I didn't really plan on making a college career of it."
As she started maturing physically and seeing how good she was at volleyball, people started paying attention.
In her junior year in high school, Schiess attended a volleyball camp at Salt Lake Community College and the Bruins offered the sensational athlete a scholarship. "It felt right and it felt like the best opportunity to do what I wanted to do," Schiess mentioned of the chance to play volleyball at SLCC.
Part of what appealed to that offer for Schiess was the chance to play basketball and volleyball for the Bruins, but volleyball still wasn't necessarily the primary focus. She somewhat jokingly stated, "I almost fell into playing college volleyball, it wasn't really something that I worked super hard to pursue or anything like that, I just got kind of lucky and God blessed me with a lot of stuff."
The spring before Schiess was set to attend SLCC, she was playing in an all-star basketball game and ended up blowing out her knee. She tore her ACL and her lateral meniscus, and that prevented her from playing volleyball in her first season out of high school.
After graduation in 2016 and almost a year of rehab, Schiess was finally ready to begin her college volleyball career. She completed many of her required college credits while attending Bonneville High, and therefore only needed a year of classes to finish off her associates. After attending SLCC for a year and obtaining her associates degree, she felt like she didn't have much else to accomplish in junior college and she started plotting out her next move.
As she started putting feelers out to division one schools, nearly every Big Sky Conference team was on her radar.
Weber State is the only school who came calling.
After a few recruiting visits, Schiess decided to return home and become a Wildcat.
The most surprising thing to Schiess as she made the jump from junior college to division one was the maturity of the players. As a middle blocker, Schiess jumped into a three-player rotation with Hannah Hill and Aubrey Saunders, two other players who were stalwarts for WSU and key pieces in the program's turnaround.
"They were playing at a lot higher level than I was playing at, so I just tried to be a sponge that first semester and soak up everything that I could," she noted of the duo that she was playing with. "It was a really cool dynamic. We'd push each other a ton in practice […] that dynamic with them made me be a better teammate, made me work harder in the gym. All around that dynamic with them got me to where I'm at now."
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She was too talented and naturally gifted to redshirt, but there were already two players that were in front of her. Larsen and the coaching staff decided to get creative and use three players to fill the two middle blocker spots in the lineup. Schiess made the most of the round robin rotation and even won defensive player of the week in one of her earliest weeks in the program.
After 2019 when both Hill and Saunders graduated and left the program, it was Schiess' show in the middle and she's produced at levels that are seldom seen in this program and conference. In 2020-21, Schiess led the conference in attack percentage (.358), was named to the 2020 Big Sky All-Conference First Team and to the All-Tournament team, and as of this writing leads the conference in hitting percentage near the end of the 2021 regular season.
Yeah, she's had a phenomenal career.
Upon being prompted for a favorite memory of her time at her hometown school, Schiess' eyes welled up as she recalled, "Winning last year was huge. More than anything, just being around my teammates. They're what makes this program so special, and the volleyball is awesome, but it's being with my teammates that has made it the most rewarding and the most motivating to keep coming back."
There are seemingly infinite potential ways for Wildcat Nation, teammates, and coaches to look back and remember what Schiess has done at Weber State. Every single teammate and coach that was asked about Schiess' legacy, however, had the same answer and they replied without hesitation.
They'll remember her hard work.
Schiess always brought the swag to the court with her and was also always one of the hardest workers in the classroom, in practice, and in the weight room. She hasn't ever been the most vocal leader, but she guided her teammates through putting in the effort that it took to be successful at an elite level.
Looking back on her career, Schiess took me back to the beginning and said, "Last season and this season are kind of the cap, but it was those seasons where we weren't really winning a ton of games, but we were putting in the work. We were trusting in (Jeremiah Larsen). We were buying into the process and we were being good teammates." After a brief, pensive pause, she continued, "Now we're here and it's all worth it. It feels so much more rewarding than if we had just walked into it."
Larsen fondly recounted Schiess' role in his program and said that from the moment the super athlete walked into the gym that she challenged and pushed her teammates to be better. He also mentioned how Schiess competed every day to be the best. "Winning cultures," Larsen emphasized, "cannot survive without these kinds of players driving it."
Schiess' story feels like it could be turned into a blockbuster. She's a hometown hero who worked through injury, pain, and difficulty to turn into an all-conference player that will be remembered fondly in Swenson Gym forever.
High flyin', trash talkin' Sam Schiess stayed loyal to the soil and turned into Wildcat royalty.
Not too shabby for someone who just kind of got lucky.
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"My freshman and sophomore years, I wanted to play basketball. I wanted to go play college basketball," said the local superstar who turned into a Weber State Wildcat legend. "Volleyball wasn't ever at the forefront of my mind […] I just kind of played (volleyball), I didn't really plan on making a college career of it."
As she started maturing physically and seeing how good she was at volleyball, people started paying attention.
In her junior year in high school, Schiess attended a volleyball camp at Salt Lake Community College and the Bruins offered the sensational athlete a scholarship. "It felt right and it felt like the best opportunity to do what I wanted to do," Schiess mentioned of the chance to play volleyball at SLCC.
Part of what appealed to that offer for Schiess was the chance to play basketball and volleyball for the Bruins, but volleyball still wasn't necessarily the primary focus. She somewhat jokingly stated, "I almost fell into playing college volleyball, it wasn't really something that I worked super hard to pursue or anything like that, I just got kind of lucky and God blessed me with a lot of stuff."
The spring before Schiess was set to attend SLCC, she was playing in an all-star basketball game and ended up blowing out her knee. She tore her ACL and her lateral meniscus, and that prevented her from playing volleyball in her first season out of high school.
After graduation in 2016 and almost a year of rehab, Schiess was finally ready to begin her college volleyball career. She completed many of her required college credits while attending Bonneville High, and therefore only needed a year of classes to finish off her associates. After attending SLCC for a year and obtaining her associates degree, she felt like she didn't have much else to accomplish in junior college and she started plotting out her next move.
As she started putting feelers out to division one schools, nearly every Big Sky Conference team was on her radar.
Weber State is the only school who came calling.
After a few recruiting visits, Schiess decided to return home and become a Wildcat.
The most surprising thing to Schiess as she made the jump from junior college to division one was the maturity of the players. As a middle blocker, Schiess jumped into a three-player rotation with Hannah Hill and Aubrey Saunders, two other players who were stalwarts for WSU and key pieces in the program's turnaround.
"They were playing at a lot higher level than I was playing at, so I just tried to be a sponge that first semester and soak up everything that I could," she noted of the duo that she was playing with. "It was a really cool dynamic. We'd push each other a ton in practice […] that dynamic with them made me be a better teammate, made me work harder in the gym. All around that dynamic with them got me to where I'm at now."
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She was too talented and naturally gifted to redshirt, but there were already two players that were in front of her. Larsen and the coaching staff decided to get creative and use three players to fill the two middle blocker spots in the lineup. Schiess made the most of the round robin rotation and even won defensive player of the week in one of her earliest weeks in the program.
After 2019 when both Hill and Saunders graduated and left the program, it was Schiess' show in the middle and she's produced at levels that are seldom seen in this program and conference. In 2020-21, Schiess led the conference in attack percentage (.358), was named to the 2020 Big Sky All-Conference First Team and to the All-Tournament team, and as of this writing leads the conference in hitting percentage near the end of the 2021 regular season.
Yeah, she's had a phenomenal career.
Upon being prompted for a favorite memory of her time at her hometown school, Schiess' eyes welled up as she recalled, "Winning last year was huge. More than anything, just being around my teammates. They're what makes this program so special, and the volleyball is awesome, but it's being with my teammates that has made it the most rewarding and the most motivating to keep coming back."
There are seemingly infinite potential ways for Wildcat Nation, teammates, and coaches to look back and remember what Schiess has done at Weber State. Every single teammate and coach that was asked about Schiess' legacy, however, had the same answer and they replied without hesitation.
They'll remember her hard work.
Schiess always brought the swag to the court with her and was also always one of the hardest workers in the classroom, in practice, and in the weight room. She hasn't ever been the most vocal leader, but she guided her teammates through putting in the effort that it took to be successful at an elite level.
Looking back on her career, Schiess took me back to the beginning and said, "Last season and this season are kind of the cap, but it was those seasons where we weren't really winning a ton of games, but we were putting in the work. We were trusting in (Jeremiah Larsen). We were buying into the process and we were being good teammates." After a brief, pensive pause, she continued, "Now we're here and it's all worth it. It feels so much more rewarding than if we had just walked into it."
Larsen fondly recounted Schiess' role in his program and said that from the moment the super athlete walked into the gym that she challenged and pushed her teammates to be better. He also mentioned how Schiess competed every day to be the best. "Winning cultures," Larsen emphasized, "cannot survive without these kinds of players driving it."
Schiess' story feels like it could be turned into a blockbuster. She's a hometown hero who worked through injury, pain, and difficulty to turn into an all-conference player that will be remembered fondly in Swenson Gym forever.
High flyin', trash talkin' Sam Schiess stayed loyal to the soil and turned into Wildcat royalty.
Not too shabby for someone who just kind of got lucky.
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