Selfless Setter Embodies Wildcat Core Values

Moving from one state to another in the middle of high school can be a daunting task for any teenager, and Weber State's Emily Olson happened to suffer such a fate.

After playing freshman to junior varsity volleyball at Lone Peak High School in Alpine, Utah, Olson ended up moving to Victoria, Texas, located between San Antonio and Houston. While many who move states at such a time in their lives struggle socially, Olson's difficulties revolved around volleyball. She was challenged to find a place on the team where she would fit. Through her hard work and developing her setting skills and volleyball IQ, she was able to find her spot as a setter and work all the way around the rotation and was able to start as the varsity setter as a junior. In her senior year, Olson even won the district's setter of the year award.

As she rounded out a successful high school career, it became apparent that Olson was a collegiate talent and, despite garnering attention from multiple schools in Texas, she always had her sites set on Weber State. The setter got to know head coach Jeremiah Larsen extremely well while Larsen was recruiting Olson's older sister to Utah State. They maintained contact, and Olson, who was looking to be pushed outside her comfort zone and pushed to her limits, felt returning to her native Utah and going to Weber State would be the best fit.

Upon returning to Ogden and coming to Swenson Gym for practice that first day, Olson, with a smile on her face, described it as, "definitely different".

Looking back on her first practice in Swenson Gym, Olson fondly said, "I was coached probably more intensely than I've ever been coached and there were a lot of nerves going on," but the same work ethic that helped carve a spot for Olson in high school, paved a way for her in Ogden and allowed her to find her spot.

"I knew that I had to work through a lot and I had to grow a lot as a person," she remembered. With that personal and volleyball growth came a lot of success in her personal life and her volleyball and school lives, and she was on the squad for WSU's first two trips to the Big Sky Conference title match in over three decades.

Those two trips to the conference championship matches are her favorite memories as a Wildcat thus far.

"They both helped shape who I am in different ways," Olson mentioned of the school's two most recent journeys to the Big Sky's biggest match.
She saw some playing time in the championship in 2019, a heartbreaking five-set loss to Northern Colorado, the final score of the fifth set being 15-13. "It was just the feeling of knowing how close we were, it was an absolute heartbreaker," said the setter.

However, from the depths of the despair that the team felt from the '19 loss, Olson and company found the motivation needed to climb to new heights. She continued and said, "Coming back from that and being so ready to just, you know, work our butts off to get back for the next season taught me something."

It was a season in which the Wildcats won the Big Sky regular season championship for the first time in school history, the Big Sky tournament championship for the first time since 1988, and won the program's first-ever NCAA tournament match.

Olson couldn't play for any of it.

It was just before Weber State's historic 2020-21 spring season that she found out she had Grave's disease.

Grave's, which is hyperthyroidism, causes puffy eyes, rapid heartbeats, and tinkers with hormones among other side effects, severely cut Olson's ability to do anything volleyball related. "I was just dizzy and lightheaded all the time," she said of her suffers with Grave's. Throw on top of that the fact that Olson also happened to come down with COVID-19 at the same time, and she couldn't even muster the strength and energy to get out of bed.

Despite being just a redshirt sophomore in eligibility, Olson has been with Weber State for four years and is graduating in the spring with her bachelor's degree in nutrition. She plans on continuing her coaching career with a local volleyball club in the fall, and hopes to find a nutrition related job shortly after graduation.

"We have some core values in our program and she is the epitome one of them which is selflessness," said a glowing Larsen when asked about what Olson has meant to this program. "The kid does whatever she needs to do that's in the best interest of the volleyball team and she definitely puts herself on the backburner 99 percent of the time. Whatever we need her to do, she'll do. That's a rare trait in athletes and in people in general."

When reiterating how he felt about Olson, Larsen said, "She means the world to us because she's such a good example of one of our core values."

When asked how would like for Wildcat fans, her coaches and teammates to remember her, Olson proudly stated, "I put my all into everything I did. I was given a lot and I appreciate the opportunities and everything I had more than they'll ever know. They gave me a lot and helped build me as a person. I can't thank them enough for that. I hope that they remember me in the sense that I really did give my all to the program. Even when I wasn't on the court I was still doing what I could to be a good teammate and be a good person and help the team out in any way that I could. I tried to do my best in everything."

Weber State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Emily Olson

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