Carrollton, GA - Being an athlete in a college thousands of miles from home is quite a challenge. There are not any familiar faces and you have to get used to the new group you call your “team.” Such is the case for Jasmine Dotson, middle blocker for the University of West Georgia’s volleyball team.
Dotson, a rising senior, hails from Apple Valley, California. She was hesitant about attending West Georgia at first because this was an unfamiliar place to her. All of her friends were back at home attending nearby colleges, and Dotson was the one to break the cycle and make a name for herself in a distant college.
“It was a culture shock when I first came here to West Georgia,” stated Dotson. “All of my newfound friends on the volleyball team were not local either and so each of us could empathize with each other.”
Being independent, as Dotson is, has its advantages, as she is well ahead of the curve for most college students in knowing her direction in life.
“When I came to West Georgia, I was a big fan of the crime dramas on TV and wanted to get into forensic science,” Dotson said. “But since beginning my major, I think I want to take a different path.”
Dotson took a courts class when she became a Criminology major and got a taste of what it might be like on the inside of a courtroom. That pushed her to a different side of the system.
“I am sure that I want to be a lawyer and have what it takes to do that for a living, but I am still not sure about which side I want to be on,” said Dotson. “I think I would do well in corporate law, but I think I would also enjoy being a public defender.”
A motivated player on and off the court, Dotson earned a spot on the Gulf South Conference Honor Roll this past fall with a 3.01 GPA. The GSC honor roll is a distinction awarded in the fall, spring and winter by the GSC to athletes who competed on the court or field and have at least a 3.0 GPA.
Direction and academics aside, Dotson is also the only UWG team member to have played under three different coaches. She started her career for former head coach Reagan Adams, then played in the same season in 2007 under interim coach Carla Silveira and now under third-year head coach Gary Lee. As a captain in 2009, she used that experience to help her teammates on and off the court.
“It’s definitely been a learning experience, and a process to play under Coach Lee,” states Dotson. “I have played basically on four different teams because there has not been consistency, and now we have Coach Lee, and we finally have the consistency we have not had all along.”
The 2009 season was a difficult one at best. While she was the team captain at season’s end, she did not start out that way, as senior Andressa Martins held that role. But early in the season, Martins chose a different path and that thrust the most experienced player on the team into a leadership role.
“Last year was definitely a season of adversity, but it brought all of us closer together on the team,” said Dotson. “Our numbers were shrinking, and each of us realized that if one of us gets hurt then the entire team is done for the year. We had to have patience with each other. Once we started trusting in the game plan, we believed we could play well and we started to actually play well.”
In 2009, Dotson played in all 30 matches and in nearly every game as well. She was fourth on the team with 180 kills, and was third on the team with 149 digs. As the year went along, she and the team dealt with adversity from every corner as injuries struck at the worst possible time. But they fought through and finished the season strong.
If that development continues into the 2010 season, Dotson and the Wolves could be in the thick of things in October as the 2010 Gulf South Conference tournament nears.