University of Tennessee Athletics
Andreno Uses Platform to Lift Lady Vols and Those in Need
September 25, 2019 | Volleyball
The 2018 SEC Community Service Team member gives back not only to her team but to all of East Tennessee through her community service
By Dom Palumbo
When we talk about athletes who have a platform, we often think of some of the greats. LeBron James, UT's own Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and a host of others.
These athletes are not only incredibly impactful on the field or court, but in their community. Whether it's LeBron's I Promise School, Brees's the Brees Dream Foundation or Peyton's Peyback Foundation. All three using the platform they have to make a difference, beyond the playing surface.
For senior middle blocker Alyssa Andreno, while her platform may not be quite as large, she too has taken every opportunity to give back to a place that has given her so much.
"My parents always told me that if you have a platform, you should use it," Andreno said. "This might be the time in my life where this is the biggest platform I have. I love giving back and making sure people know that athletes really care about their community and want to make it better."
Andreno, a well-rounded front-line player, who ranks fourth on the team in kills (53) and first in blocks (36.0), regularly makes visits to the East Tennessee Children's Hospital. There, she helps those kids who need it most, find an escape from the world of needles, hospital beds and doctors.
"My absolute favorite thing to do is visit East Tennessee Children's Hospital," the 2018 SEC Community Service Team member said. "I went twice over the summer. When I go in, I talk to them, we play games, watch movies—nothing too extravagant or anything—but being able to help take their minds off of what they are going through and to give them an escape from the hospital rooms and the doctors is really important to me."
While her actions are incredibly impactful on the children in need, experiences like this are two-fold and the impact that she gives, is always returned.
"It definitely is an escape for me. I love going there and I love these kids," Andreno said. "They are so young that they don't know what Tennessee Volleyball is. They just see someone who is a friend and wants to come play with them. They could care less what sport I play. They just know that there's someone in the hospital that wants to play with them, watch a movie or read a book and it provides a new perspective to my life."
Perspective. In this sense, means "a point of view." A new perspective provides a new way of thinking. A way you've never experienced before.
In 2018 she was a part of a VOLeaders class that went on an outreach trip to Ecuador. A trip that continued to grow her perspective in ways that even she wasn't prepared for.
"That trip was life changing," Andreno said. "Being able to go to a country where they don't have the facilities that we have here really just puts things into perspective. We went and visited one of their Olympic training facilities, and they weren't nearly as flashy or extravagant as some of the places we have here, yet the love and the dedication people have there is something that we can really learn from.
"For me, it changed my perspective," Andreno continued. "It's easy when you have to get up at 6 a.m. to go to weights and have class all day. It's easy to be like 'Ah, man. Just another day.' What you don't realize is that there are millions of people across the world that would give anything to be in this position we're lucky enough to be in. I try to be grateful for what we have every day and not taking any of it for granted, knowing every day I come in, there's hundreds of thousands of girls across the world who don't have these opportunities. It would be a disservice to them for me to not use all the resources that I have here to the best of my ability."
This understanding of her own privilege and the incredible opportunity that has presented itself to her on Rocky Top has helped to make a career, constantly in flux, much easier to handle.
Her position has interchanged regularly between middle blocker and right side hitter. Following two less than stellar seasons, in stepped current head coach Eve Rackham, just prior to her junior campaign. Constant movement, constant challenges and obstacles making her life on the court an incredible grind.
In the classroom, the internal challenges continued. As a sophomore she struggled with the decision to change her major and career path, from her childhood dream of majoring in Kinesiology to become a physical therapist, to her newfound passion and desire to work in sports, by majoring in Sport Management.
Another challenge. Another obstacle. Another grind.
"My mom's a physical therapist," Andreno said. "I went to work with her and I actually really enjoyed physical therapy. So that's kind of my I decided to go into that. The more I got into college and started taking classes, I started to realize I wasn't passionate about it anymore.
I sat on it with myself for a while, and I finally decided. I love sports. I love being around college athletics. I love talking about sports and watching them. Everything that has to do with sports, I absolutely love it. I changed my major, and I told my parents and they were like 'Alyssa, we've been waiting for you to do this for about six months.' I know I'm making the right choice, and my parents didn't want to push me or anything and they've been incredibly supportive."
However, the Lady Vols team captain had one goal in mind. Do whatever it takes to give her team what it needed, while pursuing a degree to one day do what she loves off the floor.
"I've kind of bounced back and forth my whole career here middle and right," Andreno said. "I think for me it's not so much what I like better. It's what can I do in that specific year that's going to help the team the most. Last year what was going to help the team the most was being a right side. I just tried to embrace that role as best as I could and the same thing this year. What the team is going to need from me this year is to be a middle, so that's what I'm going to do."
Through all of this on the court, any great front-line player needs a great setter, off the court any great person needs a great friend. That person for Alyssa is the constant presence of senior setter Sedona Hansen.
The two have a bond that's unique. They met in high school at Lady Vol Volleyball camps. They were recruited together and eventually signed to play for the Orange & White together.
"Alyssa was the first person I met here," Hansen said. "We committed together basically. She committed right after I did. She was my roommate when we came to the camps here, so I've known her for six or seven years now. I got to know her as a person when we were roommates together. I just love Lys. I know when to not talk to her when she's upset about something or when a good time is to talk to her, we just kind of figure each other out that way. We don't really argue or fight really unless we're on the court and we're pushing each other. She may say like 'Oh you can't dig that?' and I may say 'oh Lys that's as hard as you can hit?'"
Knowing each other. A setter to an attacker. A friend to a friend. They know how each other tick and in turn they feed off each other.
As leaders, they understand that this year's edition of the Lady Vols is their team. What they also understand is they have two unique leadership styles. Two styles that balance the other out.
Sedona: the quiet, lead by example, with soft words of encouragement and motivation when they're needed.
Alyssa: the loud and vocal leader, who is never afraid to tell a teammate what they need to hear.
"Alyssa and Sedona are night and day," head coach Eve Rackham said. "It's been a really nice balance for this team. Alyssa also leads by example in terms of work ethic. She's always working hard, but she's more of a vocal voice, she's more of a commanding presence. She's the first person to call someone out. She doesn't have that fear of confronting a teammate.
She does a lot of the off-the-court stuff making sure the team is doing the things they're supposed to be doing. She's really grown in the role well. She's been in the VoLeaders program and I think she's learned a lot about herself and how to apply that."
As the 2019 Lady Vols begin SEC play this week, the results on the floor are important. Yet, this may be the biggest platform anyone on this team may have for the rest of their lives. While athletes are often judged by how they play in a stadium or arena, their true impact on the world can be felt for years to come outside of both venues.
For Andreno, her stats are incredible and she'll be inked into the Lady Vols record book.
Where she will be remembered by people, is on the lives she has and will continue to touch both now as a current student-athlete and in the future as a Vol for Life.
When we talk about athletes who have a platform, we often think of some of the greats. LeBron James, UT's own Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and a host of others.
These athletes are not only incredibly impactful on the field or court, but in their community. Whether it's LeBron's I Promise School, Brees's the Brees Dream Foundation or Peyton's Peyback Foundation. All three using the platform they have to make a difference, beyond the playing surface.
For senior middle blocker Alyssa Andreno, while her platform may not be quite as large, she too has taken every opportunity to give back to a place that has given her so much.
"My parents always told me that if you have a platform, you should use it," Andreno said. "This might be the time in my life where this is the biggest platform I have. I love giving back and making sure people know that athletes really care about their community and want to make it better."
Andreno, a well-rounded front-line player, who ranks fourth on the team in kills (53) and first in blocks (36.0), regularly makes visits to the East Tennessee Children's Hospital. There, she helps those kids who need it most, find an escape from the world of needles, hospital beds and doctors.
"My absolute favorite thing to do is visit East Tennessee Children's Hospital," the 2018 SEC Community Service Team member said. "I went twice over the summer. When I go in, I talk to them, we play games, watch movies—nothing too extravagant or anything—but being able to help take their minds off of what they are going through and to give them an escape from the hospital rooms and the doctors is really important to me."
While her actions are incredibly impactful on the children in need, experiences like this are two-fold and the impact that she gives, is always returned.
"It definitely is an escape for me. I love going there and I love these kids," Andreno said. "They are so young that they don't know what Tennessee Volleyball is. They just see someone who is a friend and wants to come play with them. They could care less what sport I play. They just know that there's someone in the hospital that wants to play with them, watch a movie or read a book and it provides a new perspective to my life."
Perspective. In this sense, means "a point of view." A new perspective provides a new way of thinking. A way you've never experienced before.
In 2018 she was a part of a VOLeaders class that went on an outreach trip to Ecuador. A trip that continued to grow her perspective in ways that even she wasn't prepared for.
"That trip was life changing," Andreno said. "Being able to go to a country where they don't have the facilities that we have here really just puts things into perspective. We went and visited one of their Olympic training facilities, and they weren't nearly as flashy or extravagant as some of the places we have here, yet the love and the dedication people have there is something that we can really learn from.
"For me, it changed my perspective," Andreno continued. "It's easy when you have to get up at 6 a.m. to go to weights and have class all day. It's easy to be like 'Ah, man. Just another day.' What you don't realize is that there are millions of people across the world that would give anything to be in this position we're lucky enough to be in. I try to be grateful for what we have every day and not taking any of it for granted, knowing every day I come in, there's hundreds of thousands of girls across the world who don't have these opportunities. It would be a disservice to them for me to not use all the resources that I have here to the best of my ability."
This understanding of her own privilege and the incredible opportunity that has presented itself to her on Rocky Top has helped to make a career, constantly in flux, much easier to handle.
Her position has interchanged regularly between middle blocker and right side hitter. Following two less than stellar seasons, in stepped current head coach Eve Rackham, just prior to her junior campaign. Constant movement, constant challenges and obstacles making her life on the court an incredible grind.
In the classroom, the internal challenges continued. As a sophomore she struggled with the decision to change her major and career path, from her childhood dream of majoring in Kinesiology to become a physical therapist, to her newfound passion and desire to work in sports, by majoring in Sport Management.
Another challenge. Another obstacle. Another grind.
"My mom's a physical therapist," Andreno said. "I went to work with her and I actually really enjoyed physical therapy. So that's kind of my I decided to go into that. The more I got into college and started taking classes, I started to realize I wasn't passionate about it anymore.
I sat on it with myself for a while, and I finally decided. I love sports. I love being around college athletics. I love talking about sports and watching them. Everything that has to do with sports, I absolutely love it. I changed my major, and I told my parents and they were like 'Alyssa, we've been waiting for you to do this for about six months.' I know I'm making the right choice, and my parents didn't want to push me or anything and they've been incredibly supportive."
However, the Lady Vols team captain had one goal in mind. Do whatever it takes to give her team what it needed, while pursuing a degree to one day do what she loves off the floor.
"I've kind of bounced back and forth my whole career here middle and right," Andreno said. "I think for me it's not so much what I like better. It's what can I do in that specific year that's going to help the team the most. Last year what was going to help the team the most was being a right side. I just tried to embrace that role as best as I could and the same thing this year. What the team is going to need from me this year is to be a middle, so that's what I'm going to do."
Through all of this on the court, any great front-line player needs a great setter, off the court any great person needs a great friend. That person for Alyssa is the constant presence of senior setter Sedona Hansen.
The two have a bond that's unique. They met in high school at Lady Vol Volleyball camps. They were recruited together and eventually signed to play for the Orange & White together.
"Alyssa was the first person I met here," Hansen said. "We committed together basically. She committed right after I did. She was my roommate when we came to the camps here, so I've known her for six or seven years now. I got to know her as a person when we were roommates together. I just love Lys. I know when to not talk to her when she's upset about something or when a good time is to talk to her, we just kind of figure each other out that way. We don't really argue or fight really unless we're on the court and we're pushing each other. She may say like 'Oh you can't dig that?' and I may say 'oh Lys that's as hard as you can hit?'"
Knowing each other. A setter to an attacker. A friend to a friend. They know how each other tick and in turn they feed off each other.
As leaders, they understand that this year's edition of the Lady Vols is their team. What they also understand is they have two unique leadership styles. Two styles that balance the other out.
Sedona: the quiet, lead by example, with soft words of encouragement and motivation when they're needed.
Alyssa: the loud and vocal leader, who is never afraid to tell a teammate what they need to hear.
"Alyssa and Sedona are night and day," head coach Eve Rackham said. "It's been a really nice balance for this team. Alyssa also leads by example in terms of work ethic. She's always working hard, but she's more of a vocal voice, she's more of a commanding presence. She's the first person to call someone out. She doesn't have that fear of confronting a teammate.
She does a lot of the off-the-court stuff making sure the team is doing the things they're supposed to be doing. She's really grown in the role well. She's been in the VoLeaders program and I think she's learned a lot about herself and how to apply that."
As the 2019 Lady Vols begin SEC play this week, the results on the floor are important. Yet, this may be the biggest platform anyone on this team may have for the rest of their lives. While athletes are often judged by how they play in a stadium or arena, their true impact on the world can be felt for years to come outside of both venues.
For Andreno, her stats are incredible and she'll be inked into the Lady Vols record book.
Where she will be remembered by people, is on the lives she has and will continue to touch both now as a current student-athlete and in the future as a Vol for Life.
Players Mentioned
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