El Vaquero

Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Anita Marto Aya Nakano, top hitter for Glendale College's Lady Vaqueros volleyball team, says she enjoys the differences between American and Japanese volleyball play.

Playing a collegiate sport while balancing classes is difficult enough, but add to that that you are new at the game and new in the country, makes the fact that Aya Nakano is the volleyball team's leading hitter all the more remarkable.


Aya Nakano, 20, is a freshman outside hitter for the Glendale College Lady Vaquero volleyball team. She is an aviation major and an international student from Japan.


Nakano was raised in the small, countryside town of Nye, Japan. She started playing volleyball in junior high school and played all throughout high school.


When she came to Glendale she enrolled in the college without the thought of playing a collegiate sport. She enrolled in the volleyball physical education class, where her instructor told her that she should try out for the volleyball team. It was a perfect match.


Taking five classes is a difficult task, but doing it in a foreign country requires Herculean effort.


"I'm an international student so I need more time to deal with my studies compared with other students, so I'm always fighting sleep in class," says Nakano.


Off the court Nakano is just your typical student. Social Science is Nakano's favorite class. She says, "I'm enjoying social science during this semester because I can look at different prospective then my own country."


Nakano says that her favorite things to do outside of school and volleyball are hanging out with friends, listening to music and watching television.


Nakano is also a fun player to watch on the court. With all the negative headlines in the world of sports it is refreshing to be able to watch someone who is clearly having a really good time playing a game.


Athletes in America seem to live and die with how they play or whether their team wins or loses. Whether Nakano makes an amazing play (a regular sight) or if she has a miss-hit, she always has a smile on her face.

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