• Obunaga's Olympic Photo Album

For many athletes on a college volleyball team, it is not an everyday occurrence to have an Olympic athlete standing on the opposite side of the net during practice. At the University of Evansville, it is.

“It’s really cool because when Rose practices and scrimmages with us, she leads us by example so that we get to see how Olympians play and not just college level,” said sophomore Kaisi Nixon.

Making her debut this season as a graduate assistant for the Purple Aces is Rose Obunaga, a member of the 2000 and 2004 Kenyan Olympic volleyball team. Obunaga will assist in numerous areas, including team and individual skill sessions, practice planning, and game preparation.

“I think it is really great to work with somebody who has that much experience at such a high level because I know that I have never been coached by somebody like that before,” said senior Rachel Robinson. “She also pushes us to a higher level and sets higher expectations of us too.”

Before moving to America in 2001 to begin her collegiate career at Columbia College, Obunaga played in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. The process of getting to Sydney, though, started for Obunaga in high school.

“They normally pick students when they are still in high school, so they knew about me since I was a sophomore,” Obunaga said. “I was excited to join, but our system is a little different than it is here. Because our country is small and our clubs don’t have too many people, we used to play with some of the national team players during tournaments and some high schools had scrimmages against them. We had good exposure playing with all the ladies first before we finished high school.”

After weeks of rigorous training in Japan, Obunaga and the Kenya National Team set off for Sydney. Obunaga said that she enjoyed the Sydney games more than Athens because most of the people there spoke English, which made it easier to communicate. “We got to visit a lot of places too,” Obunaga said. “We had good security, and policemen would take us wherever we wanted.”

Obunaga’s favorite experience came from the event that sets the standard for the games—the Opening Ceremony. Filled with songs, dances, lavish costumes, outlandish props and, of course, the lighting of the Olympic Torch, Obunaga still recalls the ceremony with a smile on her face.

“That was just an amazing experience to see all those people in the arena and people singing and smiling,” Obunaga said. “There is no age difference. You see a 70-year-old man running with balloons like a little kid. It’s just funny. You would just be amazed because like they will be having fun and no one cares what is going on around them.”

When being at the Olympics, it’s difficult not to get star struck with the world’s most famous athletes congregating in one city. Imagine doing your laundry, eating and mingling with them. Obunaga’s time living in the Olympic Village led her to meet such athletes like Marion Jones, Dwayne Wade, Maurice Greene, Tim Duncan and Yao Ming.

With over two weeks in Sydney and Athens, Obunaga had the free time to watch other sporting events, some of which she didn’t even know were Olympic sports. “Especially like fencing because in my country we don’t do fencing, and those were really exciting,” Obunaga said. “One time I went to weightlifting just to see how it was done. In my country we used to only have runners. We only had one rower back in Athens because we don’t have rowing back home too.”

Although she did not come back to Kenya or America with a medal, Obunaga has a lot to take away from the experience of playing in the Olympics. The insight that Obunaga brings to the UE volleyball team is invaluable.

“I think it is huge for our program to have somebody of Rose’s caliber here,” said Evansville head coach Mike Swan. “The extensive training that she has had can only mean good things for our players to learn from somebody with a varied background and have elite skills and knowledge. I think we are very fortunate to have somebody like her, and hopefully she is enjoying this experience as much as we are having her here.”

Obunaga’s major lesson that she learned can easily be communicated to the UE volleyball team with the upcoming season only a week away and big goals set to reach.

“My experience brings to mind that nothing comes easily,” Obunaga said. “You have to work hard whether you like it or not. Sometimes it is easy sailing and then there are times that you have to work really, really hard at whatever you are trying to do. When I look back at the kind of practices that we needed to make the Olympics, it was worth the effort.

“Even at practice right now, there are days where everything goes good and days where you struggle a little bit. You just have to keep pushing no matter what.”