Kathryn Holloway (volleyball)

Early life

Holloway was born in Everett, Washington without a fibula in her right leg and because of it, her right foot and ankle needed to be amputated when she was 20 months old. In 2004, she graduated from Lake Stevens High School. During her high school years from 2000 to 2002 she competed in volleyball and from the same year till 2004 in basketball. In her spare time she enjoys scrapbooking and watching Friends.

Career

Not only was Holloway able to overcome this loss, she thrived after it. Early in her career in sports a rare skill was seen in her. By the time she graduated from Lake Stevens High School she had been recognized in both volleyball and basketball. Playing volleyball for two years and basketball all four. In 2002 and 2003 her basketball team went to the state championship, and it was then when she began being recruited by college basketball teams from all over the country. And when her team won the district championship things only got better for the young Holloway.

Even knowing she had a prosthetic leg, offers still poured in. Once she graduated from Lake Stevens High, she went on to California State at Northridge, in southern California, where she majored in Sociology. While she attended she played for the Matadors in NCAA Division 1 basketball till 2008. During her time there she won awards which include, Big West Women of the year, and her freshmen year was put on the Big West freshmen team. In her senior year at Northridge she was averaging about 14.5 points and 7 rebounds during a game. It seemed nothing could hold this young star back from achieving her dreams.

Her sister Chelsey Holloway also played Basketball in high school and later at Seattle University for the Red Hawks. The two sisters seem to share a common bond. Later in an interview with the Women’s Sports Foundation, Holloway was posed with a question: “Who is your hero?” She was quoted replying “My sister. She inspires me every day to be happy.” During her time in college not only did she compete with her college team but she was striving for more. Holloway also competed in several Sitting Volleyball tournaments. Sitting Volleyball is basically the same in every way to traditional volleyball, except for the fact that it is played like the name infers, while sitting. ("Sitting volleyball rules," 2012) In the rules it says all players must have one buttocks of the floor while making contact with the ball in play. There are no guidelines as to what type of ailment makes you eligible to play in this new form of the sport. Amputees, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, brain injuries and strokes are just some of the conditions these players live with. All of whom are athletes by every definition of the word.

Starting in 2006, Holloway competed in the Sitting Volleyball Championship in Roermond, the Netherlands placing in fifth. Every year following she competed and won several medals in the sport. In 2007, she won a silver medal, in the Sitting Volleyball Invitational which took place in Shanghai, China. The next year winning another medal, this time bronze, in a Sitting Volleyball tournament in Egypt. The next year Holloway decided to compete in two sports, she played basketball for the Matadors and the same year competed in the Paralympics in Beijing, China. In basketball she was named Second Team All Big West Conference, which was only over shadowed by her win at the Paralympics. Holloway and her team won silver in the US Women’s Sitting Volleyball in China that year. She would go on to win several more medals for Sitting Volleyball.

In 2009, she won a gold medal in the Euro-Cup, and would also be named Best Blocker in the games. She continued on her winning streak by winning a silver medal, U.S. Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team at the Sitting Volleyball Championship in Edmond, Oklahoma, the first medal she won on US soil. After taking a year off she returned to the sport with new ambition. After rigorous strength training and with the help of family and friends Holloway returned to the Paralympics. In 2012 Holloway and her teammates walked away with the silver medal for the U.S. Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team in London that year. They were beaten by The Republic of China for the gold.

Team USA competed at the World Championships in Elblag, Poland in June 2014. Holloway, as part of Team USA, have scored 24 points with 23 kills and 62 attacks. Therefore, she and her team won silver and had their closest finish ever against China in an international tournament, 23-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-21, 17-15.

She was part of the USA team which won the gold at 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto, Canada.