![\"Senior](\"http:\/\/www.stanforddaily.com\/cgi-bin\/wp-content\/uploads\/spo012710mvb1-150x300.jpg\" "\\"spo012710mvb\\"")
<\/p>\nSenior Evan Romero only started playing volleyball during his sophomore year of high school, but has already become the school\u2019s career leader in total kills with almost another full season to go. (Stanford Daily File Photo)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While most of his teammates come from volleyball families where they were given volleyballs as soon as they could run around, Romero\u2019s career started a little later. His sophomore year of high school, his basketball coach, also the volleyball coach, approached him about playing on the team.<\/p>\n
Romero said yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked playing volleyball; it was fun. That\u2019s where I started off,\u201d Romero said. \u201cI learned how to hit and pass somewhat. From there, I kind of blossomed a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing with his high school team highlighted a slightly different chapter in his volleyball career \u2014 while he still plays with a different set of his closest friends, the Taco Bell runs and hang out sessions are memories from the beginning of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some upset wins and it was just fun hanging out with the guys all the time. It was a good time playing with them,\u201d Romero said.<\/p>\n
After a few phone calls to coach John Kosty, Romero became Stanford-bound, with more nerves than any of his teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was most afraid that I had nowhere near the level of experience that everyone on the team had,\u201d Romero said. \u201cI was hoping that I\u2019d be able to learn quickly and be able to contribute to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some growing pains definitely. I didn\u2019t exactly play too well my first two years, but the coaches have been phenomenal. They\u2019ve been really supportive and they\u2019ve taught me a lot in a short amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the many skills and techniques he has picked up while playing here, Romero learned that sometimes, brain does beat brawn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get comfortable with the game, and in my case, you learn you don\u2019t have to hit as hard as you can every time,\u201d Romero said. \u201cYou have to hit some smart shots. I learned from my teammates like Spencer [McLachlin], who always does that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While experience is the biggest skill he has acquired over the years, his teammates \u2014 including Ed Howell, Jason Palacios, Garrett Werner and Kawika Shoji \u2014 have all helped him with technique.<\/p>\n
This experience and technique led Romero to break the school record for career kills with 1,295 last year. Moreover, he has been the leader in kills on the team for the past three years as well. However, this offensive powerhouse radiates humility when asked about his leading numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Spencer [McLachlin] and Brad [Lawson] on the outside, our middles are playing well with Garrett [Werner] and Gus [Ellis], I\u2019m just one of the parts of the team,\u201d Romero said. \u201cI love it. Our team is doing well. If our team is doing well, I\u2019m happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of his many stellar kill nights, the match that stands out most for him is the home match against UC-Irvine of the 2008 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my favorite game because Irvine was a very good team and it was the first time all our friends from the water polo team and soccer team came out in costume to support us,\u201d Romero said. \u201cFrom then, it\u2019s grown into a big group of guys coming out in costume.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside the appreciation Romero has for his friends\u2019 costumes, the most remarkable aspect of this senior Mechanical Science & Engineering major is the amount of time he dedicates to volleyball.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty amazing to see that 25-30 hours are dedicated to your sport that you could have to do work or relax. In the end, it\u2019s 100 percent worth it,\u201d Romero said. \u201cWe love what we do and we want to spend 30 more hours playing volleyball.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Romero checks into his last season of volleyball and his last five months left at Stanford, he strives to reach his goals of playing better volleyball, hanging out with friends more often and simply enjoying the life of an undergraduate as much as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romero now a record-breaking star despite late start in the sport The people that we call Stanford Division I athletes generally have one thing in common: they\u2019ve all been playing their sport for most of their lives. They didn\u2019t just pick it up and somehow become amazingly talented in the sport. But then there\u2019s Evan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2195,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}