Trip to Botswana highlights winter break for Natalie Ring
Ring spent 12 days in Africa working volleyball clinics
Mike Wittliff, Communications
Women’s volleyball freshman Natalie Ring made the most of her winter break with a trip to Africa alongside six other Americans to help run eight volleyball clinics in Botswana.
Ring, her sister, Rebecca, and five other American student-athletes departed the United States on Christmas and spent the next 12 days in Southern Africa.
“(Head coach) Ryan (Theis) sent me an email saying ‘Bring It USA is doing this trip and if anyone is interested, let me know’," Ring said. ”My first thought was if I could bring my sister and it ended up working out. The group originally went with a club maybe four years ago and did the same trip to Botswana. It was supposed to be the start of a bigger relationship to build volleyball in Botswana, but COVID happened, so it was their first time going back since then."
They arrived in the capital city of Gaborone to work with the men’s and women’s national teams before leaving for Kasane in the northern part of the country.
We ran six clinics for the national team – both men and women – just helping them learn drills and that sort of stuff. Then we ran a clinic with 20-somethings in a different part of the country and one with little kids in the northern area where volleyball is less popular.- Natalie Ring
While in the country’s north, Ring and her counterparts were able to head to Zimbabwe to check out Victoria Falls and other cultural heritage sites.
We got do some touristy things. We went on safaris, and we went to Victoria Falls. It was a super cool trip. It was really cool to meet everyone and get to establish a relationship with the people there.- Natalie Ring
For Ring, the trip offered a respite after a busy fall semester that included a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16. Ring saw action in 12 matches as a true freshman outside hitter while hitting .314. She played in two sets in her first collegiate match - a five-set win at then-No. 11 Kentucky on Aug. 26 - with four kills on six errorless swings.
Freshman Natalie Ring makes her first appearance of the match in the third and responds with consecutive kills. MU pulls it to 18-17 and UK calls TO. #WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/DIRi4gSeu8
— Marquette Volleyball (@MarquetteVB) August 27, 2022
Being able to understand the impact that the sport has (was an important part of the trip). I feel like we obviously make an impact on the court here and work in the community, but I feel like it was a different experience to see how volleyball can impact people across the world. Seeing their mindset about it was inspiring to be able to bring that back to spring training.- Natalie Ring
Ring appreciated connecting with another culture through a shared love of the sport and reconnecting to the basics of the game.
I feel like we kind of get wrapped up in the culture of the sport that we have here and how competitive it is and wanting to be at the best level. Getting to share it with people who also enjoy the same things and getting to connect with people from totally different cultures – it kind of brought back why you love the sport to begin with.- Natalie Ring
She is thankful for the time she was able to spend with her sister on the trip, though it is not the first time she has traveled internationally with her family. Ring took a gap year prior to the start of high school and spent two months traveling around Europe with her mother from Scotland down to the Balkans. She and her mother did service work and played volleyball during their travels, but her trip over winter break was the first time she has traveled exclusively because of volleyball.
“It was the first of hopefully many experiences that volleyball will be able to give me internationally. It was cool to go with my sister and have that experience,” Ring shared.
At the end of the current spring semester, Ring and her Marquette teammates are set to take their own foreign tour in June to Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
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