Mellies takes on challenges

It would probably take the average student only one quarter before giving up on the idea to participate in a college-level athletic program and major in engineering. Then again, senior Jamie Mellies, the starting center and three-year captain of the Seattle University women's volleyball team, is not the average individual.

This year, the team had a record of 18-13, making it the first Division One winning season they've experienced. Head coach Shannon Ellis says the accomplishment was largely due to Mellies' involvement.

"She's the best," Ellis said. "She's everything a student-athlete should be. She carries herself well, she's articulate and she cares about the community."

Mellies was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nev. and came to Seattle for a change of scenery. She began playing volleyball in fifth grade but didn't get serious about it until her freshman year of high school. It was also during high school that she considered engineering to be a possible career choice.

"I've always been good at math and science," she said.

Her high school physics teacher asked if she had ever thought about going into engineering. Well, she has now, and of all the majors to pick, she went with the one that's notorious for taking up a lot of time outside the classroom.

However, these days she really misses the busyness that accompanies the regular season.

"I actually like the schedule," she said. "I like being busy all the time."

Although volleyball has cut into her summer vacations and Thanksgiving weekends, Mellies has spent most of her summers in Las Vegas, where she enjoyed hanging out with friends and family and going swimming on a daily basis.

She has one younger brother who's currently enrolled in the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and she admits to being a part of a competitive sibling rivalry. In an effort to compete in a sport they're both unfamiliar with, Mellies and her brother have recently picked up tennis.

"I'm not very good at it," she admitted. "It challenges me. He's definitely beating me at this."

But while she might have been losing to her little brother at tennis, she led the volleyball team to 18 victories.

"She made it happen," said Coach Ellis. "She gave it everything she had, and she has worked hard to be the best she could be on the volleyball court."

Mellies was really happy about the way the season turned out as well.

"We had a lot of new, competitive players, and our practices were always really competitive, and that makes the team better."

Mellies is very dedicated to both her education and her extra-curricular activities, representing what coach Mellies considered "the model student-athlete." To anyone who's having trouble balancing schoolwork and sports, it can be done. Jamie Mellies is living proof.

Cameron may be reached at cdrews@su-spectator.com