TicketsBearcat to Watch: Julie DuPont
Contact: Shawn Sell
10/4/2004
She?s been an All-American and the conference player of the year. Twice she?s been named to the all-conference team and by the end of this season she will have more kills than any player ever to wear a Cincinnati volleyball uniform. But when you ask Bearcat senior Julie DuPont about her greatest accomplishment, it isn?t any of these things; instead it goes back to a night last October that she will never forget.
?Last year when we beat Louisville,? DuPont says. ?It was a complete team effort and we had an awful lot of fun doing that.?
It?s that team-first attitude that has allowed DuPont to gain not only the respect of her teammates, but also that of her coaches and opponents. This fall, DuPont is a team captain for a second straight year and is out to help her team to a sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Often referred to as ?Mom? by her teammates, DuPont has high expectations for her team this year, despite the uncharacteristically slow start the team has gotten off to.
?Individually, I just want to keep getting better as a player,? she says. ?I want to help this team achieve all the goals we have set for ourselves. Most of all, I want us to get to the NCAA Tournament on our own merit, by winning the Conference USA Tournament.?
During her career, DuPont?s success on the court has been well documented, but what many don?t know is just how successful she has been in the classroom as well. DuPont has twice been named an Academic All-American and carries a GPA of nearly 4.0. To DuPont, the same principles of working hard apply both on the court as well as off of it.
?Whatever I do, I go all the way with it,? she says. ?I won?t settle for anything but my personal best. In the classroom, that means getting the best grade possible. On the court, it means playing the best I can. This is a team sport and I must be willing to play hard all the time.?
Since DuPont?s arrival on campus in 2001, the UC Volleyball program has continued its upward swing.
?I think the program has gotten a lot more national recognition since my freshman year,? DuPont says. ?Reed (Sunahara) has gotten more recognition as a coach with the national teams he has been a part of. He has talent and others are willing to trust him with their players. I think this was a great choice for me.?
As for the future of Cincinnati Volleyball, DuPont doesn?t see the program going anywhere but up from where it is currently.
?As long as the coaches keep recruiting strong players with great attitudes they will be fine,? she says. ?Reed has done a great job of building the program the last five or six years. But I think they are just beginning to build and they can go as far as they want to.?
Though she still has the majority of her senior season left to play, DuPont has already started to look to the future, both in terms of what she will do and how she hopes to be remembered. After graduation from UC, DuPont wants to go onto graduate school to study speech language pathology while also coaching club volleyball somewhere. But as with her accomplishments, DuPont wants to be remembered as much for her team as for herself.
?After I?m gone, I want people to say that it was fun to watch me and the teams I was on,? DuPont says. ?I really hope current and future players break my records and that I am a stepping stone for others. I wanted to be better than the players before me and I hope I can inspire others to be better than me.?
As she looks back over her career, DuPont says she doesn?t have any regrets, not yet at least.
?I can?t really pick a regret yet, because I?m not done yet,? she says. ?I have had lots of fun here and met lots of great people. When its over, I hope I don?t have any regrets, because I try to leave it all on the court every time I play.?