She didn’t play volleyball until her junior year. Now, this Shaw star is going D1.
Cydney Thomas wasn’t the biggest talker during her first practice with Play Like Winners (PLW) Volleyball Club, based out of Montgomery, Alabama. The Shaw senior said she’s the type of person to “come in, work, then leave.”
But that demeanor changes once she steps onto the hardwood.
“I go into beast mode,” Thomas said.
Thomas had just wrapped up her first volleyball game with the club in early February. She played “one of the best games of (her) life,” she said. Spectators were stunned at the demeanor Thomas showed on the court, and opposing parents sought her out to compliment her afterwards. Some asked her where she’d be attending college.
Penny Lucas-White, head volleyball coach at Alabama State, director of PLW and Thomas’ idol, was in attendance. She walked over to Thomas’ grandmother, Cynthia Shorter, and whispered into her ear.
“I just found my middle,” Lucas-White told Shorter, Thomas’ recalled. “Full-ride.”
Thomas first picked up a volleyball just one year prior.
‘EVERY SINGLE THING WAS NEW’
Thomas never thought of herself as a “serious” volleyball player. She played basketball, ran track and participated on the cheer team her freshman and sophomore years. She was an All-Bi-City track first-team honoree in 2018 and thought that sport would be her way into college.
Thomas always liked the idea of playing volleyball. A longtime discus thrower, Thomas needed a sport to stay in shape, so she tried out for Shaw’s volleyball team on her birthday, May 2, 2018, prior to her junior year. She soon fell in love with the sport, despite the sharp learning curve she faced.
Shaw volleyball coach Rad Mitchell saw her explosiveness right from the start. She had the right movements — a good vertical leap, strength and speed — and her competitiveness showed with each practice, Mitchell said.
But Thomas had never been trained in volleyball, so she was still a raw prospect. That was the biggest hurdle that both she and her coach said she faced.
“I’m not used to coming into stuff and being bad at it,” Thomas said. “So, when I came in and I just was not getting it, it just pushed me to work harder. It was very frustrating because I’m used to jumping into stuff and getting it.”
Thomas had to work extra hard to perfect her timing, and admits with a laugh that she still does not know all of volleyball’s terminology.
The words teammates used and the plays that teams ran were completely new.
“Everything was just new,” Thomas said. “Literally. Every single thing was new to me.”
ON THE RECRUITING TRAIL
Most Division I volleyball programs back-fill their recruiting classes, meaning they fill up their entire class several years in advance. Kennesaw State, for example, had already finished recruiting for its classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022, Thomas said.
That provided a hurdle for Thomas and her family when the time came to explore college options.
Most of Thomas’ early college visits were not designated official athletics visits; she and her family would simply ask to meet with a given college’s volleyball coach while on campus. She attended various ID camps, emailed coaches and signed up for NCSA, a for-profit organization that connects middle and high school athletes with college coaches, and teaches them about the recruiting process.
Thomas said she picked up “25 or 30” offers.
“You’ve got to put in the work,” Thomas said. “I came in so late, I tried to get recruited so late.”
But Alabama State was not on her radar “at all,” until recently.
‘I WANT TO BE HER’
Thomas recently joined Play Like Winners after being noticed at a tournament in Auburn. Non-football college programs typically pay closer attention to an individual’s club performances than their high school accolades, so she did not have much of a choice.
“I had to play club,” Thomas said. “I mean, period. I just had to play.”
Thomas had no idea that Lucas-White ran the program when she reached out The team needed more players in Thomas’ position, so she began practicing in Montgomery almost immediately.
Thomas makes the 82-mile trip to Montgomery three times per week to practice. Her PLW 18-1 team has played tournaments in Franklin, Tennessee, and Atlanta, with three more tournaments left this spring.
“She’s super dedicated,” Mitchell said. “And she took it upon herself. ... She’s a student on the court. She’s always asking what she can do to be better.”
Thomas’ grandmother broke down into tears when she told her granddaughter about the full-ride scholarship offer. They called Thomas’ mother, Mildrea Shorter, who also cried.
Thomas will officially sign on Wednesday in a signing ceremony at Shaw’s media center. She is the first volleyball athlete in Shaw’s history to sign a Division I volleyball letter of intent, and was a first-team All-Region and All-Bi-City honoree her senior year.
Her ultimate goal is to become a family law attorney, according to her NCSA page.
“I just want to be remembered as one of the best athletes to ever walk out of Shaw,” Thomas said, holding back tears. “And one of the most positive and humble.
“I want people to look up to me and say, ‘I want to be her.’ You know?”
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
