While a student at Girls Preparatory School, Jasmine Brown excelled on a variety of courts – from basketball to volleyball to getting to serve as maid of honor on the school’s May Court.

In college, she is still excelling on a court as a member of the University of Tennessee’s volleyball team, which sits at a respectable 22-7 and is 15-4 in the competitive Southeastern Conference heading into the Lady Vols’ final regular season game Wednesday against Kentucky.

Despite being a walk-on and a freshman, she has earned some playing time as a key reserve and defensive specialist. Against South Carolina on Sunday, she had a season-high five digs.

For Brown, the amount she has been able to contribute has been a surprise.

“I didn’t expect to play at all,” she said. “I’m really glad with the playing time.”

The granddaughter of Bessie Durden, Brown could easily be running track in college after winning the Division II state championship in the triple jump her senior year and the 300-meter hurdles her junior year.

However, she decided to try to clear a hurdle of the proverbial kind by walking on the volleyball team at Tennessee after being encouraged by Lady Vols’ assistant Gregg Whitis.

“I figured I would enjoy playing volleyball much more than running track in the hot sun,” she said with a laugh.

Her head coach at UT, Rob Patrick, is glad she decided to stay indoors.

He said he knew she had some potential, but thought the fact that she was participating in other sports and unable to play on a high school club team might be a handicap initially.

“Here was this great athlete who had no (club) experience,” he said. “We watched her play and thought in a year or two she would be a great volleyball player. But she has developed a lot sooner than we thought.”

Coach Patrick said that her quick improvement has come not just from her natural gifts, but also from both her work ethic and an innate intelligence that helped her earn an academic scholarship to UT.

“She is very coachable,” he said. “I’m really proud of her.”

Brown said she definitely feels she made the right choice in trying out for the volleyball team at Tennessee.

“I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else,” she said. “I’m so glad I decided to come here.”

Although she has had to focus more on learning about the intricacies of digging and passing the ball since coming to Tennessee – in part because she is not nearly as tall as the major college volleyball players who get to focus more on offense – she feels she learned how to play volleyball well under GPS coach Paul Brock.

“Being with him for four years, he improved a lot of aspects of my game,” she said.

The Bruisers were also state Division II champions her last two years on the team.

Brown said she is looking at studying child psychology at UT, in part because she likes children and has five brothers and sisters.

Before she learns about interpreting dreams, however, she is by example getting to teach plenty about achieving them.

“I love it,” she said of her experience so far of being a Lady Vol.

Jcshearer2@comcast.net