Photo: St. Jean headshot via wcugoldenrams.com
1,600 miles is a long way from home, especially when you’re from a small town in northern Colorado, but Megan St. Jean wouldn’t want it any other way.
St. Jean learned to play volleyball at the age of six at a local rec center. By the time she turned 13, she had advanced enough to play competitively. Around that same time, she began to experience pain in her right elbow. Her parents took her to see an immense number of doctors before she ended up at Children’s Hospital in Denver.
Soon afterwards, thirteen-year-old St. Jean was receiving surgery to repair broken cartilage in her elbow. She was then told by her surgeon that she was no longer allowed to play any overhand sports. To a young child, especially an athlete, being told you are no longer allowed to do something you loved seems like the end of the world — especially when the sport you love contains constant overhand contact.
St. Jean didn’t let that stop her; she retaught herself to play volleyball with her non-dominant hand.
A year later, she was playing on Eaton High School’s Varsity team as a freshman. At the same time, she played for a competitive travel club volleyball team. “We traveled at least once a month out of state. We hit Ohio, Florida, California, you name it. For me at that point, volleyball stopped being a hobby and became my life,” St. Jean explained.
When college recruitment time came around, so did the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic set back athletic seasons across the world; everything was shut down. When the pandemic restrictions lightened, many college-level athletes decided to remain in college for a fifth year so that they could play the extra season that they lost during the COVID-19 shutdowns. Originally, St. Jean was set to play Division 1 at University of Wyoming, an hour from her home in Eaton. When restrictions lightened, she was no longer needed at Wyoming, as their setter, who was set to graduate, decided to play another year.
When St. Jean began to look elsewhere, her aunt asked her to come visit and check out schools local to her area, King of Prussia, Pa. On a random hunch, St. Jean and her aunt toured West Chester University (WCU), where St. Jean found her home. “It just so happened to be the most awesome campus ever. It was 40 minutes from my aunt, and I kinda wanted to get out of town. I didn’t really plan to come out here, but I’m so glad that I did,” she reminisced with a smile.
Now a junior at WCU and the volleyball team’s starting setter, St. Jean couldn’t be happier being over 1,600 miles from home — the main reason being her friends. “I’ve met all my best friends on this team. The girls in the program are some of the best people I’ve ever met. A lot of us even live together,” St. Jean expressed. She also made sure to mention her coach, Kassie Bellaver, and acknowledged Bellaver’s actual interest in her players’ lives and well-being.
Every season, St. Jean looks forward to playing Jefferson University due to the high intensity and similar talent levels. In 2023, during her second year, WCU beat Jefferson in five sets, the most sets allowed in a game. Last Saturday, Sept. 7, St. Jean and her teammates beat them in three.
A busy season ahead, West Chester Volleyball is hoping to qualify for the PSAC Tournament after missing it last year for the first time since 2019. West Chester Volleyball’s next home event will take place on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. in Hollinger Field House.
Sophie Stair is a second-year English major with a minor in Journalism. ss1029515@wcupa.edu