Salmon embarks on once in a lifetime opportunity

A senior of many talents, Elizabeth Salmon officially signed the dotted line to become a college athlete as she now looks to extend her volleyball career at St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York.

Despite the challenges of transitioning from high school to college, Salmon said she is ready for the of the opportunity.

“It feels really great,” Salmon said. “I feel ready to play for St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, N.Y. I’m not nervous at all because the hard work has paid off. I dedicated and put in a lot of time and sacrifice into this. I’m proud of myself and I plan on achieving a lot more.”

Head Coach Megann Ollet is more than happy for her senior volleyball player, who helped lead the Rattlers to the playoffs last season.

“I’m extremely proud of her,” Ollet said. “Liz has worked so hard to make this happen. Her having to do this on her own shows her true dedication. She is a versatile player so the sky’s the limit for her. Her work ethic is second to none.”

Despite the distance, Salmon said she had no problems signing with the Spartans as the college is exactly what the senior was looking for.

“I have family up there,” Salmon said. “So this is a good opportunity to bond with my people. I did a lot of research and I found out they have the major I want that ties into the medical field. This will serve me a lot of purpose along with a long term goal of playing for a national team. So this will be my second stepping stone up to that.”

But despite Salmon’s accomplishments on the court, her accomplishments off the court are second to none having joined the San Marcos JRTOC as well working on her certification in EMS and doing her clinical a few months ago while assisting nurses in a nearby hospital with patients.

Despite having a hectic schedule, Salmon is pro at juggling multiple things at once.

“I had practice with my mom about time management,” Salmon said. “It is about finding all the right elements to figure out which one is more important and what to prioritize with deadlines coming up and I didn’t have a lot of time. So it took a lot of practice.”

In fact, Salmon is about to participate in a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“I was elected to be a delegate for the Congress of Future Medical Leaders,” Salmon said. “We did a webinar and all these doctors, surgeons, and medical leaders shared their stories. They came together to put together a group to go over to Vietnam as well as Tanzania, Japan. But I wanted to go over to Vietnam because they have orthopedic surgeons there which is what I want to pursue.”

There Salmon will be shadowing and observing surgeries taking place in the operating room, with the surgeon explaining the procedure as it’s being performed.

She will also be in the gross anatomy lab with an anatomy professor, learning about the anatomy and proper dissection of human cadavers and practicing dissection techniques on animal parts while also shadow physicians in the Emergency Room, clinics, and wards in over a dozen areas of specialty (pediatrics, oncology, surgery, orthopedics, OB/GYN, and more).

For Salmon, her ultimate goal is to become an orthopedic surgeon which she realized during the sessions with the Congress of Future Medical Leaders.

“During the webinar, they had heart surgeries and plastic surgeries,” Salmon said. “Then I saw this particular surgery in Knee Replacement Surgery. I really liked it so I asked a lot of questions and did my own research. Athletes out there are struggling with bone deficiency, or fractures that occur when playing. I want to help them get back to the sport they love at least or make them feel a little bit more happy.”

With Salmon’s goal of being a orthopedic surgeon as well as being a star volleyball player, “She is a person that just knows how to balance all of those things,” Ollet said. “She knows what she wants and goes after it.”

cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc