At George Mason High School, our principal, Mr. Matt Hills, set a standard in the school for all students to excel in mind, body, and character. In this series, The Lasso looks for students who excel in these different yet equally valuable areas. This week, The Lasso digs deeper with senior Shaun Rodock, on how she excels in body with her volleyball achievements and training for the Naval Academy.

Training for anything takes an enormous amount of persistence and hard work. Pushing a body to it’s absolute limit to become better and stronger is something that only few can successfully do.

Senior Shaun Rodock showed her persistence in training for the George Mason Volleyball Team and for the Naval Academy. Rodock earned first team All-District and first team All-Conference. These awards go to the best players of each position in the whole district or conference.

“Out of all the district teams, (the All-District and All-Conference athletes) form something like a super team, that has the best middle, the best outside hitter, the best setter, and the best libero in the district, and that is what being on a [district, conference, etc.,] team is,” Rodock explained.

While playing and practicing hard for the volleyball team, Rodock was also training for the fitness portion of her application to the United States Naval Academy. This hour-long test contains a mile run, two minutes of push ups, two minutes of sit ups, two minutes of pull ups, shuttle run, and a basketball throw.

Each two-minute test has a maximum number that the proctor can report to the Naval Academy. Rodock maxed out on the pull ups, which was a huge accomplishment for her due to the fact she could not do a single one when she started training.

“I searched online for a while and I found a pull up workout by a marine based in Quantico, Virginia… I started doing the workout and I started making progress and by the end of the week I could do one pull up and so I kept doing the workout… I ended maxing out the pull ups and I did seven, it was a great feeling,” Rodock said.

This beginning of the school year has been extremely successful for Rodock. Between gaining her letter of reassurance from the Naval Academy after her fitness tests and earning her medals for All-District and All-Conference, Rodock’s hard work and training has paid off.