As the 2015-16 school year draws to a close, the Stanford men’s volleyball team prepares to salute four of its finest. After a long and successful season, the four graduating seniors are enjoying their last weeks of school.

Conrad Kaminski, Madison Hayden, James Shaw and Alex Stephanus have officially seen their last season as members of the Stanford volleyball team, but although their Stanford careers are over, three of the four plan to continue into professional leagues.

Madison Hayden

Madison Hayden, Stanford’s star outside hitter, played four years of great volleyball on The Farm. In just his freshman year, Madison was off the bench in 20 games, often being put in as a serve specialist.

By his sophomore year, Hayden was playing regularly and even earned himself a then-career-high 6 kills at the end of the season against UC San Diego. But all of this was only warmup.

As a junior, Hayden played as the starting outside hitter, and he did not disappoint. He was top 10 in the MPSF conference for both points for set and kills per set, often leading the team in the latter category. Despite a rough season for the entire team, Hayden’s tally was impressive.

In his fourth and final year, Hayden was named All-MPSF second team after a stellar season. The outside hitter was imperative in important wins throughout the season, posting highs in kills, digs, blocks and aces.

Now, Hayden is looking to use the strengths he developed in college to guide him to a professional career in Europe.

“I’m talking to teams and agents right now and sort of finalizing who I’m going to sign with,” Hayden said. “It looks like it’ll probably be somewhere in France or the Netherlands.”

Before narrowing it down to a couple of teams in these countries, Hayden, like the other seniors, had to go through a tough process of finding an agent the second the collegiate season ended.

This process consisted of talking to several agents, “mostly through Facebook,” each of which promised to get him a spot on a strong team. Positions offered included teams in Austria, Poland and Korea.

According to Hayden, the most stressful part was determining the legitimacy of the agents, since he did not know most of them personally. The easier part was talking to individual coaches looking to sign him.

If Hayden didn’t end up playing abroad, he would have most likely started a job at a consulting firm in San Francisco that he had set up as a backup plan. But Hayden knew that his dream was to become a professional volleyball player, and he’s on the right track to getting there.

“When I came to Stanford, I knew a few older guys who were playing abroad that really enjoyed it. It was always a goal to go play abroad and just see how I stacked up against the best volleyball players,” he said.

One of things that Hayden is most excited for is the prospect of living in Europe. “My whole life has basically just been in California. On top of volleyball, I’ve heard that you find out so many things about yourself by living out of the country.”

James Shaw

James Shaw has been on the Stanford volleyball court since childhood, when his dad was head coach of first the women’s team and then the men’s. Growing up, volleyball was a big part of his life, and it will continue to be so as he too takes on a professional career in Europe.

Shaw knew from his early days that he wanted to take on the big leagues. In 2013, he was the first freshman to start at setter since 2007, earning high praise and playing great matches. The next year, he kept himself in the top five on several charts within both the MPSF and the NCAA.

The following summer, the young player began training with the U.S. national team in Anaheim, which he has since done twice more and plans to do for many summers to come.

After firmly establishing himself in the collegiate world, Shaw unfortunately had to sit out a big part of his junior year due to an injury, but this only fueled him to come back stronger his senior year. In his final year, the setter was third in the NCAA for attacks and 12th in assists per set, earning MPSF Player of the Year, making the All-MPSF First Team and earning several other honors.

Now, Shaw, who has officially signed with “one of the best [agents] in the world,” will most likely end up in Italy, Poland or France.

In the meantime, Shaw is focused on his training in Anaheim, which has started and will continue throughout the summer.

“I’m finally getting healthy for the first time, so things are really looking up. I would obviously love to get on the court this summer with the team and represent America, but the setting position is full of guys who are talented and have been in the gym longer than I,” Shaw said. “The coaches know, though, that I’m in it for the long haul, so I have no worries or stresses about making an immediate impact.”

Shaw’s hope is to play in Europe during the regular season and return home to play for the U.S. national team during summers “for the next 10 to 15 years.”

Despite his bright future in the outside world, Shaw expressed his appreciation for “all the hard work on everyone’s part in helping us seniors become the best men we could possibly be.”

There is a fair chance he will be back in some capacity for the Cardinal, possibly following in his father’s footsteps as a coach for the program.

Conrad Kaminski

The last senior who will be putting his talents to the test is middle Conrad Kaminski. Unlike Hayden and Shaw, playing professional volleyball was not on Kaminski’s radar until relatively recently.

“When I was a freshman, I wanted to play volleyball and see how good I could get — I didn’t expect to even really be on the floor,” Kaminski said. “Volleyball was sort of my ticket into school. I was going to get an engineering degree from a premier institution and be able to go and follow that career.”

Kaminski’s career played out much differently than he thought it would. His freshman year, he started twice, appearing in 10 total matches. By his sophomore year, he had become the team’s starting middle blocker, making new records in Stanford volleyball history and being placed on the All-America Second Team.

During his junior year, Kaminski was the only player on the Stanford team to start every single match, once again earning high honors in the collegiate world. By his senior season, he tallied a career-high 15 kills in a game and was consistently notching blocks to help his team win. He finished the season with 14 individual blocks and an astounding 121 block assists, blowing away competition and placing first in the NCAA in blocks per set.

Most likely, Kaminski will end up at a club based in Ravenna, Italy, which is currently in the highest Italian league: Lega Pallavolo Serie A.

“The Italian league is one of the most competitive leagues in the world. I’ve heard people show up, and it’s competitive, and there’s a good culture around it. Every time I hear something like that, it’s only positively reinforcing this decision,” he said with a smile.

Besides the excitement of playing in a professional league this upcoming year, Kaminski admitted how sad it was to be done with Stanford volleyball.

Having just come from an intense, but lonely, workout, he said, “Even now, just seeing guys in the locker room, I’m going to work out on my own, and I’m not with the guys as they’re doing their team activities. I’m an old guy now.”

 

Contact Laura Sussman at laura111 ‘at’ stanford.edu.