Balancing college and Division 1 athletics is a tall order

In Sonoma Valley the name Sangiacomo is well known for its century-old, award-winning winemaking and fruit-farming tradition. But 19-year-old Julia Sangiacomo, daughter of Sangiacomo Family Vineyards partners Mike and Whitney Sangiacomo, is making a name for herself in another field: the courts and sands of collegiate volleyball.

Julia Sangiacomo is a decorated Division I volleyball player at Santa Clara University. She’s also the fourth generation in her family to attend the private Jesuit college.

Sangiacomo made Second-Team All West Coast Conference last year. She made First-Team All WCC this year. And AVCA Pacific North’s All-Region Team. She’s amassed points, kills and sets that have her ranking in the NCAA.

But when talking with her, she steers the conversation away from her accomplishments. Can she just send a list of such by email, she asks.

She’s much more interested in discussing how lucky she is to still be playing the game and being part of a team. “The best part is that we’re so close,” she says of her teammates.

Having a volleyball career isn’t easy living for the Justin-Siena High School graduate. She says playing ball in college “is like having a job — a good job,” she’s quick to add.

After a full day of school, she has two-and-a-half-hour practices, an hour of weightlifting and frequent team meetings and meals.

Staying healthy is important and sports medicine specialists guide the team. As Sangiacomo says, it’s about “getting enough reps so your body can become durable and take load.”

Travel requires missing school and tape-recording classes. Game days, no matter the outcome, keep her and her teammates alternately amped and tired. Studying is incompatible with life on these days, so time management is critical.

And yet she presses on with her studies. Her academic ambitions are high. A biology major with an eye on medical school, Sangiacomo has a strong interest in public health. She believes being a doctor is a great way to help and engage with people.

She’ll leave the wine business to her brothers and cousins who plan to continue the family tradition of winemaking. “I think it’s amazing and I’m fully supportive of them,” she says.

But before she takes on her graduate school ambitions, Sangiacomo hopes to “play out her eligibility” for three more years at Santa Clara. She is near the end of her sophomore year, but she gets an additional year due to this season being shortened by COVID.

To be compliant with Santa Clara County’s COVID restrictions, the team had to isolate themselves completely for seven months — a tough task for Sangiamcomo who missed seeing her friends and family, all of whom are crucial support for her. Her parents were able to attend some away games (Brigham Young, for example) where COVID restrictions allowed for limited in-person attendance. With hugs and close contact not permitted, she would see her parents at a distance and then be off to sequester with the team.

“But it paid off,” Sangiacomo says. The strict quarantining kept the team from getting a single positive COVID test, so they were eligible to play all their games.

Still, it was difficult. Playing to empty stands wasn’t hard once the game started, but keeping outside relationships confined to a Zoom screen was. “I couldn’t have done it without them,” she says of her teammates, who provided essential support and friendship.

In fact, she attributes her successes not only to great coaching but also to teammates and on-court opponents. Sangiacomo says she sharpened her skills by playing among and against great players. From her early days playing at Absolute Volleyball Club in San Rafael — when she felt “long with no control over my limbs” (she now stands 6 feet, 5 inches) — she learned from facing off against the best.

After college, Sangiacomo’s hopes are to play in a professional European league where the sport is fairly well established. The opportunities in the U.S. aren’t there yet with only one national team.

Until then, there’s more learning for Sangiacomo. She’s “learning beach (volleyball)” right now, something she began once at Santa Clara.

The beach game, she says, requires different skills. With solo playing, and running and jumping hampered by sand, the focus goes more to strategic shot placement.

Sangiacomo plays against women that are specialized in beach volleyball, but this game has been a way for her to “get more touches” during the off-season. This year she made Second Team All WCC for Beach Volleyball, too.

If you had to sum up Sangiacomo’s path to success, it might sound something like: Keep at the game you love, enjoy teamwork, and learn from the strength of those around you.

Or as she puts it, “For me it came down to loving the sport and wanting to keep getting better.”

Seems like good advice in any arena.