Southmont volleyball coach Lauran Nichols enjoyed a four-year playing career at NCAA Division I IUPUI from 2007-10.
Now Nichols will get to watch her star player make the jump from the Mounties to the Jaguars program.
Southmont senior Sidney Veatch is headed to IUPUI to play volleyball after signing her national letter of intent on Monday.
“It means the world to me,” Veatch said. “It’s honestly a little crazy. I’ve always dreamed of playing at this level, but I wasn’t sure if I’d get there, and then when I had the opportunity I jumped on it.”
Veatch put in the time and all the hard work over the years. Playing club volleyball for Circle City, and helping Southmont to a trio of winning seasons and a sectional title in 2019.
“I think her work ethic is the thing that stands out the most,” Nichols said. “She came in and played varsity her freshman year and even the change from her freshman year to her sophomore year was huge and I think she decided early on what her future wanted to look like and she just worked at it and put in the work every day.”
In four years as a Mountie, Veatch compiled 2,393 assists and 687 digs.
This season Southmont played just 21 games due to the pandemic, and Veatch took on a new role as an outside hitter and tallied 190 kills, but that didn’t stop her from gaining more knowledge of the game.
“It helped me be in another person’s position so I knew ‘that position is maybe a little bit harder, or I need to do this when I’m setting,’” she said. “It helped me see different perspectives from other people’s point of view.”
As a setter at the next level, she hopes that willingness to always keep learning the game will pay dividends.
“I think being coachable and allowing myself to receive more feedback and instruction to improve myself even more from high-level coaches,” Veatch said of her readiness to play at the next level.
Veatch, who plans to study elementary education and hopefully one day coach volleyball, says the choice to attend IUPUI was an easy one so her family could easily attend her games. That will also mean her old coach can check up on her while visiting her old stomping grounds.
“It’s really cool,” Nichols, who thinks Veatch’s competitive nature will help her contribute immediately, said. “I want her to make her own memories and make her own way, but it is cool to kind of remember what that was like. It was one of the most fun times of my life, so I’m just excited for her to be able to experience that. And I know for me when I played it was a dream come true to be able to play at such a high level, so just knowing that she’s going to be able to experience that too is really cool.”
Veatch has heard stories about Nichol’s (a North Montgomery graduate) days as a Jaguar, and she’s watched nearby Fountain Central’s Macee Williams shine on the basketball court for IUPUI, so she knows the success is attainable.
“It means a lot to me,” Veatch said about following in her high school coach’s footsteps. “Just to know that she played there. It definitely gives me hope for my future and what I’m doing.”
Now she has her chance to pave her own path as a Jag.
