Matt Anderson is a seriously good player. He was on the 2008 National Championship team at Penn State, and most recently he was on the US team for the 2014 FIVB World League and World Championships, where they took home the World League championship. On those US teams, he was probably the best hitter on the team, and would have been on the all tournament team if it wasn't for Taylor Sander's impressive international debut. Anderson and Sander looked to be a strong foundation for US volleyball pin hitters for the coming years, especially looking forward to the next Olympic Games. They looked like they only needed one more strong pin hitter to make a lot of waves in international volleyball. He has been playing professionally in the Russian Volleyball Super League (the highest paying professional league), where he played on the gold medal winning team.
One of the best players in the world is stepping away from competitive volleyball because of depression. It's hard to think about as a fan. We're losing a great player who might not come back before his competitive window closes. It's also a little hard to think about with my own journey.
I get the grind of a long season wearing on you. I get to a point every season when I want it to end. I get a little tired of it all. The practices start to feel pointless, and bodies start to approach physical limits. Coaches start to juggle getting players reps to maintain and improve skills and performance, resting players to prevent injury, and keeping team psychology healthy. Team motivation is a big challenge and can even be a challenge for coaches. As a coach it can hit twice a year if you coach both boys and girls because of the opposite seasons between the two. I can only imagine getting it twice as a player where your league play ends and then international competition starts up. As a coach, the end of the season and taking a little time away helps recharge the batteries pretty fast. As an elite player I imagine it is a little more difficult to get that recharge because of the extra time needed to physically recover from the seasons, and the extra travel that would be involved.
I don't know what to think about it in terms of dealing with depression in this situation. I've been away from the game for a couple years now, and it is probably worse for me as far as depression is concerned. I want to get back in the game, but time and available jobs are a big hurdle. I can only imagine what it would be like to face a playing hiatus at that level. There is the part of me that thinks this is a bad idea, and there is that other part of me that thinks this is the best thing for him. I hope Matt can get this all figured out. Hopefully this isn't something that will sideline him for the rest of time he could play competitively. I know some of that is the selfish fan that wants to see the American flag being raised at the Olympic medals ceremony. I do think the bigger part of that is the player and coach in me that can see myself in him, even if I'm not that tall or that talented. I don't want to see someone miss out on some once in a lifetime possibilities in a sport I love and imagine he loves as much as I do.
Good luck with your journey, Matt. Whether you ever play the game competitively again, I hope the best for you.
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