A senior on the Plant City High School volleyball team, Kellie Pernula spent much of this past week helping at the Lady Raiders’ summer volleyball camp, working with the young campers to improve their skills.
Tell me a little bit about your volleyball career.
I’ve been playing since the sixth grade, and I’ve played for Plant City for all four years. I play outside hitter, and also defense and libero. I like outside hitter best — you get to make the points, get the kills and stuff. Everyone looks at these hitters and they’re like, ‘Wow.’
You all have had the summer camp going throughout this week. How do you like working with younger kids?
It feels really good, because I love volleyball, and it’s good to share with younger kids so that they can grow up and love it, too. I think they are having fun. We have a lot of fun drills going, and stuff. They came with their basic skills, and now, they get to do advanced stuff.
Do you play any other sports?
Not competitively. I used to play tennis competitively, but I play it for fun now. I just wanted to stick to volleyball. I want to try to play in college and wanted to focus on one sport so I can do so.
So, how are your college prospects looking?
They’re good! There’s quite a few schools that are interested in me. My favorites so far are Keystone University and Jacksonville University. I’m waiting to see if I get any other offers and stuff.
What do you want to learn in college?
I want to go for biology and pre-veterinary medicine. I want to go on to vet school as a graduate. I like biology; I like any types of sciences.
What do you like better: beach volleyball or indoors?
I like the beach better. If I could figure out something where I could play beach in college, that would be pretty interesting. Jacksonville has a beach program there, and I just got an email from Florida Gulf Coast, so I hope that goes somewhere.
What are your favorite movies?
I like “King Kong.” That’s my favorite one — the one with Jack Black in it.
What about TV?
I like “Big Brother” and “The Voice.”
What are your favorite books?
I like the Hunger Games series — all three books. The third one was my favorite. And then, recently, last year in AP Language, we read “The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck. I liked it after I got through the first part of it, because the first part was boring.
What are you looking forward to about going to college?
I’ve lived in Plant City my whole life, so I’m looking forward to branching out a little bit and getting to be on my own.
So, you don’t want to stay close and go to, say, Florida Southern, just 20 minutes from here.
No, I wouldn’t prefer that. I mean, if I got a full ride, then sure. But, I would prefer to go somewhere at least a few hours away.
If you could be either rich or famous, what would you pick?
Probably rich, so I could give out some money to people who need it.
