Finding inner peace on Olympic journey
Hancock says pandemic changed her life for better
Micha Hancock was talking about how the pandemic had changed her life for the better, forcing her to stop playing professional volleyball overseas and giving her time to consider who she was and what she wanted, when an embodiment of that transformation crawled towards her.
Her cat, Klaus, wanted to snuggle. For years, she had wanted a pet, but with early practices and late games and long trips, she just didn’t think it was possible. But the pandemic pause made the former all-stater from Edmond Memorial High School realize something.
“I’m not going to wait to live my life,” she said.
Hancock believes she is in a much better place now — and it has helped her get to the best place for a volleyball player.
The Olympics.
Hancock is a setter for Team USA, believed to be the first born-and-bred volleyball player from Oklahoma to make the Games. She has a chance to bring home a medal, maybe even a gold, but even as pool play begins this weekend in
Tokyo, Hancock is certain she wouldn't be in this position if not for the pandemic.
Her evolution is a silver lining in a dark time.
“I definitely think I tuned into myself over the course of the pandemic, and that allowed me some space in my personal life,” said Hancock, whose first name is pronounced Mike-uh. “It helped me just be the player that I've been wanting to be.”
Make no mistake: Hancock has long been an outstanding player.
In high school, she led Edmond Memorial to three Class 6A state championships, capping her career with backto-back crowns in 2009 and 2010. She earned all-state honors. All-American ones, too.
More success followed as a collegiate at Penn State. Two national titles. Three first-team All-American honors.
She was national player of the year as a senior in 2014.
Since then, she has played professionally in Italy, Puerto Rico and Poland, most recently spending three years with Igor Gorgonzola Novara in Italy's top league and one of Europe's best, Serie A1.
Hancock became a member of the U.S. National Team in 2016, but in the original build up to these Olympics — before the pandemic forced their postponement — Hancock found herself left off the roster for a couple competitions.
She worried what that meant for her Olympic aspirations, but she didn't sulk.
“I had time to go overseas and kind of get my crap together,” she said. Then, COVID hit.
The Italian pro leagues shut down in March 2020 like most of the sports world, and Hancock returned to the United States.
She worked out at home as much as possible.
“My dad made me a handmade (plyometric) box, and I was just doing a ton of jumps,” she said of her primary workout. “Just jumping so much that if I were having a game, I would get those same jumps.”
But as much as anything, the time in the States and away from volleyball gave Hancock time to think.
“When you're a professional, you don't really have time to address a lot of things that are going on,” she said. “That's a huge thing that the pandemic brought up anyways — mental health in general — but when you're always traveling, you're always living in a suitcase, you're not thinking about, ‘Hey, how are things at home?' or ‘How is my life outside of volleyball?'
“I was able to kind of center myself.” Hancock and the rest of the players on the national team also used the time away from the court to build connections. Even though they couldn't be together physically, they could still communicate.
Bonds were built.
“It's really helped us as a team just be there for each other,” Hancock said, “and obviously all the better in highpressure situations.”
In May, USA Volleyball invited Hancock and 17 others to compete at the FIVB Volleyball Nations League. The nearly month-long tournament would serve as a pseudo selection camp for the Olympic team.
A few days before the end of the tournament, Hancock got word she was Olympic bound.
She felt relief and joy in accomplishing something she worked her whole life to do.
“But it's like, ‘OK, let's get to work,'” she said. “It was a quick turnaround.”
Over the past year, Hancock, who is 28 and among the team's older players, tried to take more of a leadership role than she had before. As a setter, her position lends itself to such things. But she feels like she's sharpened those skills for a couple of reasons.
First, Hancock gives a lot of credit to Sue Enquist, the former UCLA softball coach. She has been working with USA Volleyball as a consultant, and Hancock has leaned into Enquist's expertise, asking for tips and seeking out suggestions.
But Hancock knows her self-care during the pandemic has been crucial, too. Being a leader is in her personality, and now, she feels more comfortable in her own skin.
“I just feel so much better in that (leadership) role now because I had time to say, ‘OK, I can be more vocal here. I can do this better here. I can get these girls together and bringing engagement to practice before sh*t hits the fan because inevitably, it will,'” she said.
She believes she can be real with her teammates because she feels more authentic with herself.
She knows how awful the pandemic was for so many. Lives were lost. Dreams were upended.
But when she realized the pandemic was her chance to fix what was wrong and heal what was broken, she embraced that opportunity.
“It was the perfect storm for me,” she said. “It's helped me become the player and the person I want to be.” An Olympian and a team leader, yes. But a cat owner, too.
That might seem small compared to the volleyball stuff, but for Hancock, it is symbolic of the significant steps she's taken in the past year, the willingness to listen to her heart and look after herself.
Klaus, by the way, is staying with Hancock's family in the United States while she is in Japan.
His name means “people of victory.” Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/ JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.