2018 Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete Award finalist: Skyler Sieber, Seacrest Country Day

Skyler Sieber watched what others before her did. Then did them in some cases even better.

"I was blessed to see people go before me, especially in my high school career," she said. "I was able to see good leaders and bad leaders, and how they pushed themselves."

One of those role models was Seacrest volleyball player Valerie Gonzalez. Sieber saw Gonzalez make it as a Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete Award finalist. Now Sieber has joined her. 

"I watched how she was able to push herself and balance her academics and athletics," Sieber said. "I just really wanted to grow as a person and a player and a student, and be able to balance all of those things. I was blessed with the right people around me."

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Volleyball has always been Sieber's sport and she's played it practically year-round, both in school and with the Florida Gulfside Volleyball Academy. She's a libero, which means she's primarily focused on defense and keeping the ball alive for her teammates.

"Each and every time she touches the ball it is to serve another," Tyra Turner, her club coach at USA Volleyball, wrote in a recommendation letter.

"Being a libero, you kind of how to treat everyone the same," Sieber said, alluding to Turner's recommendation letter. "... That means you're very selfless. You're diving all over the place busting your body."

Sieber and her teammates got plenty out of that, though. As a freshman, Sieber stepped in at setter in the state tournament when the starting setter was injured. The Stingrays made it to the state title match before losing. Seacrest lost in the regional final the next year, then made it back to the state title match Sieber's junior year before losing again.

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Sieber's high school volleyball career ended in the district semifinals this year, but she kept her athletic career going by playing basketball, getting players to come out and working with them before and after practice.

Sieber, who will play volleyball and plans to major in exercise science at the University of Montevallo in Alabama, already had experience with the latter, doing so in volleyball, sometimes even running practice if the coach couldn't be there.

"I really had to step up this year, but it was good because I grew as a person," she said.