On Jan. 8, Senior Clara Yu was named 2023-24 Gatorade D.C Volleyball Player of the Year. She is the first GDS athlete to win the award since Ziyah Holman in 2019.
Yu, who is committed to play volleyball at Columbia University, is a captain and setter for the varsity volleyball team. This past season, she led the Hoppers to their second consecutive District of Columbia State Athletic Association (DCSAA) championship and was named most valuable player of the tournament.
“I couldn’t have gotten the award without my teammates, my coaches and obviously all the support that the GDS community gives the volleyball program,” Yu said.
“I think GDS is all about the well-rounded student, so we have kids at GDS winning academic awards, theater awards, art awards and athletic awards,” said Athletic Director David Gillespie. “It just rounds out where GDS is being recognized.”
Yu had a successful season with 61 kills, 96 service aces, 153 digs and 575 assists. She was also named Player of the Year for the DCSAA, Independent School League (ISL) and Volleyball Magazine’s. “She is the most wonderful teammate that you will ever know. She is a joy to play with. She lifts everyone up,” junior Leia Levine said.
“The award has made me even more grateful for GDS volleyball, which I didn’t know I could be,” Yu said.
Yu told the Bit that she started playing volleyball when she was about 12 years old for fun. Yu said that during COVID she realized how much she loved the sport. “My dad and I built this wooden contraption that let me play on the wall outside, and just playing outdoors because we obviously couldn’t play indoors. I really wanted to find ways to keep playing, and that’s when I realized I had a really big passion for the sport,” said Yu.
She attended Sidwell Friends School for the first two years of high school before transferring to GDS to play volleyball for her junior and senior years. “Volleyball has become a really big part of GDS in the past few years and that’s due to all the great people at this school and all the previous teams, the previous volleyball teams of GDS,” said Yu.
Along with the award, Gatorade gave Yu a thousand-dollar grant which will go to a sports charity of her choice. She elected to donate to Special Olympics D.C., an organization dedicated to giving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities greater access to sports. Yu said that part of the reason she chose the Special Olympics was her uncle. “My uncle is intellectually disabled, and he participated in the Special Olympics events when he was a child here,” Yu said. “I think communities and programs like this are really great for people like him.”
“Their mission statement reminded me of GDS,” Yu said. “I read on the Special Olympics website that integration and social inclusion is their major thing. It reminded me a lot of how social justice, equity and inclusion is kind of the core of GDS.”