Angela Knopf was born on April 27th, 1980 in Portland, Oregon. Her parents Greg and Bonnie still live on the farm where she grew up located near the Columbia Gorge. Her mom, Bonnie is a talented and amazing worship leader in church as well as individual artist. You can see her on http://www.bonnieknopf.com/. Her father, Greg, is in Angela's opinion the best doctor in the world and has helped keep Angela healthy during her career. His practice is located in Troutdale, Oregon (Gresham Family Medical) and is well loved, especially by Angela.
The talent doesn't stop there, with Angela's two brothers. Brent, her older brother is in an national up-and-coming band and the top band in Portland, Oregon called "Menomena" (http://www.menomena.com/) and has spent a great deal of time supporting and encouraging Angela to pursue her dreams. He currently lives in Portland when he's not touring all over the world. Angela's younger brother, Eric, the family entrepreneur owns his own company called Vision Launchers (http://www.visionlaunchers.com/) and lives in Sacramento with his wife Camille, dog coco and cat Ringcon. His company is responsible for this outstanding website.
Angela attended Sam Barlow High School in Gresham, Oregon where she was a dominating three-sport athlete. She played Volleyball, basketball and tennis on varsity all 4 years as well as played club volleyball for Cascade Juniors and Nike Northwest Juniors. (http://www.nike-nw-jrs.com/) Knowing Angela's love for Nike clothes and shoes she was spoiled here, especially by loved director, Jim Hartner. But really it was in high school, that the love of sports, especially volleyball grew into a huge passion. She was also blessed by talented coaches who invested in her and took time to really see her succeed. Her high school volleyball team won 2 state championship under the amazing direction of Joe Houck, her beloved coach. He now coaches at University of Portland. (http://www.uofp/vb) To cap off her high school years, her Nike club team concluded with a 2nd place finish at the Davis Festival. (club nationals)
Colorado State University would be the place Angela would choose to continue her education and she was awarded a full scholarship to play under coach Tom Hilbert in Fort Collins, Colorado. What she didn't know is that Fort Collins would soon become her new home filled with amazing life long friends and teammates and the best fans in the country. While at Colorado State, Angela helped the Rams reach as high as 3rd place in the national rankings, the highest the program had ever achieved. They had monumental wins over #1 UCLA at the NCWAA classic and well as 3 sweet sixteen finishes. She received many honors such as two time first team division I All-American, 2-time Conference MVP, and Colorado Volleyball Sportswoman of the year. She left her mark on the record books in several categories, which still stand today and even left her senior year by holding the nations Division 1 top hitting percentage at .386. Not only was Angela a standout on the court but in the classroom as well. She was a mathematics major with an emphasis in secondary education and graduated with a 3.73 grade average as well as being honored twice to the Academic All-American team her junior and senior year.
Shortly after, Angela was presented with the opportunity to play with the USA volleyball Olympic national training team in January 2002 and quickly accepted this amazing opportunity. It was quite the Christmas gift and Angela left school to begin her new experience at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs which luckily wasn't too far from home. There she met many talented and gifted athletes and worked under the coaching of Toshi Yoshida. She was used to playing the middle blocker position her entire career but was too short for the international competition so the team trained her as an outside hitter. In March of 2002, the team did a national tour and competed against the Chinese national team at four different locations in the Midwest. She started as the outside hitter and learned a lot, but perhaps the greatest lesson Angela learned was about injuries. While training she found out she had 3 bleeding ulcers and ended up leaving the team in late may to get healthy again. Overall the experience was so valuable to Angela's journey in volleyball and was grateful for the opportunity to learn more.
That next summer, although Angela never knew it, would be one of the most crucial summers of her "beach" career. Once healthy again, Angela and her teammate from CSU, Krista Swartzendruber, decided to play the Motherlode Beach Championships (http://www.motherlodevolleyball.com/ ) in Aspen, Colorado. When they arrived they noticed they weren't even on the bracket and were seeded dead last. The pair had never played sand volleyball before but took one game at a time with great chemistry and an attitude of enjoyment and found themselves in the finals!! The finals proved to be tough but ironically Angela and Krista pulled it off, they came out as Champions. The Next year they went back to defend their title and won again, except this time they were on the bracket! J So this little success really caught the attention of Angela who was enjoying the new aspects of this beach volleyball game. It was more compatible to her "style" of game, since at 6'0 in college she was short in comparison to most middles and often mistaken for the setter. Great jumping ability and superior athletic talent was never Angela's strength, but what God did gift her with was a rare talent of vision and a knack for learning and game and strategizing. So with the success at the Motherlode, Angela started to think about the possibility of playing more sand volleyball.
A few months after Angela was surprised to learn that she was awarded the female athlete of the year for CSU as well as the Fum McGraw award which honors the top student in the entire athletic department who exemplified commitment to academics, athletics, character and community service. Not only those prestigious awards were handed her way, but she was also named Colorado's NCAA woman of the Year among all female athletes in the country (www.ncaa.org/releases/awards/2002091301aw.htm) and a top 10 finalist nationally. She was flown to Indiana for a big ceremony in which they honored the top 10 finalists.
After all those incredible honors, Angela knew she wanted to go back to finish school which she did and graduated with a degree in mathematics followed by landing an amazing job at Fossil Ridge High School, a brand new high school where she would be not only a math teacher full-time, but the head H.S. volleyball coach. There she had an amazing group of students and wonderful athletes who she adored enormously.
However, it wasn't until that next Spring when Angela competed in the Adult indoor Volleyball Nationals in Denver Colorado with her team "Team Able" in May of 2005 that she realized that playing was still in her blood. The team which actually featured Angela's CSU setter Allison Peckham-Newton and teammate/beach partner Krista Swartzendruber won the entire tournament and Angela was awarded tournament MVP. After this Angela realized that moving to California might be her next chapter in life. So she prayed about it endlessly and talked with her family and friends and they all said "go for it" Angela recalls the reoccurring statements, "Go! Your single and you can teach the rest of your life." "Your young and can follow your dreams, teaching will always be there for you to go back to." So Angela packed her bags, left her amazing home of Fort Collins and said goodbye to her fantastic and talented students and headed to the land of sun and beach volleyball.
After a year in California, Angela realized that the move was one of the most difficult things she had done in her life. She left her friends, family and student to pursue her dream. She encounter a lot of health issues for the 1st six months and wasn't able to even start playing volleyball till late march, when the season already started. But Angela was able to still play in 8 AVP events (www.avp.com) and ended up making the "main draw" in two events where she played the #2 team in the world Elaine Youngs and Rachel Wacholder. Making the "main draw" which is composed of the top 24 teams in the counrty was a huge goal and for Angela and to be able to do that twice in her 1st year playing gave her hope and a taste of what she has been dreaming of. That same season, Angela and her partner, Carrie Wright also played in 2 EVP events (http://www.evptour.com/ ) and won both those tournaments as well and winning her 3rd Championship title in Aspen at the Motherlode Tournament. Angela and Carrie played so well together both valuing positive and encouraging partnerships. Angela was able to get her feet wet and gain a little understanding of what this professional volleyball tour was really like. She ended the season hungry, dedicated and ready to work hard all off-season to keep improving.
Another surprise and honor came Angela's way on November 3, 2006. She was inducted to Colorado State's Hall of Fame. Angela, along with her whole family, flew into Colorado and had a wonderful time at her induction ceremony even though Angela's speech was a big too long thanking everyone from her childhood friend to her teammates. Angela considers that weekend "one of the best in my life and the greatest honor of my career! To get this award and for it to come from CSU, a place I call home is so humbling and I am grateful for the opportunity to be placed with such great athletes at CSU."
After the induction Angela began working hard for the 2007 AVP season. She was getting coaching, and meeting more and more people in the volleyball world. The 2007 AVP schedule was released in January 28th, 2007 and the anticipation was overwhelming. Angela was ready for the upcoming season, for it would be the first season she would be able to play in all the events. On February 28th, 2007, Angela left for practice at 7:00am to start practice at 8:00am. Around 8:15am, Angela went for a ball and due to the very cold and windy conditions, the ball took a swerve and "jammed" Angela's hand, or so she thought. Although painful, Angela pushed through the pain and continued to practice for another hour and half until the pain was too unbearable. She left practice to go home and ice her "jammed" finger. Around 7:30pm the pain was getting worse, until one of Angela's students she tutors told her to go to the emergency room! Angela has jammed many fingers in her playing days but none had hurt the way this one did. So she found a hospital an hour away and drove herself there to wait in the emergency room for 4 hours before being seen by the doctor to get an x-ray. Finally around 2:30am Angela left the hospital after learning her hand was broken, while looking down to her arm in a cast wondering what was to happen to her AVP season. Ironically it takes 6 weeks for a broken bone to heal and exactly 6 weeks from that day, was the 1st AVP tournament. The next 6 weeks were some of the toughest times for Angela, knowing she would lose her partner, lose all her training she worked for in the off-season, and would be behind once she was able to play again. She even contemplated quitting and moving back to Colorado to teach again, but her heart wouldn't let her go. The passion and dream was still alive and so she persevered. With rehab, Angela was able to get out of her cast in 4 ½ weeks, and started to get back in shape trying to play in the 4th tournament of the year. A couple weeks later, her old college CSU teammate Catie Vagneur-Mintz was looking for a new partner and the old CSU duo decided to team up.
In just their 2nd tournament they made the "main draw" (top 24 teams) and it seemed as if they kept growing and improving from there. Each tournament was a blessing for Angela and she really started to love playing and enjoying this journey especially since it was so discouraging for her with her broken hand. Tournament after tournament Angela and Catie were finishing 17th place, the best both had ever done, until the season ended with a total of seven 17th place finishes! The pair did so well towards the end of the season and had earned enough points to not have to qualify in 3 of the last events. Angela really enjoyed playing with Catie and was so thankful that she persevered through her broken hand, for God really blessed her with her partner Catie and the experiences she was able to have on tour. However, one of the greatest highlights for Angela in the 2007 season was meeting new people and enjoying time with all those who have supported her so much. Angela knows that without her family and network of friends encouraging her, she might not have been able to make it through the 2007 season, but she did and feels so blessed by all the words, and efforts of those around her. "This 2007 season began so hard, but looking back on it now, God truly blessed me and I am thankful for the season we had, the people I met, and especially for all of my family and friends who were there for me along the way!"
Coming off a breakthrough 2007 season, Angela was ready to make some real strides in the 2008 season. She however didn't realize that would involve 5 partner switches and beating one of the most decorated beach volleyball players.
Due to the late release of the 2008 AVP schedule (2 weeks prior to the first event) it was then when Angela found her first partner for the 2008 season, Saralyn Smith.
Their opening debut in Miami was a personal best for Angela with a 13th place finish and an excitement for the upcoming season. It also was her entrance into a new role, "the defender," meaning she would play all the defense for the team.
Saralyn and Angela had immediate chemistry and each tournament they found themselves battling. Over the next 3 tournaments (Dallas, Huntington Beach and Charleston) they finished with another 13th and two 17th. They also played the #2 USA Olympian team of Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh twice.
Although Saralyn and Angela were doing well, they weren't improving each week and Angela received an invitation to play with a highly ranked player, Lauren Fendrick, in the following event in Kentucky. As hard as it was leaving her wonderful friend and partner Saralyn, she knew that this was an open door and a great opportunity not to pass up.
With only one practice, Lauren and Angela headed to Louville, Kentucky for their partnership debut. They barely won the first match together winning the third game 16-14. They would win their next match as well 16-14 in the third again to give Angela her first 9th place finish! Shortly after that win, they found their next opponent to be the #4 team of Holly McPeak (legendary player, 2nd winningest player ever on the AVP) and her partner Angie Akers. With nothing to lose, Angela played the best defense of her life and Lauren and Angela won the first game 21-18. Unfortunately, winning only one game isn't enough to win the match and they would have to win both. With Angela's defense and Lauren's blocking, they continued to play well and beat #4 team in the second 21-19 to take a 7th place!! "I think I almost did a cartwheel. That definitely was the best moment since starting to play professionally. I grew up watching and admiring Holly, so to beat her and play in such a competitive and fun game was the highlight of my beach career," said Angela after the match. Floating on cloud 9 didn't last too long as they had to play another game against the Lindquist sisters for a 5th place, and unfortunately didn't pull that one off too!
As great at a 7th place finish was, the partnership didn't last and Lauren decided to move on to a different partner a couple hours after the win which would set up Angela's third partner of the season, Stacey. She only lasted for one tournament in Atlanta before Angela picked up her 4th partner, Sarah Straton. Ironically Sarah and Angela beat Stacey and her new partner the in that very next tournament for a 13th place finish!! Over the next 3 tournaments Sarah and Angela finished with two 13th and a 17th.
Perhaps the two most anticipated stops on the 2008 tour for Angela was back in her beloved Colorado and to Chicago. Even though the CO tournament would be on the campus of University of Colorado, (huge rivals to her Rams at CSU) she was so happy to be back on CO soil. "I was so excited for this event the entire season and once I got there I was happy to be "home."
The next weekend was in Chicago, "perhaps my favorite stop on the tour. We get to stay at Chateau Chin (my friend, Peter's place) and he is pretty much a professional cook, so it's the best food I eat all year!!" Even though the off court activities were memorable, the chemistry between Angela and Sarah was starting to decline and they decided to part ways to set up Angela's final and 5th partner, Brooke Langston.
Without a practice they headed to New York where they shocked the #9 team beating them in two games 21-17, 21-18 and finished with a 13th in their debut together. The final two tournaments of the season the pair finished with 17th place finishes but had great chemistry and a potential to really improve for the 2009 season.
After the 2008 season Angela summed up her experience, "It's easy to look at a season and base its success on the wins and losses and even though I had my share of losses and wins, I felt as a whole I was a huge winner. I can tell you stories of great adventure and experiences with old and new friends. I can tell you my heart has been touched in a way that I am unable to express in words. I have never been so encouraged, supported and loved by people who have been following me along my dream process. I am constantly in amazement when I experience the generosity of people like the Kranske's, Rayno (at the Egg and I), Theiszens, Abby (Barefoot), Peter (my wonderful agent) amongst so many more who I could fill 5 pages with. The sense of empowerment that goes along with people's support is indescribable. I also know the backbone of my success and survival is solely due to my family. They live and die on each point with me and I am so thankful they are along the journey with me."
Angela's favorite addition to the 2008 season was her fan club created by her brother, Eric. " My fan club has also been a blessing in my life. Many of you have taken the time to send me a note of encouragement or congrats along the way during the long season, and I have kept every one of them. I firmly believe that God has placed you all in my life for a reason, and know you have been there for me during those tough moments in pursuing my dream. Thank you!"
With the 2009 season around the corner, Angela is looking to make huge strides this year and has already committed to working with great coaches to make 2009 the best it can be.
Quick and Fun Facts:
Date of Birth - April 27, 1980 in Portland, Oregon
Profession - Professional athlete (beach volleyball), licensed high school math teacher and tutor, Volleyball coach
Height - 6'0
Age: 29
Education: Colorado State University- Fort Collins, CO USA
Bachelor of science - mathematics with concentration in secondary education G.P.A of 3.74. Two-time academic All-American
FAVORITES!!!
Food: strawberries (especially chocolate covered ones...like the ones my grandma makes and her banana bread!) YUM!!!
Number: Of course the number 5!! (without hesitation)
Dessert: Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookies and again the chocolate covered strawberries
Animal: Definitely horses
Movies: "While you were sleeping" and most chick flicks and of course the classic Star Wars!
TV Shows: The Simpson's (old one's) and American Idol (I live vicariously through the contestants.)
Car: Convertible mustang, or jeep wrangler (red)
Actors: Sandra Bullock and hot boys, Mathew McConeagh and Benjamin Bratt
Musicians or Bands: My mom's CD (Bonnie Knopf), brother's band (menomena) and others like the fray and Jason mraz.
Color: Red
Athlete: Jenny Johnson Jordan (amazing AVP player and woman of God. Great character and lots of talent
Books: Anything by John Wooden, Erwin McManus (my pastor) right now but old favorite is Journey of Desire by John Eldredge
Vacation Spot: Cabo san Lucas, Mexico (beautiful)
Restaurants: Cheesecake factory!! (actually love the strawberry lemonades the most and chili's)
Season: Summer, love warm weather
Sports Teams: Colorado State
Hobbies: basketball, tennis, working with students and recently salsa dancing!
Heroes: My parents for so many reasons!!
Fun fact some people might not know: I love HATS!! I have 32 of them!
