The Resiliency of Jaclyn Childress

Jaclyn Childress gets ready to bump a volleyball coming her way (Photo: WFU Athletic Communications)

If you had asked Jaclyn Childress what her collegiate volleyball career would look like when she was in high school, the script would be very different from the story. With her grandpa and dad both attending Virginia Tech and family on the east coast, the ACC was her conference of choice. Hailing from a huge high school in Texas, though, a smaller school like Wake Forest was not originally in the consideration set. 

To look at the story holistically, we have to look at all of the nuances of Jaclyn’s path. From randomly stumbling upon Wake Forest to experiencing three coaching changes from her commitment to dealing with copious injuries and now COVID, her time as a Demon Deacon has been anything but conventional. It seems fitting that her journey to Wake was unconventional as well.

“I was supposed to visit William & Mary and it fell through, but I happened to be at my grandma’s house which is an hour and a half from Wake,” Childress said. “My dad said ‘why don’t we go visit Wake?’ and I had no idea what it was. We showed up and the size of the campus was great, it was beautiful and the business school had just opened, which shows you how long ago that was.”

So, at the ripe age of 15, Jaclyn decided she wanted to be a Demon Deacon and that was that. However, her story was just beginning and the first bump in the road happened when the Wake Forest coach that she had committed to left Wake. She bled black and gold by that point, though, and changing her collegiate plans never even crossed her mind. When approached with information from various coaches at a tournament shortly after the Wake coach left, she was perplexed at why they would even be asking.

Her commitment to her pledge to join the Deacons makes her commitment to recovering from the injuries she has faced no surprise. Injuries are common in any sport, so having two minor injuries throughout high school, in her freshman and junior years respectively, wasn’t anything particularly scary. Flash forward to 2020, as Jaclyn enters her redshirt junior year on the team and has dealt with more procedures and rehab than some athletes deal with in their whole playing career. Even worse, they started right at the start of her time as a Deac. 

“I got here as a freshman and three days into preseason, there goes the same ankle [as junior year],” Childress said. “Luckily, I wore ankle braces this time, so it was not that bad. I was only out like three weeks, but it was literally the third day of preseason.”

This unfortunate injury to start out her college career could have brought her down or discouraged her. Per usual she fought through and she continued to fight through everything that was thrown her way. Out her entire sophomore year with injuries and now dealing with a COVID impacted season, her infectious smile and bubbly personality shine through. 

Now, Childress and the team face weekly testing, playing in masks and an abbreviated schedule for what was supposed to be the first year of true team cohesion. Like so many times before, she will draw on her strength and positivity to look at the best in the situation. Coaching changes and injuries haven’t slowed her down before, so who is to say a COVID-impacted season will bring her down now?