By Vanessa Jasiewicz

ORLANDO, Fla. – Brandie Sanders, Club Director of Central Arkansas Volleyball Club, has had a passion for volleyball pretty much her whole life, starting at 10 years old. She turned that passion into a life-long career, by starting her own volleyball club in 2015. However, the road for Sanders has been nothing short of an uphill battle. 

Brandie's life changed in the summer of 2014.

“I just went in for a yearly checkup, and came back with bad test results. They called me back in decently quick which means to me that something wasn’t correct. So, they ran more tests, came back, and my doctor said I had cervical cancer and it was pretty widespread,” Brandie said.

Brandie had surgery in the fall of 2014. 

“He [the doctor] realized it was more invasive than what he thought, so he said I needed to go see another doctor besides my regular OBGYN. So, I went to the University of Arkansas Medical Science School. It’s very highly known for its cancer oncology department,” she said.

Brandie explained that she felt ‘lucky’ as the doctors “were pretty confident that they would be able to get it out, no chemo, no radiation would be needed.”

Brandie then had a second surgery – while she was still coaching. After that, she had to go back every six months to get checked out.

“I found out throughout that it’s going to be really hard to have children which is kind of hard to take,” she said.

Despite hearing this news, Brandie stayed busy and decided to start her own volleyball club in 2015: Central Arkansas Volleyball Club.
 

One thing that really helped Brandie get through that difficult time was her support system. Her family, players, and community were all there to cheer her on.

“Having all those people support me, on the court, off the court. We did wristbands, the girls wore teal on their shoes. Knowing you have that many people praying for you, supporting you, it just made it that much easier,” Brandie said.
 

This year at the AAU Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championships, each player on the Central Arkansas Volleyball team wore a teal ribbon on their jerseys in support of Brandie and to bring awareness to cervical cancer research. 

Brandie now strives to be a role model for her players.

“If they can see somebody who went through a lot, who remained positive, then it’s going to be good for them to have somebody like that, and that’s my goal for them,” she said. “I love the game and I just want my ‘kids’ to love it too.”