Reyna Ramirez
Stuyvesant (’06)
Dartmouth (’10)
“I like the fact that I have the freedom to take seven months off,” said Dartmouth University sophomore Reyna Ramirez, who has not been to a class in four months, and doesn’t plan to for another three.
She’s not cutting, though. Dartmouth allows students to take two consecutive quarters off. Currently, she is working as a receptionist in a gynecologist’s office in Stamford, Connecticut, reading law books and playing in an adult volleyball league.
Ramirez was on the Vixens, the girls’ varsity volleyball team, for all of her four years at Stuyvesant, a rare feat. Her teammates remember her for her talent, dedication and outgoing personality.
“She was really talented and extremely free-spirited. She’s hilarious, and she definitely brought that on the court,” senior and Vixens co-captain Laura Genes said.
“It was stressful,” said Ramirez, recalling the near-daily practices after school and the occasional ones at 6:30 a.m. “But I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. It was my greatest experience at Stuy. I don’t remember who my ninth grade math teacher was, but I’ll never forget [Vixens coach Phil] Fisher.”
With 53 kills and 78 aces as a senior, co-captain Ramirez, along with co-captain Mimi Russler (’06), helped lead the team to the semifinals all four years. The Vixens advanced to the finals in two of these seasons.
“I’m just sorry that we couldn’t win one while she was here,” Fisher said.
Despite her success, Ramirez decided not to get recruited by colleges. “I wanted to make it into Dartmouth on my own academic merit, not on athletic ability,” Ramirez said. At Darmouth, Ramirez plans to major in history or economics, and hopes to become a lawyer. She is taking German, and is going to study abroad in Germany during her junior year.
At only 5’ 7”, Ramirez knew making the college varsity team would be a long shot, but that was not a goal of hers. “I wanted to focus on my studies,” she said. She said she did not want to worry about trying out and, if she made the team, if her abilities met varsity standards.
Ramirez didn’t want to deal with a level of stress much higher than that she experienced in high school. “I look at the girls on varsity, and they’re drained,” she said.
But there was a problem with this plan. “I missed volleyball,” she said. Intramurals weren’t competitive enough for Ramirez, who had been playing volleyball since she was nine. To solve the dilemma, she and two other Dartmouth freshmen petitioned the Dartmouth administration to add a club girls’ volleyball team.
Currently, the three have recruited a team with various levels of high school experience. Although they have not yet found a coach, the team has begun to practice and work out. In January, when Ramirez is set to return, the team will start playing against other schools in the northeast.
Stuyvesant and her experience as a Vixen remain vivid to Ramirez.
“If you love a sport, you should do anything for it. No matter if you’re staying up until three o’clock doing your homework because you got home at 10 from practice. It’s worth it,” Ramirez said.
According to Ramirez, she and Russler are still very close and she stays min contact with other former teammates through Facebook.
Her leadership left an impression on her former teammates. “She was a really strong voice for the team,” senior and Vixen Vanessa Charubhumi said.
“She definitely showed us that with Stuyvesant, a lot of things should be taken seriously,” Genes said. “She always took volleyball really seriously, but she knew how to infuse that with something that was fun, something that you did because you loved it.”
Especially now, with the Vixens in the early rounds of the playoffs, the memory of Ramirez has been an inspiration. “Starting this week, we have the march to the final four, and there is still a lot of Reyna and Reyna’s work ethic left here,” Fisher said.
Genes, as the current captain, has emulated Ramirez’s approach in her leadership role. “I’m definitely not as funny as Reyna Ramirez,” she said. “But she taught me that the best way to reach people sometimes was by making them laugh.”