Sasha Colombo's Dedication to CSU Volleyball Can Never Be Questioned. Ever
Junior finds roundabout way to return to her second family
Mike Brohard
The greetings had already taken place.
Sasha Colombo’s dizzying return to the Colorado State volleyball team was finally complete, and she had already been able to see most of her teammates before hitting the practice floor. Those first couple of workouts were group sessions, meaning not all the Rams were present.
The full roster wasn’t in place until the third day. And by the end of the practice, head coach Tom Hilbert couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. Part of it was seeing them all together. His team had really played volleyball and gotten after each other. The work was great, and Colombo had obviously shaken off the jet lag from a non-stop flight from Turkey to San Francisco, then on to Denver before heading to Fort Collins.
She looked great on the floor, more explosive and playing higher. Her importance to the Rams was apparent in what she brings to the table in terms of experience, poise and maturity. Even more, it was just her being her. Everybody on the team loves Colombo.
“Just seeing her walk in the gym was just awesome,” CSU head coach Tom Hilbert said. “Just seeing her in there, she looks good and she was doing everything right. At my age, to me, the coolest thing is watching the interaction among the players. Everybody likes her. She’s super popular and doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.”
The irony of it all was that was the day the announcement came there would be no fall volleyball season.
Colombo and her mother, Nicolle Ingram, had to become magicians just for her return home to Milan, Italy when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in March. It took even more magic to be able to come back to the U.S., that and thousands of dollars to cancel flights and find new ones to meet all the criteria of the travel restrictions around the globe.
Finding a path wasn’t easy, and her solution became going to Turkey for two weeks so she could fly to the United States from there with European countries on a no-fly list.
Not that she would change a thing.
“It was absolutely worth it. I loved being at home and spending time with my family, but I’ve gotten used to the idea that now I live in the U.S.,” Colombo said. “Most of my friends are here, my volleyball team is here, my school is here. It’s like my second family. I call Fort Collins home just as much as Italy.
“I knew it was time for me to come back. Even though when I came back a couple weeks later they cancelled our season, I still think that it was a great decision, and I’m happy I chose to do that.”
Leaving Fort Collins was tough. Emotionally and literally. At first, Colombo was going to remain in Colorado, but the plan was quickly scrapped. Despite Italy being hit hard by COVID-19, she and her mother felt it was best for Colombo to return home.
She had invitations from teammates to stay in the United States and ride out the quarantine with them, which she really appreciated. She also knew Italy was suffering as a country with the pandemic, including her family. It was an agonizing decision, but deep down, she knew she had to leave.
“It was a tough call to make when it’s a blind choice, when you really don’t know the consequences of your actions and you just kind of have to go with it,” Colombo said. “In the end, I decided to go home. It was a really critical situation over there, and I was scared that if something happened I wouldn’t have time to go home.”
Which was not easy. Colombo is a planner. She has her flights booked back and forth six months in advance. For one, they’re cheaper that way. She also likes structure and a firm itinerary. None of that is possible in a pandemic.
Colombo was on the phone constantly with airlines as flights were being cancelled regularly. She would have one booked, only to have it cancelled as airlines, airports and countries started to limit travel. At one point, she estimates she was on hold for nearly 12 hours “with that annoying little music.”
In the end, she said she found the nicest customer-service representative a girl far from home could ever hope to connect with, who creatively found her a flight. She went from four days to pack to one, taking the bare necessities. Fortunately, that included snacks, as she found airport restaurants were not in operation.
Heading home meant stops in four different countries. She spent a night in a German airport to catch an early morning connection. Nothing was open, there were only two other people in a building she’s never seen anything but bustling. She was afraid to go to sleep.
Back home, her mother could do nothing but worry and wait.
“As it became apparent that nobody would be returning to campus, our priority became getting Sasha home to be with us during this critical time,” Ingram said. “We booked new flights back to Italy, yet every day they were being cancelled. Luckily Sasha managed to change her booking and return home towards the end of March, a terrifying journey through deserted airports. I wasn't even able to go to pick her up from the airport as any non-vital travel in Italy was, at that time, severely banned and I could have been fined up to 3000 Euro for going to the airport.”
That was life in Italy. People were allowed to go to the store, but only one at a time. You could walk the dog, but you had to stay within 1/8 of a mile of the family home. Documentation had to be carried as why you were out or face large fines.
Italy was on lockdown for three months. The Colombos felt the effect, losing family members to the virus, and others they knew became sick.
Still, it was good to be home with family. Colombo knew she needed to be with them. She was present for the 13th birthday of her younger brother, Oscar. They baked cookies. She reconnected with family she doesn’t see quite as often anymore while attending Colorado State, and she helped around the house.
There were still classes to take. The time change didn’t make it easy, so she found herself online for instruction as late as midnight. She completed a statistics final from 10 p.m.-midnight, but the ‘A’ she received made it worth the late nights.
We were allowed to sight see, carefully and with a mask. There were no tourists and not really many locals around. I think it was a great opportunity for me to visit a country which is so different than Italy and do it in a time where there are not a lot of tourists. I think I made the best out of the hand that was dealt to me.Sasha Colombo, Volleyball Player
She also kept in touch with her team via Zoom calls (again, late at night for her), and individually. She worked out with teammates through technology, with roommate Jacqi Van Liefde waking up early in California for what was a late-afternoon sweat for Colombo in Italy.
They used WhatsApp and FaceTime, anything to remain in touch. It made her feel good, connected. It also made her miss them and her second home.
The thing is, Colombo now has two families. One is blood. The other is sweat, tears, championships and laughter. After a while, it was time to leave one and rejoin the other. First, she spoke with Hilbert and assistant coach Emily Kohan, making sure the time was right and she would be doing the best thing for all involved.
They all agreed her being in Fort Collins would benefit the all. For the player, mentally, for the team, emotionally. Having her back was going to be a plus in too many ways to count. Leadership, for sure, especially with a team welcoming seven freshmen. There’s her ability to score from the service line and put down a crucial kill. It’s her court sense and awareness, the maturity she brings which is a calming influence.
Never will a single member of the Rams’ volleyball program will ever question Colombo’s loyalty to the team after all it took for her to return.
“No way. This girl is so dedicated. It’s amazing. Even on the court you can see it,” Van Liefde said. “Obviously she went to Turkey for two weeks just to get back here, and that’s a huge thing. As she’s been back, she’s one of the most inspiring people on the court.
“She works so hard. She has this intensity that’s just contagious. She takes every drill, every play very seriously. You see her working hard and you feel you have to step it up as well. She’s a motivational teammate. She will cheer for every single person. She’s one of those teammates. You can tell she loves the sport.”
It shows, because there were still magic tricks to pull off. Travel restrictions still stood, and just when she thought she found a path, it was no longer an option. The original plan was to head to Croatia, a country a car ride from home. She and her family would drive there and vacation for a week. Then she would stay a week longer to fulfill her 14-day requirement, then catch a flight for Denver.
But the flight had a layover. In Germany. It was time to start from scratch – and also hope the $2,000 refundable ticket would be repaid in the next six months. Ingram was reduced to tears, feeling the stress of it all while still attending to her family and working full time as a teacher, also online.
The family still vacationed for a week in Croatia, because they figured they had earned one. But it was also time to find a new plan, so once again, Ingram was busy calling airlines and consulates to find an acceptable travel plan.
“Turkey was never on my bucket list destination goals, to be honest,” Colombo said. “It’s not a very European country, and I was a bit scared in the beginning. I had planned on one week with my family, then one week on my own. It was culturally different, so I ended up staying two weeks with my mother.
“It turned out to be amazing. I didn’t have to quarantine while I was there. We stayed 15 days, a day extra, just to be sure. We were allowed to sight see, carefully and with a mask. There were no tourists and not really many locals around. I think it was a great opportunity for me to visit a country which is so different than Italy and do it in a time where there are not a lot of tourists. I think I made the best out of the hand that was dealt to me.”
The best part was the extra time spent between mother and daughter.
Part of raising your children is preparing them (and yourself) for their departure. The trip gave them a few extra weeks to bond before the long spell before Colombo returns home for winter break. At the same time, Ingram was grateful to see her daughter happy again, knowing she was heading back to another place she loves. A place she also calls home.
The timing, however, was always bothersome. Colombo went to Italy when the pandemic was in full swing. Heading back to Colorado, the pandemic was seeing highs in the United States. A parent, no matter how comforted, will worry.
“Admittedly we spent a wonderful two weeks together in Istanbul, and I think we will both have special memories of this unplanned and exotic holiday,” Ingram said. “However it was definitely a huge amount of stress to organize, above all because it was impossible to contact anyone or have any clear information. I spent hours and hours for days and days trying to understand the best course of action. Obviously knowing now that there is no volleyball season and perhaps Sasha could have postponed her return doesn't help, but at the time my priority was to get her back to CSU, despite our understandable fear, as parents, regarding the COVID statistics in America when Italy was starting to come out of the tunnel, and we personally had suffered fatalities within the family.”
A tearful departure in Istanbul turned into a socially distance greeting at Denver International Airport.
Van Liefde couldn’t wait to see her roommate again. Colombo has become a confidant, someone she tells things to first. She so wanted to hug her, but knew she couldn’t. Still, the car ride back to .Fort Collins was a relief, just to see her friend in the seat next to her.
“I picked her up from the airport. We had our masks on, and we did an air hug from a distance, but it was great to see her again,” Van Liefde said. “The poor thing was so exhausted from the long travel and just trying to make her connections. I know at one point she was really stressed about running to the other side to get to her connecting flight. It was amazing to see my roommate again and to finally have her in the house again.”
Colombo was used to the travel routine. She returned to Fort Collins, threw her clothes in the wash and took a shower. Then it was two weeks of self-isolation as per the guidelines. The volleyball team is a cautious roster, as half of the team has been quarantined for one reason or another during the summer. Colombo was still hesitant to venture outside when she could, because she has seen the worst of what the pandemic can do.
At this point, she almost feels like she’s always in the epicenter.
“I think I’m always in the worst country. The country hit the most at the time, I’m always there,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been doing the opposite of what everybody else thinks you should be doing for health reasons, but I don’t regret my decisions.”
Because there is no pull stronger than the one that takes you back to family.