When her fellow graduates were celebrating with friends, Center Grove Community High School graduate Ali Line was moving into college.
Just one day after graduation, Line moved into her dorm room about three hours away from home.
Line received a full-ride scholarship from Illinois State University to play Division I volleyball. She is the first of four kids in her family to go to college. Her three younger siblings are all athletic, her father, Don Line, said. Trent and Cameron excel in football and track, while little sister Anna plays volleyball.
Don Line hopes the other kids follow in their sister’s footsteps by receiving some sort of scholarship, either for academics, athletics or another skill, like music.
As a freshman in high school, Line said, she decided that she wanted to play college volleyball.
She also played softball and basketball. And coaches, scouts and recruiters were also looking at Line’s athletic abilities in basketball, her father said.
But the energy of the game made her steer toward playing volleyball in college, Ali Line said.
Multiple colleges made scholarship offers for her to play volleyball or basketball, but she also wants to become a nurse practitioner. Most colleges that offered her a scholarship wouldn’t allow her to major in nursing, because both the volleyball team and nursing would take up a large time commitment.
Illinois State let her do both, Don Line said.
After being on campus for two weeks, she already sees a difference in the intensity of practices and weightlifting, Ali Line said.
But she wouldn’t have it any other way, she said.
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Name: Ali Line
High school: Center Grove
College: Illinois State University
Major: Nursing
Full-ride scholarship: Volleyball
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