Friday, March 29, 2024

Schram lets her off-beat personality show on court

October 18, 2001
Freshman outside hitter Kim Schram jumps to spike a ball Tuesday during practice in Jenison Field House —

Freshman outside hitter Kim Schram misses life in London, Ontario. She wishes she could be around her friends, her family and especially her Smarties.

“I need my Smarties,” she said.

She doesn’t mean the sugary discs abundant on Halloween. Her Smarties are little colorful bits of chocolate wrapped in a thin candy shell. But M&M’s they’re not, she said.

“They just taste different, it’s got to be a different type of chocolate or something,” she said. “And they’re flatter and a little bigger.”

Candy addiction is just one odd facet of Schram, the volleyball team’s self-declared “riot.”

The Canadian is adjusting to life in the United States - the “weird” money, the whacked emotions, the fast style of volleyball - in interesting ways.

She’s taking it out on her hair color.

“I change it whenever I want to approach something differently,” Schram said. “I dyed my hair after the Michigan game because I felt like I was having a lot of problems playing.”

Schram recorded five kills in the first game against U-M, but only spiked home four more kills in the next four games with six errors.

“I was like, ‘I need to change something,’ and the changes usually start with my hair,” she said.

And with the new reddish do, Schram has pounded 13, 14 and 11 kills against Purdue, Indiana and Illinois, respectively.

Schram also wasn’t prepared to deal with some of the perks of playing a major collegiate sport in the United States, especially the free stuff.

“Everything here shocked me as far as how well athletes are treated,” she said. “When I first got here I got this big bag of clothes and shoes and stuff, and I was like, ‘don’t I have to buy all this?’”

Head coach Chuck Erbe said Schram’s hair color isn’t the only change she has made - she has evolved from an uncomfortable freshman to a solid contributor, he said.

“She’s beginning to make that transition,” Erbe said. “I’m very pleased with where she is at and with her contributions to our team.

“Kim is making some really nice progress now.”

When Schram visited MSU on her recruiting visit, she made an immediate impression, senior outside hitter Erin Hartley said.

“Well, when she came here she was wearing a red bandana and had a nosering in,” Hartley said. “And I was like ‘Uh oh, who’s this girl? She looks like trouble.’

“And she’s not trouble.”

Hartley is not the only Spartan who had an instant impression of Schram. Freshman outside hitter and fellow Canadian Michelle Kopka met Schram two years ago during a club volleyball match.

“I was so scared of her when I first met her playing club ball,” Kopka said. “She just looked so scary and intimidating, plus she’s good.

“Her hair was this really dark color and she had her nosering- she looked crazy.”

But Kopka said Schram’s first impressions don’t always prove to be true.

“She’ll come off one way, but she’s really the total opposite,” she said “Sometimes she comes across as not being too smart, but when you have a serious conversation with her you know that she’s very intelligent.”

And Schram could have that conversation in three different languages. She speaks fluent Japanese and some French.

That combination of brains and versatility comes through on the court, Erbe said.

“She’s a very bright and intelligent young lady,” he said. “This definitely does come across in how she plays.”

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