Michigan native Symone Abbott is happy to bring her graceful style back to her home state.
Story and photo by Mark Newman
Symone Abbott has the words of poet Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night," tattooed on her left thigh, a significant statement that she says has served her well during her pro volleyball career.
Written in 1947 by the Welsh poet while he visited family in Italy, the poem is about not losing hope and not giving up – that is, life is precious and should be fought for at every turn.
"I think I got it at a time when I didn't really know what it meant," she recalled. "I didn't fully 'get it' when I got the tattoo. I just thought it sounded really dope and sounded really cool. I wanted my first tattoo, so I got it.
"As time has passed, I forget that it's there, but it really does embody my whole career, because there have been so many times when I could have quit. It has not been, you know, just perfect, and it's not been all accolades.
"There have been highs but lots of lows. And I feel like I've lived that quote without even being mindful about embodying it. So I think it was just divine that I got it without even really knowing."
Dealing with highs and lows is part of life for a professional athlete like Abbott, who grew up in the North Rosedale Park neighborhood of Detroit between Grand River Avenue and Six Mile.
Her family moved to Northville, between Novi and Plymouth, when she was 11. The decision to move into the relative safety of the suburbs was predicated on the idea that she would have better volleyball opportunities, and her parents were all about doing whatever was best for their kids.
And there was plenty of talent in the Abbott household.
Her father, Anthony Abbott, excelled in track and field at Eastern Michigan University. Her younger brother, A.J., would become a wide receiver at the University of Wisconsin and Western Michigan University. Her younger sister, Chloe, is a professional sprinter and Olympic hopeful who appeared on the 23rd season of NBC's "The Voice" last year after becoming an All-American at Purdue and, later, Kentucky.
Symone says she cannot sing like her sister, but she loves music all the same. She played flute and tuba as a child – talk about highs and lows – and although she maintains an affinity for music of all genres, she found her true love was athletics.
Since she was tall and athletic, everyone assumed she would play basketball. But she tried it and hated it. In fifth grade gym class, when students had to choose something to do, she chose juggling.
"We could pick our activity and juggling was fun," she said. "I think they always thought I'd be good at basketball and that might be true, but I just didn't like the sport very much.
"We played all kinds of sports growing up and volleyball was definitely more for me. I did my first volleyball camp in sixth grade but didn't make any team until I was about 13."
In hockey, goalies are often attracted to their position because they like the gear. Similarly, Abbott said she has always thought volleyball players looked cool in their uniforms.
"When I was little, I liked wearing knee pads because I thought they were cool," she said. "I liked the look of volleyball players with the spandex and tight jerseys. I thought that was cute, so I wanted to be a part of that."
Abbott started playing for Michigan Elite Volleyball Club in Warren, then made the varsity team at Northville High as a sophomore, which is also when she committed to play college volleyball at Northwestern.
She had considered other schools – Georgia Tech, Central Michigan, Florida International, and others were in the mix – but she wanted to compete at the highest level, and nothing was higher than Big Ten volleyball.
Northwestern is considered one of the best journalism schools in the country and although she thought that would be her path, she ultimately chose communications as her major.
"I realized it was a lot of work to be a journalism major at Northwestern and I wasn't as passionate about it as I thought," she said. "I wasn't passionate about any major, to be honest. Looking back, I probably should've done something like psychology because that's interesting to me now. But it's just hard to pick at that age.
"Like, I'm 27 now and I still think it's hard to pick. I probably wouldn't have picked communications if I went back, but I don't think anybody knows at that age. You don't know how you're gonna feel."
But she is certain about one thing. She improved greatly as a volleyball player during her time at Northwestern.
"I learned how to carry a big load," she said. "I learned how to be a go-to player. That's a position not everybody is in. You can be on a team and be a player that they look to, but the go-to player is the one that they are giving the ball to in most situations.
"I got good at being that person, being dependable, and just putting the team on my back."
As the Wildcats' top outside hitter, Abbott was more often than not in the middle of the action. She was accustomed to hitting so many balls per game that adjusting to the pros was a challenge.
"Not getting as many balls as I would get at Northwestern, it always felt like 'not enough' because of how many I got in college," she said. "I had learned how to have 70 attempts per game, so it always felt like 'not enough' when I turned pro."
In 2017, she started her pro career in Italy. She went to France for the 2018-19 season, then to Turkey for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. She admitted that she harbored thoughts of quitting.
"It was just a lot of pressure, people depending on you because you're American, you're from overseas, and they expect you to put the team on your back. And if you're not producing, it's like they don't need you – that kind of vibe.
"It felt more cutthroat and I think I didn't need that constantly. I've gotten better at finding my peace, no matter what is going on around me, but before I did, those years were just very stressful.
"Even though it felt awful, I think those times helped toughen me up because of how much I've been through."
But, true to that tattoo on her leg, she didn't throw in the towel.
"I always wanted to keep trying to get to the highest level overseas and keep climbing and climbing, but I didn't feel I was playing my best volleyball," she said. "I didn't feel in the same groove I felt at Northwestern, but I kept trying and trying."
Even though some might romanticize the idea of playing overseas in different countries, Abbott didn't love the experience.
"I'm a homebody at heart and when I go overseas, I'm still a homebody," she said. "I don't like to do a bunch of steps just because I'm in a different country. If I'm practicing and playing, I'd prefer to be at home. So it's not as much sightseeing as you would think.
"I think the most valuable thing for me was learning how to communicate with Italians, the French, or Turkish people, just trying to learn the language a little, and not necessarily traveling around."
She ended up playing the 2021-22 season in Puerto Rico and Greece, the latter being her favorite of all the places in which she has played. "I think I just liked the geography of it, because there's lots of water around, lots of beaches. And the food is great and the culture is closer to here than Turkey or even Italy."
During the 2022-23 season, Abbott was playing for CBF Balducci HR Macerata in Italy with future Rise teammate Claire Chaussee when she first heard talk about Pro Volleyball Federation coming to the U.S.
As much as she was thrilled to get the chance to play pro volleyball closer to home, she was equally enthused to play for a veteran coach like Cathy George, whom she knew from her Big Ten days when Northwestern faced George's Michigan State Spartans.
"My last year in Italy, I felt like I was not getting better," she said. "I realized that it was because no one was really watching me. No one was watching video of me. No one was talking to me about my form. It was very much 'Just go play,' with no one working to develop me.
"Cathy is not only a good coach, she's a teacher and a developer of players. I knew I would learn more about the game from her and I would actually start getting better if I came back home."
Abbott knows her game is still a work in progress. Although she can execute one of the more impressive jump serves in the league, she has opted to use her toss more judiciously.
She admits that has yet to perfect her jump serve.
"I started using it freshman year of college and I've been on and off with it for years," she said. "If it gets to be too high error, you have to go to a different serve because you can't just keep missing serves when you're not getting an equivalent amount of aces.
"I go back and forth between them. If it's going well, I'll do it. If I start erring, then I go to the standing serve. So it's definitely not perfect. It's mainly confidence and mental focus. It's risk and reward."
Abbott believes fans have been treated to some great rallies early into Pro Volleyball Federation's inaugural season. "It's been really good volleyball, especially at home because we're playing with a chip on our shoulder. We need to work on playing just as well on the road as we play at home, because we play really well at home."
She hopes the team is making a good impression on all fans, but especially young girls who might dream of playing professional volleyball.
"Sometimes I forget about kids and how they see us because I'm still trying to get better," she said. "When you are in the swing of things, you forget that people are looking at you. It's just not something that's on the forefront of your mind.
"But tons of kids come to our games and I'd love for them to get something from seeing us. That would be great. And we miss our home crowd when we're away. The fans are a huge part of how we battle back.
"Every home match that we have, we have a really good shot at winning because of the fans."