Forged in independence, ready to lead: Rhamat Alhassan’s comeback story.
Story by Alex Eisen | Photo by Nicolas Carrillo
On an off day, Rhamat Alhassan would rather build something.
Once it was a garment rack from iron pipe and stained wood. Another time, a crocheted blanket. She dreams of having raised garden beds to cultivate. She likes projects and the process of seeing something take shape because she put it together herself.
“I just love doing stuff with my hands,” Alhassan said. “If you’re like, ‘I have a desk that needs to be built,’ sign me up. I’m there.”
That instinct to create, to take ownership, and to figure things out follows her everywhere.
Taking control of her own world didn’t start in college or as a young professional. It began much earlier, during a childhood that demanded responsibility beyond her years.
Alhassan grew up in a household shaped by parents who had emigrated from Ghana before she was born. When her father passed away from a stomach ulcer on a business trip back to Ghana, Alhassan was just 12. Overnight, everything changed. Now it was just her, her younger sister, and her mother.
“I had to grow up so fast,” she said. “My mom was kind of like, ‘Hey, I need you to step up.’ And so, I became super, super independent.”
Her mother provided, and that never wavered, but the day-to-day responsibilities shifted. Alhassan handled school paperwork, coordinated club and AAU practices, and made sure everything ran smoothly. In many ways, she became a second mom to her younger sister.
“I never had to have a part-time job or anything like that,” she said. “But I was facilitating all those things, not putting the burden on my mom to figure it out.”
By the time she left for college, adulthood didn’t feel foreign. She already did her own laundry, managed her time, and took care of herself.
Independence, however, carries a silent, heavy weight.
“It’s something I’ve been recently wrestling with,” she admitted. “The realization that I can’t do everything by myself. I don’t need to be Superwoman. I’m not Superwoman. And I will crash and burn if I try to continue to be that.”
Alhassan has learned to lean on her faith, on teammates, and on her community. That careful balance between strength and surrender has shaped who she is today.
Volleyball is what she’s known for, but it wasn’t where her journey began.
“I thought I was going to play basketball in college,” Alhassan said with a laugh. “That’s where my mind was. Everyone who knew me was like, ‘Yeah, she’s playing basketball.’”
Alhassan was a towering post player, known for her shot-blocking and presence in the paint. A short practice clip on YouTube shows teenaged Alhassan nudging the ball off the rim and in for a rim-assisted dunk, offering a glimpse of her raw athletic potential as she was still growing into her 6-foot-4 frame.
Volleyball arrived almost by accident. In her freshman year of high school, a physical education unit introduced the sport in a way that felt different from the stationary hitting lines she had seen as a youth. Two of her best friends also played, so she tried out as a sophomore and made the team.
“Did I ever imagine it would turn out like this?” she said. “No. Absolutely not.”
For a while, she did both — club volleyball and high school volleyball, plus AAU basketball and high school basketball. But there was something about volleyball that won her over.
“I really enjoy the team aspect of volleyball,” Alhassan said. “Yes, basketball is a team sport, but a lot of times you can have one or two good players on a basketball team and your team’s pretty good. Volleyball just relies on a lot more people.”
She loved the environment, the energy, and the way every touch depended on someone.
Starting volleyball at 15 meant a steep learning curve, but it also came with more freedom to figure things out and a forgiving grace to make mistakes.
“It took some of the pressure off,” Alhassan said. “Going up against girls that have been doing this since they were like 8 years old, I just told myself, ‘Okay, let’s figure this out and see what I can do.’”
Basketball had already strengthened Alhassan’s jumping, timing, spatial awareness, and instinct to fill gaps, all skills that would later translate seamlessly to volleyball.
“At a certain point, after athleticism and natural ability, it becomes how smart are you?” she said. “Can you slow the game down? Do you see what’s going on?”
As a middle blocker, Alhassan lives in the margins of reaction time. Reading the setter, recognizing tendencies, and processing multiple things at once to make a split-second decision are what can set equally talented players apart.
At the University of Florida, that intelligence translated into historic efficiency, culminating in one of the most effective attacking careers in NCAA Division I history. She finished her four-year career (2014-17) with a .423 hitting percentage and a program-record 674 total blocks. The four-time AVCA All-American wasn’t thinking about any of that in the moment.
“I was just focused on playing,” Alhassan said. “Putting the ball down whenever I could and doing whatever I could to help my team win.”
Florida still holds a special place in Alhassan’s heart. She swears that she will always “bleed orange and blue.”
It was in Gainesville where she first began to understand what it meant to truly lead a team. The expectations were higher. The spotlight, brighter. And during the 2017 postseason run to the national championship match, she felt both the weight and the privilege of it.
As much as she treasures her Gator memories, time has let her reflect on them in a new light. With that shift in perspective, Alhassan wishes she would have approached things a little differently.
“In college I was always asking right away, ‘What do you think? What should we do?’” Alhassan said. “Now I step back more. I listen first and make sure everyone has a chance to share their ideas before I act.”
Alhassan has come to realize that leadership is more than making plays or being the loudest voice in the room. Having Carli Snyder as a roommate and teammate in college, and now playing alongside her again on the Grand Rapids Rise, taught Alhassan the importance of creating space for others to step up and find their own voice.
That understanding took root in college but deepened later when she started coaching the next generation of players, who stood where she once had.
“I’m a lot more patient now,” Alhassan said. “Working with kids from fifth grade through high school teaches you that they’re silly, they’re crazy, and you might have to say the same thing 15 times, and they still might not hear you. You learn to figure out the best way to get through to someone. Some kids you can yell at and they’re fine. Others, you have to phrase it just right. Pulling the best out of people and seeing how they react is a skill.”
After college, Alhassan went overseas to play professionally. She played a season in Japan before spending four years in Italy, competing in one of the world’s top leagues. Alhassan would have left the United States even if a domestic league had existed then.
“I really wanted to travel,” she said. “What better way than to live in a foreign country?”
Playing abroad sharpened Alhassan’s game. Growth became incremental, measured in micro improvements.
“You’re not going to steamroll someone,” she said. “The person on the other side of the net is my size and has the same athletic ability. Can I be smarter? Can I figure out how to work around them? It’s just figuring out how to get a little bit better — that extra one percent.”
She also added another layer to her development: language. Already bilingual through her Ghanaian heritage, speaking Hausa at home, she decided to learn Italian.
By her second season in Italy, she could navigate daily life comfortably, and coaches gradually stopped speaking to her in English. On the court, communication was seamless, but she continued to face new responsibilities.
“You are now an adult,” she said. “That teaches you a lot. But at the same time, I felt like I was prepared.”
After the 2022-23 season with Il Bisonte Firenze, Alhassan stepped away from the game, largely over concerns about her long-term health.
“I was thinking about whether I’d be able to keep up if I had kids one day,” Alhassan said.
She joined the athletic department at Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia, serving as a JV volleyball coach and the director of sports information for the next two years. While Alhassan enjoyed the transition and new role, she missed the intensity of competing.
“Battling on the court is so much more fun,” she said. “I thought I still had more to give.”
There were questions that lingered in the back of her mind: Could she keep up? Was she fast enough? Could she still jump high enough?
“It was like riding a bike,” Alhassan quipped about overcoming her doubts. “I’m honestly proud of just being here and being able to be productive.”
Through the first 11 matches this season with the Rise, Alhassan showed that she still belongs. She led the team with a .339 hitting percentage, putting her on pace to surpass the franchise single-season mark of .331 set by Marin Grote in 2025. She also ranked second in the league with 30 blocks.
Rise head coach Cathy George sees more than the production. She sees the mentor Alhassan has become: one of those ‘glue’ players, the type who steadies the team and keeps everyone connected on the floor.
“Rhamat brings a ton of experience,” George said. “She has coached, so she understands how to communicate with different players in ways they can truly receive. She has a strong presence on the court and can be a little goofy, which makes it fun. She knows how to keep things light when they need to be, but she is also very serious about winning.”
When asked what comes next, after pro volleyball ends for good, Alhassan smiled.
“Do I have a plan? Not really,” she said. “It’s fun to dream.”
Those dreams are layered. Consulting in volleyball. Coaching again someday. Maybe even selling handmade pieces. And there is still that vision of a home with raised garden beds —food you grow yourself just tastes better, she insists.
Living a full life has always mattered more to her than accolades on the court, and it’s a lesson she hopes younger players understand before their careers end.
“Don’t define yourself as just a volleyball player,” she said. “There’s so much more out there. The sport is amazing and it’s given us a lot, but there’s so much more life to be lived.”
When it is all said and done, she knows how she wants to be remembered.
“As a volleyball player, I want to be remembered as super dynamic and aggressive on the court,” she said. “Especially as a blocker.”
And beyond that?
“Someone who lived life to the fullest, usually pretty happy, and did all the things I wanted to do.”
When the time comes, Alhassan is confident she’ll navigate retirement the same way she has everything else: on her own terms.