Senior overcame lingering injury to become a force for league
champion Acorns
MORGAN HILL
It is misleading to describe Gabi Cinkova as a kid.
Somewhere between falling asleep at Stanford volleyball games and becoming one of the most skilled left-handed hitters and refined student athletes to come out of Live Oak High School, Cinkova was an adolescent. She was discouraged by things she could not control.
Cinkova was 15 when her talent began to take shape. Her body wasn’t growing according to plan, and tendonitis set into her lanky frame. Aches and stiffness have lingered since, branded with the fluorescent-colored strands of kinesthetic tape Cinkova applies to her hitting shoulder before games.
On the court, her passion is brighter. Cinkova plays with a unique level of intensity and dedication that has allowed her to overcome injury and emerge the most dominating player in the Blossom Valley Athletic League. Though tendonitis has held her back, she has never felt cheated.
“It’s definitely been frustrating because I’ve seen everyone around me get better while I kind of hit a wall,” said Cinkova, 17, now a more muscular 6-foot senior with two first-team all-league honors and a 4.41 grade-point average. “Everyone has their problems to deal with. I tried to make the most of my situation and just hoped for the best.”
She has been raised to do nothing less. Cinkova’s mother, Helena, jokingly says her daughter’s strong work ethic comes from her genes, but it makes perfect sense considering Cinkova’s parents knew little English when they emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1990s. Cinkova’s father, Tomas, landed a job in San Francisco and moved with Helena and their two daughters, 4-year-old Katerina and 1-year-old Gabriela, from Prague, Czech Republic.
“I didn’t speak English but hoped maybe the girls would,” Helena said. “If you want to learn, you will always learn.”
Cinkova picked up volleyball only because her sister coaxed her into joining her club in middle school; the team needed tall bodies. Kat did her best to turn Cinkova onto the sport, even dragging her along to women’s volleyball games at Stanford — where Gabi would doze off in the Maples Pavilion grandstand — but it wasn’t until Cinkova’s freshman year at LOHS that she started to take the game seriously.
“I used to think it was so boring. I just did swimming and triathlon,” Cinkova said. “I give her all the credit for sparking my interest. She inspired me.”
A year after Katerina was Co-Senior of the Year in the Mount Hamilton Division at outside hitter, Cinkova filled in well at her sister’s position, earning league-Freshman of the Year acclaim.
Live Oak coach Laura Coleman saw similarities in them right away.
“Gabi’s work ethic is huge. Her drive and intensity and emotion are everything,” said Coleman, now in her 13th season with the Acorns. “Kat was the same way. Others just kind of dig deeper because of them.”
Kat is in her final season playing for American University in Washington D.C. She talks to her sister over the phone about five times a week and still travels with her and her family to the Czech Republic each summer (the Cinkovas rent out the same apartment they used to live in. Both sisters are bilingual).
“We’ve always been like rivals, but we’ve always been best friends, too,” Kat said. “If I was better than her at anything, she would pout and try even harder.
“Competitive, the word sums up her entire personality. You see it in all aspects.”
That includes the classroom. Upon disclosing her impressive GPA, Cinkova said it speaks little about her.
“I don’t want that to define me as a person,” she said. “The approach I take is more important. My parents taught me to take pursuing an education seriously. High school is one stop in life. I want to do my best with it.”
So far, Cinkova has been named Freshman and Junior of the Year and is the running to be named MVP for the Mount Hamilton after totaling 42 blocks, 45 aces, 340 digs and 220 kills in 39.7-percent hitting during the regular season.
“She always wants the ball — she goes all out for everything,” Live Oak senior setter Alyssa Brusaschetti said. “It’s been amazing setting for her. Gabi puts the entire team before herself and just makes everyone better.”
Vocally, she has come a long way since earning the nickname “Giraffe” freshman year. She shows Pau Gasol-like emotion after each kill.
“Gabi in one word: awesome — awesome and intense,” sophomore libero Alli Unger said. “She never lets up.”
One of the best questions to ask Cinkova’s teammates is what their favorite “Gabi” story is. Sophomore hitter Fa Saulala went with the time Cinkova split her chin open while diving for a ball in a tournament, patched up the wound and got back on the court.
“She’s kind like an inspiration, just a true leader,” said Saulala, who leads the team with 227 kills. “I’ve learned a lot from watching her. She knows what she’s doing, and she just pushes through everything.”
Every athlete has the chance to be elite. It comes through great challenges, like overcoming your biggest disappointment. For Cinkova, it was after the 2009-10 club and prep season, when she played well for Main Beach Volleyball and LOHS but was not impressive enough to merit significant attention from collegiate programs, partially because of her restrictive tendonitis.
Gabi’s mother spelled it out for her.
“She was in pain, she was unhappy, her skin was irritated from the tape; I asked her, ‘Is it even worth it to play?'” Helena said. “If you can’t play to your potential, why try?
“She was really upset with me after that. She said, ‘I’m not quitting because of a stupid shoulder.'”
Cinkova took six weeks off from volleyball last summer to tour parts of Europe while teaching English to kids. She came back to U.S. refreshed, having a new “laid-back” perspective on life and volleyball.
“I was ready to just play to my potential and see what happens,” she said.
Cinkova proceeded to help lead the Acorns to their first league championship since 2001, a feat they clinched with Thursday’s three-set victory over Willow Glen.
Cinkova highlighted the win with seven kills, six digs and three blocks, making the most of every opportunity she had.
