End of the road

Kristen Batt Rohr remembers well the first time she didn’t make an athletic team. As a seventh-grader, she was an all-around athlete who played softball, basketball, swam and cheered.

It seemed like a natural fit when she tried out for the volleyball team. But as she struggled to serve the ball over the net, she knew she’d met her match.

Even though she didn’t make the team, Batt Rohr pushed on. She began spending her free time on the court hitting balls and working on her technique.

A year later, Batt Rohr walked back into the middle school gymnasium and tried out for the volleyball team a second time. This time she made the cut.

“Making the team was a big accomplishment, and at that point I only wanted to get better because it was a new sport,” she says.

She spent more than a decade playing indoor volleyball before taking her game outside to the beach. And Batt Rohr spent the past seven years as a professional beach volleyball player competing against the top players in the world.

Seeking to return to work full-time as a high school guidance counselor and volleyball coach at Cardinal Mooney High School, Batt Rohr decided to step away from the sport last September. But after forming a partnership with Rox Volleyball, her sponsor for the last four years, she opted to play one final year for fun.

Batt Rohr played in her final beach volleyball tournament earlier this month at the 2014 NVL Player Championships, where she advanced to the semifinals with her partner, Chara Harris.

“This year was just for fun,” Batt Rohr says. “I felt like I could give it one more year and (still) have the ability to work. It was a really different feeling.”

HARD HITTER
A native of New York, Batt Rohr moved to Florida when she was 14 years old and began playing volleyball for Manatee High and the Tampa Bay Juniors club team. She spent her sophomore and junior seasons with the Hurricanes before transferring to Venice High her senior year.

In her only season with the Indians, Batt Rohr, who moved from middle hitter to outside hitter, helped lead Venice to the Class 6A state title in 1998 and was named the Gatorade Player of the Year.

Batt Rohr went on to play for the University of Kentucky on scholarship where she was named All-SEC and elected MVP.

Batt Rohr didn’t begin playing beach volleyball until after graduation when she returned to Sarasota and began coaching at Venetian Bay Volleyball Club and Venice High. She tore her meniscus in 2005.

After spending time rehabbing with Vern Gambetta, whom she ended up working with her throughout her professional career, Batt Rohr teamed up with Megan Wallin for an Association of Volleyball Professionals event in 2008. The pair finished in the top 20.

“I’d been playing indoor for so long that I was ready to learn a new sport,” Batt Rohr says. “I was getting burnt out and ready to move on.”

LIFE ON THE BEACH
Batt Rohr began her professional career in 2008 and went on to play in the AVP Pro Beach Tour, the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series and Wide Open Beach Volleyball, among others.

She spent three years playing with Brooke Sweat during which time the two won four tournaments, including a Wide Open Beach Volleyball event in 2011.

“When I started, I didn’t even think (being a professional) was even an option, but when I put my mind to something, I want to be successful,” Batt Rohr says.

Over the course of her career, Batt Rohr traveled around the world, competing across the United States as well as Grand Cayman, Monte Carlo, Monaco and Mexico, among others.

“Competing at that high of a level I saw so many cool places that I never would’ve gone to (on my own),” Batt Rohr says. “I was able to form friendships and relationships around the country.”

Last September, Batt Rohr and her partner, Raquel Ferreira, defeated top seeds Jennifer Kessy and April Ross, who won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, at the AVP St. Petersburg Open. The two went on to face U.S. Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings and her partner, Whitney Pavlick, in the semifinals.

“We lost in three, but it was so close,” Batt Rohr says. “But beating (Jennifer Kessy and April Ross) was probably one of my top accomplishments.”

Last September, Batt Rohr, who co-founded the Coastline Volleyball Club in 2012 and founded SOURCE Volleyball in June, returned to work full-time.

Now, with her professional career behind her, Batt Rohr is turning her attention to helping the area’s up-and-coming beach volleyball players reach their true potential through SOURCE.

“You have to have fun doing in,” Batt Rohr says. “You can’t take anything for granted. You have to live in the moment and appreciate every day that you’re playing.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].

BY THE NUMBERS 
1998 - The year Batt Rohr helped lead Venice High to the Class 6A state championship as a senior outside hitter.

2008 - The year Batt Rohr began her professional beach volleyball career.

60 - The number of tournaments Batt Rohr competed in during her seven-year professional beach volleyball career.

7 - The number of partners Batt Rohr played with throughout her career.