Florida Tech Scholar-Athlete Spotlight Recognizes Volleyball Player Ashley Rants

By  //  January 1, 2022

Rants is majoring in Business

In this Scholar-Athlete Spotlight, we are featuring Panther volleyball player Ashley Rants, a redshirt freshman who is majoring in Business. A transfer from Louisiana-Monroe, Ashley recorded 152 kills and 120 digs in her first season in the Crimson and Gray. (Florida Tech image)

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Being a scholar-athlete at Florida Tech takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication to excel both in the classroom and on the field.

In this Scholar-Athlete Spotlight, we are featuring Panther volleyball player Ashley Rants, a redshirt freshman who is majoring in Business. A transfer from Louisiana-Monroe, Ashley recorded 152 kills and 120 digs in her first season in the Crimson and Gray.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Ashley, adjusting to a new school and program on the east coast, so we caught up with her to ask how she’s enjoying life at Florida Tech.

■ What’s your major at Florida Tech and why did you choose this? Is it something that you’ve always wanted to do?

My major is Business Administration and I chose it because I want to own my own nonprofit for mental health when I graduate.

■ Having transferred from a Division I school, what was it about Florida Tech that drew you here?

My family has always loved Florida, it’s hard to say no to the beach and as soon as I met [Head Coach] Ashlee [Crowder], I knew I wanted to play for her.

■ You mentioned that you eventually want to have a nonprofit regarding mental health. What led you to that?

My family has had problems, each of us individually, with mental health growing up and just seeing those effects firsthand, as an athlete, knowing how it affects college athletes as it grows.

Friends, family, everybody that it affects and how much it wasn’t talked about as I was growing up from a young age to now, it’s improved a lot, but I think there’s still a lot of work to be done and I thought why not start with me?

■ What have you enjoyed the most about your classes during your first semester at Tech?

I’ve been pushed, school-wise, a lot more than I have before, and business, everybody says is an easy major, but it’s even hard here.

■ Your season starts almost immediately after you return to school, how do you keep everything balanced once the season starts? It must’ve been tough this season doing all of that while getting used to a new school.

Yeah, for sure. A lot of the girls on our team were new too, I think that helped us bond.

But I kind of has learned to stay on top of my things by time management and not overwhelming myself by trying to do everything at once and spreading it out over time. Giving myself breaks whenever I have free time to just relax and not worry about anything.

■ How has being a collegiate athlete prepared you for what you’re doing now and what do you take from the court that you apply to your studies?

One thing that volleyball has really taught me, and being an athlete in general, is when I’m going through a tough time I can’t exactly just stop and let everything overwhelm me and take me down.

I have to take it as it goes and comes back every practice, every day stronger than yesterday. Even if it was such a bad day, I have to learn to wipe it.

That’s one thing I’ve learned to do, which has been hard but I’m so glad that I’ve learned that as well as being a teammate and learning to be dependable for my teammates and creating those relationships.

■ What advice would you give to an athlete coming to Florida Tech that has an interest in Business?

I would say go for it, there’s so much to experience here. There are so many people who have graduated from Florida Tech with experience in the business world and it’s just a great place to learn.

■ What have you enjoyed the most about your first year at Florida Tech and with the volleyball program?

With our team, I can feel the bond and the strength that we build together and that we’re going to be stronger every year and I just love that feeling.

Going through the ups and downs from this past year, I know that we’re going to come back stronger every year. So, every moment is best with the team, even at our lowest of lows.

It feels so good to know that this exact moment is gonna make us stronger. And I just love Florida, I love going to the beach on my off days. I’m so grateful for that which sounds so silly, but it truly is a blessing to me.

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