Introducing a foreign volleyball player #7: Benjamin Patch

I like athletes who jump high. I could watch high jumps with light steps forever. In fact, I want to watch them forever. The American jumper Benjamin Patch shows us such a play. His highest jump is an astonishing 382 cm. Simply put, that is higher than the height of two average Japanese men stacked on top of each other. He is not inferior to the Cuban superhuman army.

Unlike European players, American volleyball players do not become professionals immediately after graduating from high school, but play in the NCAA at university. Patch went on to attend the prestigious Brigham Young University (commonly known as BYU), which has produced players such as Taylor Sander. Although he was unable to become a national champion at university, he led the team as an opposite and achieved runner-up results in all three appearances at the university championships. After that, without waiting for graduation, he made his professional debut with Vibo Valentia of the Italian Serie A in the 2017/18 season, and played as a starter from the opening game. From the 2018/19 season, he transferred to Berlin in the German Bundesliga, and contributed greatly to the league and cup victories, and is now a face of the Berlin Volleyball team, which is extremely popular as a volleyball team.

He was called up to the national team for the first time at the age of 22 in 2017 after the Rio Olympics. Since Anderson plays in the same position, he has had few opportunities to play, but since joining the national team, he has been a consistent bench player. In 2018, the team placed third in the Nations League and World Championships. The following year, in 2019, they were runners-up in the Nations League and third in the World Cup. It is not realistic for him to be in the starting lineup at the Tokyo Olympics, but it will be exciting to see how he develops by the time of the Paris Olympics. Coincidentally, his number 13 is the same as Clayton Stanley, the opposite of the gold medal-winning member of the Beijing Olympics. He also has a good, cheerful personality. If you look closely, he is quite handsome (lol).

Photo by CEV