Idaho Falls senior Grace Fuger a leader on the court and the classroom

Editor’s note: The Athlete of the Week feature will be a weekly series highlighting the many standout athletes of eastern Idaho.

IDAHO FALLS — For as long as she can remember, Grace Fuger has been an athlete. She grew up playing numerous sports, but it was volleyball that stuck.

Now, the Idaho Falls High School senior is just a few months shy of an early graduation. After that, her volleyball journey will take her to Texas, where she will join a Baylor University team currently ranked 18th in the NCAA.

“(Volleyball) felt like something that I could really be myself in, and really express myself,” she told EastIdahoNews.com. “I love the way I am when I play volleyball, it makes me a better person.”

Fuger plays libero — the player on the court wearing a different-colored jersey. The libero’s job is to focus on defense, specifically receiving serves and passing hits from the opposition. She does not play at the net and, on some teams, would not be used for serving.

Fuger explained that because her job is to focus on passing, it is important that she is as perfect as possible when she is passing, digging, or chasing a free ball.

“You really only get noticed when you’re either doing really good and getting those one-armed digs, or you’re doing really bad,” she said.

Fuger has helped her Tigers get off to a 7-4-1 start, including a Sept. 11 win over Skyline in their conference opener.

Fuger was in fifth grade when she decided to pursue volleyball. With her team needing a coach, her father, Bill Fuger, who had never played volleyball before, accepted the responsibility. The decision, he said, was one made out of necessity, but it did not take long for him to realize his daughter had outgrown his knowledge of the game.

“At her early age, I did OK,” Bill said. “But I knew by the time Grace was in the sixth grade that she was past my abilities to coach her.”

Now, rather than coaching, he gets to sit in the bleachers and marvel at the effort Grace puts into every play.

Having to “play up” — with girls older than her — from an early age, Bill said, Grace adopted the mantra, “never let the ball drop.” Seven years later, she still plays with that approach.

“You’ll see her flying into the bleachers — she’s toned it down a little bit now, but she still will get after it,” he said.

As her time with the Idaho Falls volleyball team winds to an end, so too does her time in Idaho Falls.

Grace will graduate early in January before heading to Baylor, where she will be taking college classes before her 18th birthday — in March. She received a walk-on invite from the Baylor volleyball team but admits she bobbled her recruiting.

Coming from a small area, Grace realizes now that she should have been hounding coaching and scouts, rather than waiting for them to find her. Still, despite the limited visibility she received from programs across the country, Fuger received an invite to a camp at Baylor — where she said she “balled out.”

“They loved my passion and energy,” she said.

A devout Christian, her “interesting” recruitment landed her in the perfect situation. She realized during a conversation with head volleyball coach Ryan McGuyre, during which they discussed how “God is always the head recruiting coordinator.”

“God picked Baylor for me,” Grace said. “I’m meant to be there.”

On the court, Fuger said she plays with “confidence and swagger.” Off the court, she is trying to establish a reputation and footprint of visibility.

“For me, it’s all about making a name for myself. I’d like to think I’m doing a good job — I post a lot on TikTok and, actually, just hit 100K followers.”

With her love for social media interactions and brand development, Grace will major in business marketing.

“There’s just a lot of pathways that I can go with that,” she said.

And her family is already planning monthly — “at least” — trips to Texas to see Grace play, along with trips to any regional schools Baylor will visit.

“We’re definitely planning on hitting a lot of the different cities that she’ll be playing in,” Bill said.

Grace plans to “set (her) roots” in Texas after college rather than return to Idaho.