For the better part of her high school volleyball career, KU senior Toyosi Onabanjo kept having one question run through her mind — Am I good enough to play in college?
Luckily, she also had one person in her life who was always ready and willing to provide an answer. Her mother Lola.
“I always knew I had the potential to be great,” Onabanjo recently told R1S1 Sports. “But I didn’t realize how good I could actually be. My mom just always told me, ‘You’re a lot better than you think you are.’”
Today, during the middle blocker’s final season with the Jayhawks, Onabanjo believes it.
And she said her mom is always happy to remind her that she never should’ve doubted that she’d get to this point.
“I didn’t even think I was good enough to play college volleyball,” Onabanjo said. “Like, even when the recruiting process started. I just wasn’t so sure. But then the offers started to hit and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh; maybe I can do this.’ Now, whenever I call my mom, she’s like, ‘I frickin’ told you!’”
One of the main jobs of any parent is to encourage their children to believe in themselves and strive for the stars. But this is not one of those stories about a mother watching her daughter play sports and seeing something that others don’t quite see.
Far from it.
Her coaches see it. Her teammates see it. And, perhaps most importantly, the statistics show it.
As the 8th-ranked Jayhawks prepar for tonight’s Big 12 road match against West Virginia in Morgantown, Onabanjo sits at No. 6 in the country in hitting percentage.
She currently has the best mark in the Big 12 and, in 217 total attacks so far this season, she’s hitting nearly .500, converting 125 of those, with just 22 hitting errors, to land at .475 on the season.
Her background as an opposite, outside hitter and middle blocker in high school and at Iowa before transferring to Kansas, helped create a foundation for offense.
But there’s something far more important than just her footwork and swing that has led to the breakout season so far.
“I think her desire to be great is what’s motivating her and that’s why I think she’s having success,” KU assistant coach Billy Ebel told R1S1 Sports this week.
“The biggest piece with Toy was more about her vision of what she wanted her last year to look like and then us supporting her in that and giving her the confidence to make it happen,” Ebel added: “Saying, ‘You can do these things and you are very capable of putting up the numbers that you want to.’”
That discussion came during the offseason. And Onabanjo did not shy away from setting her sights high. She told her coaches that she wanted to be an All-American this season, and now she’s out there playing like one.
On game nights, sure. But also in practice. Before and after workouts. In the training room. In her mind. Name something that connects to volleyball, and you can pretty much bank on the fact that Onabanjo is giving everything she has to it.
“She’s intentional about everything she does,” Ebel said. “That’s probably the best thing I can say about her. And you have to be, when you have aspirations to be great.”
Onabanjo credits her success so far this season to a number of things. It starts with her effort during the offseason, both physical and mental.
“She came in ready to go,” Ebel said. “She put in the work.”
She wanted to get stronger and jump higher. She wanted to obtain a complete understanding of KU’s system. And she wanted to put herself in position to do whatever this team needed her to do.
“If Coach Bechard was like, ‘Go be a libero, I’d be like, ‘OK.’ If he was like, ‘Go be a setter,’ I’d be like, ‘OK.’ Anything that they need me to be,” Onabanjo said.
Onabanjo also said senior setter Cam Turner and freshmen middles Zoey Burgess and Reese Ptacek, along with returning middle Aisha Aiono, played a huge role in pushing her to new heights this season.
The other middles have pushed her and made sure she never gets complacent.
“That’s always such a good thing to have people there who want to make you better and also want to make themselves better,” Onabanjo said.
And then there’s Turner. And Onabanjo’s connection with her has never been better.
“They trust each other,” Ebel said.
Added Onabanjo: “I have to thank Cam so much. We have worked so hard together to make sure that connection is perfect. She’s been such a great communicator and she’s kind of my rock on the team and I feel like I can go to her for anything, whether it’s in volleyball or outside of volleyball.”
Their extra effort and time spent fine-tuning their craft — specifically the slide that has been nearly unstoppable this season — helped set the tone for a team that had hopes and expectations as high as any individual player’s.
It also has helped allow Onabanjo to thrive in a land where, at 6-foot-1, she’s just a tad undersized, often facing players as tall as 6-4, 6-6 and more.
The standing height doesn’t matter one bit to her or her coaches or teammates. Heck, the way she plays, you almost forget about it.
“I don’t really see myself as undersized when I’m on the court,” she said. “I just look at it like there’s just another person across the net from me and I don’t really think of it that much. I just go play.”
That’s the same way Bechard sees it when he draws up KU’s game plan. What Onabanjo may lack in size never limits what the Jayhawks want to do.
“Her athleticism, lateral quickness and explosiveness makes up for it,” Bechard said. “A typical middle may have a little more physicality, but she can beat them off the ground and rely on that quick burst that she has.”
Those things have been crucial in turning Onabanjo into the player she has become. But at the core of it all is her passion.
She’s often the loudest, most demonstrative, roaringest Jayhawk on the floor. And there’s not a person on the KU side who doesn’t absolutely love it.
“I just love playing volleyball,” she said, putting it ever-so-simply. “So, having that high energy and just being excited comes naturally to me. I think everyone reacts well to it. If I’m in their face screaming they really get going and excited and I’m thankful they understand how I am.”
Bechard and Ebel agree.
“She’s obviously very athletic, but she’s very cerebral, as well,” Bechard said. “And she’s just got a motor. Her energy is very infectious. And I think it’s more of a mentality than anything — how relentless can you be?”
Added Ebel: “She can push that button and turn it on and off as many times as she needs to.”
No matter what comes of the rest of the season in terms of where she sits on the stat sheet and among the nation’s best, Onabanjo is going to be fine with it as long as the Jayhawks are winning and she and her teammates are having fun.
Those almost seem like givens today, which helps explain why no one seems to be all that amazed by what the stats show as a result.
“It’s been really cool so far,” she said. “Last year, I didn’t really feel like I played to my full potential and I knew that. I think the coaches knew that, as well. This whole year’s just been kind of crazy for me. I wasn’t expecting my results to come out so well and so quick.”
KU (12-1 overall, 3-0 Big 12) and West Virginia are slated to start tonight’s match at 6 p.m. After that, the Jayhawks will head to Cincinnati this weekend before returning home to take on Sunflower State rival Kansas State on Oct. 17.
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