Columbus East graduate Cortney VanLiew prepares to serve for Polkky Kuusamo last season in Finland.
Submitted photo
Cortney VanLiew is ready to head back to Finland for her second year of professional volleyball, and she hopes to be able to play the entire season this time.
The 2017 Columbus East graduate’s pro debut hit a snag in January when she was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism and developed a blood clot in one of her lungs. She missed the entire second half of the season.
“I was really sick,” VanLiew said. “I thought I had a broken rib. They found out it was not a broken rib, but a blood clot. It was just a crazy, crazy experience.”
At the time, VanLiew thought she was playing the best volleyball she had ever played. She was named her league’s Player of the Month for December and led Polkky Kuusamo to an undefeated fall season.
VanLiew returned home for the Christmas break, and after returning to Finland, she began experiencing pain in the first game of the spring season. Polkky Kuusamo went on to win the league championship.
Because she was on blood thinners, VanLiew could not practice or play with the team. But she stayed with the team until its season ended in April.
“I was still rehabbing,” VanLiew said. “My coach was trying to be very careful. If there was any chance of me getting hit in the head, it could have caused some internal bleeding.”
After returning home, VanLiew went to a specialist at Vanderbilt and was cleared for action on April 25. Since then, she has worked camps at University of Louisville, where she was a sports information intern and graduate manager in the 2022-23 school year, and at Florida Gulf Coast, where she was was a two-time ASUN Conference Player of the Year and graduated as the school’s all-time leader in kills. She also worked a kids camp at Trinity Lutheran, where her mother Janet is the coach.
Cortney VanLiew instructs youth volleyball campers on June 18 at Trinity Lutheran.
The (Seymour) Tribune file photo
Cortney sees her future as a coach.
“It’s a definite thing that I will be a coach,” she said. “It just depends what level that will be, whether it’s as a high school coach or a college coach. That’s something that I will decide when I’m done playing.”
How long that will be remains to be seen.
“I would say that depends on the day,” she said. “I feel sometimes it’s something I could do for a long time if it’s something I want to do for a long time.”
A former three-sport standout at East, VanLiew was a three-time The Republic Volleyball Player of the Year and won The Republic’s Overall Female Athlete of the Year award as a senior. She played five years of indoor volleyball and three years of beach volleyball at Florida Gulf Coast.
VanLiew leaves Aug. 20 to return to Finland for the upcoming season.
“I think I will probably have a little bit of a transition period after taking what will have been eight months off,” she said. “But I think once I get back into playing shape, I’ll be good to go.”
