Carlsbad High School senior Oliver Doty has recently committed to Harvard to further his volleyball and educational career. With a 3.2% acceptance rate, Harvard offered Doty a spot on their boy’s division one indoor volleyball team because of his athletic capabilities and experience.

The offer was given to Doty because of the time and energy he has spent throughout his years of playing volleyball. Doty explains that his commitment process with the Ivy began with the school reaching out to him.

“The coaches reached out to me in January,” Doty said. “They were talking with their admissions people to make sure my grades were good enough and they came to a couple of extra tournaments to make sure I was good enough at volleyball.”

Other than volleyball, Doty focuses his time on school and community events. He has had to deal with the pressure of keeping outstanding grades in classes while continuing to shine in his sport. Regardless of all of this stress, he is excited for his future at Harvard and with his commitment, he has developed faith in himself and his abilities more than ever before.

“A couple of months ago I wasn’t even sure I was going to play volleyball in college,” Doty said. “So I feel much more confident in my volleyball skills now that I’ve committed and that I know I am good enough to play with a D1 school.”

Being recruited for sports can be a stressful process, but Doty expresses the relief and confidence he feels now that he is committed to a single school. Doty’s commitment allows him to work towards a set future and feel more secure about his college career.

“I’ve kind of felt more confident now that I have committed because I’m not just floating around and maybe talking to a couple schools,” Doty said. “I just feel like now I have a place that I’m working towards.”

Though most of the pressure from the recruiting process has been reduced, Doty still feels slightly uneasy, mainly because he must go through the early decision application process like many other students applying to the school.

“I should have felt relieved after committing, but I still had to get through the application process, and I’m submitting that [soon], so once I’m done with that, I will feel a lot better,” said Doty.

Doty is grateful to the many people who have encouraged him throughout his academic and volleyball career and allowed him to get to the point he’s at today. He often sees his teammates and coaches in and outside of volleyball because of their close-knit bonds that they have grown through the sport.

“My teammates really supported me, I’ve played with the same team and had some of the same coaches for around the last 3 years and they were all very supportive,” Doty said. “We are like a family and they help me out whenever they can.”

Doty is interested in majoring in engineering, so Harvard will provide the necessary education for him to pursue this interest at a rigorous university. Doty is also considering other academically challenging majors, but his main focus as of now continues to remain as engineering.

“I want to be an engineer, I’m still deciding between biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering and maybe computer science,” Doty said. “I’m just really interested and focused on engineering.”

Since he was young, Doty has worked extremely hard to overcome the late nights, away tournaments, pressure and the many challenges that come with being a busy student athlete. He has finally committed to his future and is preparing to take on the challenges being a Harvard student will bring.

“I had my visit at Harvard and really liked it,” Doty said. “I feel like it set itself apart from any other school I’ve been to and decided that it was the place for me.”