The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Longhorn Hall of Honor: Erin Aldrich
11.19.2010 | Texas Athletics
Nov. 19, 2010
As a child in Dallas, Texas, Erin Aldrich entertained herself by running laps around the house, jumping up to touch door jambs and hurdling over ottomans. On those jumps, she naturally took off with one foot, a trait that would serve her well later in two college sports.
"It was so natural to me," Aldrich says. "It's like that was what I was born to do."
Recruited to the University of Arizona, she transferred to Texas before the spring semester her sophomore year. Soon, she was a two-sport All-American in the high jump and in volleyball -- a rare double.
Hitting slides in volleyball gave her plyometrics that no other high jumper in the country could mimic. And the final two steps in her high jump gave her rhythm and timing unlike any other volleyball player.
"It's like I was cross-training the entire year," Aldrich says. "And that felt right to me, because my whole life, I was always doing something. I would play anything with a ball or anything that required jumping. I liked the idea of even being a ballerina or gymnast."
Aldrich won four NCAA high jump titles and six Big 12 crowns. In volleyball, she is only one of two players to record at least 450 kills, 300 digs and 150 blocks in a single season.
Her sweep of NCAA indoor and outdoor high jump titles in 1998 and 1999 boosted Texas to four consecutive national team championships.
"It was an opportunistic time to come to Texas as a track athlete," Aldrich says. "We were all different people with one goal. I always felt like I was surrounded by disciplined, focused people. We had all the tools to win, but our dedication made it happen."
Her best outdoor jump of 6-4.75 has been equaled only by another two-sport star, Destinee Hooker.
Aldrich was the Big 12 Conference Volleyball Newcomer of the Year in 1998, and as a senior led the team in hitting percentage, kills and blocks. That season, she also set a then-UT single-match record with 32 kills against Baylor.
She was named the Big 12 Conference Female Athlete of the Year in 1999-2000.
At age seven, she had told her parents she planned to be an Olympian. She did just that by qualifying in the high jump for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. Her pro volleyball career extended to 2007.
Aldrich earned her journalism degree in 2001. She will receive her MBA from UT's McCombs School of Business in May. Aldrich is engaged to Andrew Shean, and the couple is planning a summer 2011 wedding.
