UC Merced Magazine | Volume XIX, Issue V

Kilgore celebrates with his team. For him, team accomplishments are much bigger than his individual victories.

Kilgore grew up around sports and family. When he was looking to commit to a four-year university to play volleyball, the family aspect also had to be there. e Jurupa Valley native visited campus in November 2019 and knew that a couple of his club teammates were going to be Bobcats. “Once I already knew some teammates were coming here, it already felt like a family,” Kilgore said. “And the culture and everything else that was going on at UC Merced was awesome. I knew it had to be UC Merced.” e 6-foot, 7-inch Kilgore will graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in management and business economics and a minor in cognitive psychology. “For business, it was really just the number of avenues that there are,” Kilgore said. “I have found my niche in nance and that came from a class that I took, economics of investments. From that, I knew I picked the right major. With cognitive psychology, I knew I wanted to understand more of the way people think. I will be able to use that a lot further in life than just business.” It’s all A’s in the classroom for Kilgore and a er graduation he is planning to move to Arizona to work for JP Morgan Chase as he looks to become a nancial advisor. Along with being a student-athlete, Kilgore is involved further in the UC Merced Athletics Department as a statistician and an athletic training student assistant.

He has also made many friends and is excited to have the people he has met at college in his life for years to come. “I think 20 years down the line, I’m still going to love everything about this experience,” Kilgore said. “Hopefully I’ll be looking at a Cal Pac ring. at’ll be awesome. But regardless, I think that this experience of playing college volleyball here has de nitely changed my life. Making these friends and relationships and meeting people who are going to be in my life for a lot longer than even 20 years, is something that is beyond special to me. It is something that I am beyond grateful for. Twenty years down the line I will absolutely love looking back at this.” Kilgore is going out with a bang in his senior season. e captain is on track to break the program’s single-season solo blocks record, is on track to record the most kills of any Bobcat since 2018 and can become the second Bobcat in program history to record more than 250 kills and more than 50 blocks in a season. It is also safe to assume he will earn Cal Pac Conference postseason recognition. Still, it's really the team that is more important. “I would just like to say I am very proud of this team,” Kilgore said. “We did something that no other team has done before. We beat Benedictine. And I think we can continue to do something that no one else has ever done before and win Cal Pac.”

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