Volleyball, life, laughter and fun for Gardner

This archived article was written by: Michaella Crooks

The six-foot, one-inch freshman comes from a family of three and played volleyball for nine years. Being a football freak with attending the super bowl on her bucket list is USU Eastern’s Kyndall Gardner’s dream. She is a middle/right side hitter on the volleyball team and comes from Hurricane, Utah.
After college Gardner, “probably will travel the world.” If you are thinking of playing volleyball, Gardner’s advise is to, “Never stop practicing because volleyball is a repetitive sport. The more you practice it the better you get. Always keep practicing and stay mentally sharp and never let the mental game get the better of you.”
She is good at, “being a dork and being silly and goofy. Never take me too seriously.” The closest Gardner has ever come to being arrested was, “One night all of my friends went out to the desert in my friend’s Jeep for a bonfire. We found pallets to make a fire with and we had 20 of them stacked high. We set them all on fire and then the next thing we know, a bunch of kids from my rival school came and said that those where their pallets.
“Everyone started to fight each other and I didn’t know what to do, so I just grabbed some girl and started to fight her because it looked fun. When I got up her pants were on fire, so the boys helped her put the fire out. Then they all got in the car and drove off. As we were pulling into town, the cops stopped us and asked us why we were so dirty. We told them that we got into a brawl. They asked us was if we won, we laughed and told them yes.”
If Gardner could be anyone else, she would choose to be “Chris Hemsworth’s wife, Elsa Pataky.” If she could go anywhere in the world, she would go to, “Ireland because that’s where my family originated from. I want to see where my roots and foundation started.” Gardner wishes she could, “Just sing! I suck so badly, but I sing at the top of my lungs anyway. I just wish I was good.” A famous person Gardner has met is, “Khleo Thomas, the guy from ‘Holes’ named Zero. I got to face time him.” She has no phobias and according to her, “nothing scares me.”
If given one day off from all of her responsibilities, she would, “Round up as many close friends as she could and go to a private island and party the night away.”
The most embarrassing thing that has ever happen to Gardner is, “When I was in high school this little kid had a huge crush on me, but I always thought that we were just friends. One day he asked me to come check out this secret staircase in our school. I was oblivious to all of this, so I go to the staircase. This kid has to stand four steps up from me, no joke, and he pushed me up against the wall and tried to kiss me, but I screamed, pushed him and ran out the door. I started to yell at him to never try to kiss me again and turned around and saw half of the student body watching me.”
The worst date Gardner has ever been on would be, “When I was 17 and this kid was 26 years old. He broke up with my best friend and asked me on a date. He picked me up and I really didn’t want to go, but the date only lasted an hour.
“We went to eat Chinese food and I hate Chinese food but I told him that I did, so we went and I didn’t even eat my food. Then we went to the bowling alley and I like bowling, but I wasn’t in the mood for bowling. We were going to play Skittles, but then we got there and the employee said that we were not allowed to play that game so I screamed yes! Right in front of him and that made him feel bad.
“We walked outside and he threw the keys to his BMW at me. It was a stick shift and I can drive stick pretty well, but right as we back up, I stalled it. After that I had no problems driving it until we were on the road going home from St. George. It was a long strip of road and he told me to go as fast as I wanted to, so I hit the gas.
“The next thing I know, a cop is behind us and he pulls us over. The cop knows my dad, so he just told me to be safe. Once he saw how old the kid I was with, he pulled me out of the car and asked me if I was okay and if I need help trying to get away from him. I told the officer no, and that I was fine. He told me that if I was just saying that our code for help was going to be putting my thumb up when I walked away. I drove myself home and it had only been 45 minutes since I left for the date so I just walked upstairs and went to bed.”
If Gardner could be a cartoon character she would be, “SpongeBob because he lives under the ocean and that would be freaking sick.”
Gardner’s team took state in volleyball when she was a senior in 2014. Garnder stated, “We played Desert Hills and we beat them in three. We were not favored to win so it was nice.”
Gardner lives with, “her best friend Shania Hurst who has been her best friend since birth. We decided to sign together and play volleyball here.”
When Gardner was a sophomore in high school she had a stroke. She is supposed to be paralyzed on the left side of her face, but was lucky to recover.
Gardner is reckless when it comes to four-wheelers and other automobiles. “I have crashed a four-wheeler five times, a snowmobile easily 20 times and rolled a rhino once and have never broken a bone.”
Gardner says “If we all don’t die of Ebola, I plan on majoring in the medical field, and training under my dad’s best friend who just became a doctor in dermatology and becoming his medical assistant. I also want to travel the world and do humanitarian projects in places like Africa and Peru.”
Gardner has never been on a plane before and that is what spikes her interest to travel the world.