Adorning the locker room wall of the Michigan volleyball team is a simple, yet meaningful phrase. “Committment to the unknown.” Jackie Nissen, as she entered the locker room as a young freshman, had dreams of becoming an All-American, leaving her mark at Cliff Keen Arena.

Michigan athletes who walk through the locker room are all ultimately “committment to the unknown.” As the players know hauntingly too well, in sports there are no guarantees.

They understand some goals are dreams that may be attainable at one point in time, and due to circumstances unachievable in the next. The Wolverines witnessed this in Jackie Nissen, whose injuries throughout her career have made her dreams of being an All-American unachievable.

The injuries started in Nissen’s junior year of high school in 2006, when she had a surgery to shorten a tendon in her shoulder. The simple surgery allowed her to continue to play. But she then needed yet another on her shoulder to fix her torn labrum.

“I remember vaguely the doctor saying that there was a small chance of (it) getting irritated (because) right where they had to fix it, it was where my bicep was.” Nissen recalls of her meeting with the doctor prior to her second surgery. “But it was a really small chance.”

She optimistically rehabbed, believing that this small chance of irritation that the doctor warned her of would not happen to her. But it did. She had pain flowing through her arm, specifically where her bicep attached, just as the doctor said might occur. Pain became the theme of her life as a student-athlete.

Once again, the only relief she would have from the pain would be another surgery. Reluctant to endure the rehab and recovery of another surgery, Nissen opted for a cortisone shot to help the pain.

“It was great while it lasted.” Nissen says, her voice trailing off.

Although the cortisone shot allowed her to participate in practice, she left practice with a limb that felt as if it weighed 100 pounds, causing her pain to intensify. Finally, she succumbed to the idea of a third surgery, which she underwent in 2008.

In the meantime, a stress fracture was added to her injuries, leaving Nissen with a swollen foot. And after months of medicating herself through practices and restless nights filled with pain, Nissen sat down with her doctor and Michigan coach Mark Rosen. The three came to the decision for her to finally call it quits.

Surprisingly, Nissen described her decision to be done with playing college volleyball as a relief.

“If you had talked to me two months before it, I would’ve said, ‘Absolutely not, I want to give this everything,’ ” she recalls. “But when he came to me it was a relief.”

Although playing volleyball is no longer a part of her life, Nissen hasn’t given up her place on the team. Taking her injuries in stride, she worked on a plan with Rosen to be the team's student assistant.

“Coach told me I could define whatever type of position I wanted, and I told him I just wanted to be treated like I’m an injured player,” Nissen said. “I want to travel if it’s possible."

While the job at first didn’t entail traveling, after her teammates insisted, Rosen agreed to let her partake in all the activities an injured player would. Whether it was pointing out things to aid in the development of the middle blockers or shagging balls to help practice run smoother, her day-to-day role is obvious to those on the team.

Despite her injury-plagued career, through good and bad, Nissen has an aura of grace which has been admirable to newcomers on the team. In fact, senior defensive specialist and housemate of Nissen, Maggie Busch, sees her as someone who the freshmen can easily look up to.

“They feel comfortable around her,” Busch said. “She leads by example … (which) I feel is truly rare in this world.”

Nissen is also the first volleyball player to go through the nursing school under Rosen, a feat requiring impeccable time management as well as intense dedication.

Nissen has taken on her challenges and obstacles with vigor.

“Because I committed to coming here, I committed to playing volleyball here and if I can’t do that I want to make sure I finish out strong,” Nissen said.