Logan Tom Olympic American Player Has Played Professionally Worldwide

Nicknamed the "American Nomad" Tom plays all over the world to earn a living as a professional volleyball player

Logan Tom jump serving during the Olympics (Daniel J Coomber)

Since 2003, Logan Tom Olympic player in four Olympic Games has played professionally in 10 different countries representing the USA on different volleyball clubs.

In Italy, traditionally a place where only the top professional volleyball players in the world are invited to play, Logan played for Monte Schiavo, 

Jesi followed by a year on the Chieri Women's A-1 Division volleyball team.

When a pro volleyball player opts to play overseas, especially in Italy, China, Japan, Russia, Brazil and now Azerbaijian, not only is their salary a major consideration for choosing a team but veteran volleyball players know how important it is to know which other foreign players will be on their team.

When a pro volleyball player first starts out, they are just excited about getting their first contract and being signed to their first professional team.

But as a professional player gets use to being required to always having to play at high levels of competition, they realize that in order to win, the teammates, the coach and the team's president and support system become very important when having to choose what team they will play for, for such a long season.

Back in the day when only two players were allowed per team, playing with a fellow national volleyball team member wasn't always possible but it was usually a professional player's first choice.

The second choice was playing with one of the top pro players on the national team from another country, preferably a top ranked country with players who have travelled the world and may speak your language.

Trust me, it doesn't always happen, I've been on teams where the common language was Italian, not English.

Win for @rccannes @StanfordWVB alumns @CarlyWopat (7kills 64%,2aces) and #LoganTom (14kills, 67%attk) vs Mulhouse pic.twitter.com/w49r3bSabU

— Volleyball Insomniac (@volleyvids) December 20, 2014

Some pro players will rely on their teammates to translate until they become bilingual. Usually the coach insists that you talk or try and talk or learn very quickly the language of the team you are playing for.

What I thought was cool about learning languages as a professional volleyball player is that coaches and players repeat themselves continually in a two or three hour practice.

Pro players know the basic skills so all they have to do is learn the words that describe each skill. If you hear the Italian word for "block" 30 or 40 times in a two hour volleyball practice then you learn the word pretty quickly. 

Well-travelled, three-time Olympian and one of the top pro volleyball players in the world,  Logan Tom should be well-versed in many languages by now.

She has played all over the world in the highest pro volleyball leagues which is an awesome experience to have.

The rules have changed for pro volleyball players, so that multiple European Union players are allowed to play per team in Italy.

On the Jesi women's volleyball team, Logan played with six "non-Italian" and six Italian pro volleyball players including Poland's national team setter Magdalena Sliwa, Italy's two-time Olympian Elisa Togut, Italy's national team member Eleonora Lo Bianco, chinese libero Wu Dan, and Czech national volleyball team member Marcel Ritschelova.

To say, that team was 'stacked" is an understatement. I would have loved to have played on that super team.

For a professional player,  to play together like this presents an incredible opportunity to improve your game, learn different styles of play, and to learn the secrets of international volleyball from some of the best foreign coaches and players.

It doesn't get any better than that for those professional volleyball players who want to play with/or against the best competition in the world.

On the Chieri volleyball team, Logan and five-time Olympian Danielle Scott-Arruda were the two American players teamed with two Bulgarians and one Brazilian player.

The coach was long time coaching veteran Giovanni Guidetti. They say if you can stay around long enough, eventually you get to coach everybody. I'm just sayin'...

For the 2005-2006 season Logan opted to play in Switzerland specifically on the Volero team in Zurich. Volero did very well that year but not well enough to keep Logan in Switzerland.

The best international volleyball players are always looking to challenge themselves to become better. 

Logan is no exception to the rule. Moving to warmer territory she transferred back to a Latin influenced country this time choosing to play in the Spanish league on the Tenerife team.

But once again, the lull of the Tenerife island wasn't strong enough to keep Tom there for more than one season, so she decided to go to the far reaches of the earth to play in Russia.

Logan played for the Dynamo Team, historically one of the top volleyball club dynasties in Russia.

A long time member of the US National Olympic volleyball team, Logan helped USA Volleyball bring home the silver medal along with her teammates at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

In 2010, Logan played on a team in China.

A long time member of the US National Olympic volleyball team, Logan helped USA Volleyball bring home the silver medal along with her teammates  in the 2012 London Olympics.

For the 2012-2013 season, Logan Tom won the Brazilian volleyball championship with Team Unilever under the guidance of the legendary Bernardinho, the Brazilian women's national volleyball team coach.

A smart move on her part, considering that the 2016 Olympics were in Brazil.

In 2013 in Brazil Logan suffered a devastating ankle injury while training in Brazil. 

According to Olympics.NBCSports.com Tom who has played in 8 countries plus the AVP beach tour opted to take Stanford's program based in Florence, Italy to finish her degree.

In 2014 Logan agreed to go to school in Florence and play for an A-1 team in Northern Italy, commuting six hours a day for three days a week to practice and to compete. 

#LoganTom - Yes, she Cannes! :) pic.twitter.com/R56aw44lsT

— Blokaut.net (@blokaut_net) September 24, 2014

Never one to stay in one place very long, Tom returned to Cannes to play in France for the 2014 season. 

In 2015 she played a short stint in Ankara, Turkey and after that she held out until she received the offer from Indonesia. She said what convinced her the most was the short three month season.

“I honestly didn’t know Indonesia had a league,” she said in a Skype interview about one week after arriving. “It was the first offer that piqued my curiosity, just because it’s a new place I haven’t been to.”

Indonesia was the plan for 2016 followed by a visit to New Zealand.

Where in the world is Logan Tom playing in 2018? 

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3. Logan Tom Olympic American Player Has Played Professionally Worldwide

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