If you have ever seen him in action, you probably assume that Evan Romero has been playing volleyball his entire life.

But in reality, the six-foot-six opposite hitter started later than most, joining his high school volleyball team during freshman year and the local club team the summer of his junior year.

And it all started by chance. For most of his life, Evan has been an all-around athlete, playing football, baseball and basketball and excelling in all three. During his freshman year, his basketball coach became the school’s volleyball coach and asked him to play. He agreed.

Though at the time volleyball was not nearly as popular in his native Miami as on the west coast, it was definitely beginning to gain some attention. Evan’s high school, Monsignor Edwards Pace High School, had an unremarkable volleyball program until coach Williams took over — Williams was extremely dedicated to turning the team around, and, in just a few short years, a once-average team became a contender for the state championship. Evan had a large influence on the team’s journey to success, playing under Williams for four years.

The summer of his junior year, the athletic director at his school recognized Evan’s potential in volleyball and suggested he find another avenue through which to pursue it. Romero was soon on the local club team.

Evan played only three months of club volleyball, during the summers of his junior and senior years, but gained an immense amount of experience. He and his teammates practiced daily in Miami and sometimes traveled to Puerto Rico to practice with Puerto Rican players. The team often participated in tournaments in California in preparation for the Junior Olympics. Evan learned from practice, but also from the players he was practicing with.

“I played with some great players,” he said. “That pushed me to get better and play up to their level.”

And from there, Evan was recruited. Though he was not at first officially recruited by Stanford, he got in contact with the volleyball coaches and came to the Farm on an official visit. He came during spring break — and while he was not able to interact with the larger student body or faculty, he was able to develop an intimate relationship with the volleyball players, his future teammates.

After his visit, Evan knew that he wanted to attend Stanford. When he was officially accepted in April, there was no doubt in his mind that he was going to go.

His parents, though supportive of his volleyball career, were at first a little apprehensive about his leaving to play volleyball in California. Evan was the first in his family to go away for school, much less all the way across the country.

“They were apprehensive at first, but they were happy for me,” he said. “I was going to Stanford.”

When Evan was getting ready to head out West, most of his friends and fellow volleyball players had plans to stay home in Miami. He did not know anyone at Stanford, with the exception of the volleyball players. He was, in essence, starting afresh.

“I wasn’t scared,” he said, “I was anxious to start and meet new people.”

The first week on campus, at an athletic dinner for incoming athletes, Evan met the fellow incoming freshmen — Jason Palacios, Kawika Shoji, Ed Howell and Garrett Werner.

“Since I did not yet have any friends here, I was hoping to develop friendships like the ones I had back home,” he said. “And I did. We bonded, we hung out almost all the time, and we still do. We have a good relationship off the court, which translates to a good relationship on the court.”

The first week on campus, Evan also saw his first practice.

“It was fine,” he said, “but I realized I had a long way to go. I didn’t know how to play volleyball as well as these guys did. I knew it was going to be tough, but fun because I was going to learn so much.”

The coaches especially gave Evan a lot of attention, working with him and helping him improve. By the time season rolled around, Evan and many of the other freshman players had improved substantially: in his first season, Evan, alongside Kawika and Garrett, started in almost every game. The young players’ game experience grew exponentially.

All this in spite of a losing season.

“It was tough,” Evan said. “Losing that many games is obviously kind of brutal. But the coaches did a very good job with a young team, reminding us that growth and improvement take more than just a year.”

Indeed, perhaps it was because of the substantial playing time — and the losing — that the young team has been able to grow and improve so much and experience such a degree of success this year (the team is currently 5-2 overall, already topping its won total from all of last year).

Individually, Evan has become one of Stanford’s — if not the league’s — best players. Just this past weekend, he led the team in kills in the Cardinal’s games against USC (19) and Pepperdine (14). On the year, he leads the team in kills with 88.

While he acknowledges his own individual progress and the team’s overall progress, he notes that he and his team members have a lot of untapped potential and room for improvement.

“We’re starting to play better,” Romero said, “but if we continue to work and continue to improve as we have been doing, it will be a different story by the end of this year.”