Emily Gormus may not be outspoken, but her actions do the talking for her on the volleyball court, the softball diamond and the classroom.

The Buckingham County High School senior has brought leadership wherever she has gone, but in some ways, it has been subtle.

Neal Aldridge, the first-year Buckingham varsity girls volleyball head coach, was quick to describe what she meant to the team.

“She was a leader,” he said.

He noted that she was not a captain, but added that this would have changed about halfway through the season if he had not already made the decision at the beginning of the year.

Gormus was named the MVP of the volleyball squad at the end of the year.

“I’m more of a show by example-type leader, and I’m like that in my personal life too,” she said. “I’m usually shy and don’t talk as much, but my actions kind of take the role of me talking instead.”

It has been only within the last five years that she has asserted herself on the volleyball court.

“It’s like a new sport for me, kind of, because my main sport was usually softball when I was younger,” she said. “That’s what I played since I was 5, but then I came to high school, and volleyball was like a new thing, and it was fun, and I enjoyed it. It was something new I could learn and get better at and everything like that and just have new experiences with new people that I’m not used to playing with.”

She has become a versatile volleyball player.

“She’s just a really good natural athlete,” Aldridge said. “That’s the best way to describe her.”

He relished in the fact that she is left-handed and enjoyed how coachable she was.

“(She) never questioned anything,” Aldridge said. “Anything you asked her to do, she would do. (She wasa) hard worker, and she did everything well. She served well, passed well — she’s pretty much the whole ball of wax, and being a lefty definitely kind of gives her an advantage over some of the other girls.”

He noted she played as an opposite hitter, a position usually featuring a left-hander or somebody who hits from the right-hand side really well.

“And she took right to it,” he said, “(If) she puts her mind to it, she can probably do just about anything.”

Asked to choose three words to describe herself, Gormus listed the following: hardworking, loyal and driven.

“I’m really reserved, but I’m hardworking, and I have a good work ethic,” she said. “I’m always trying to do the next thing, be better, get better at my sport and in general, in school work and everything. And I’m not really a person that procrastinates either, but (I’m) on it, and I want to get it done so I can go on to the next thing and get it done. Also, I’m like the type of person that I put a 100 percent of myself into something when I do it.”

She had not made up her mind yet on a college major, but she is considering psychology, sociology and criminology.

She does not expect to play interscholastic softball or volleyball in college, but she said she thinks she is going to play for an intramural team.

As for which is her favorite sport between softball and volleyball, she said, “Both of them are kind of my favorite, (there are) just different aspects I like better about each of them.”