“I just don’t know if I’ve ever met somebody who every single minute is working really hard,” DeSorbo said. “It’s just really hard to do, and not many people do it. It’s not that other people aren’t exceptional, it’s just that Paige is on a whole other level.”
On Wednesday, Madden, a student in the UVA School of Education and Human Development who is majoring in kinesiology and minoring in health and wellbeing, was named the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Women’s Scholar Athlete of the Year – for the second straight year.
In addition to a demanding class schedule, she has been active in several organizations, including the Encore Club, Student-Athlete Mentors, Student-Athletes Committed to Honor and Leadership, and Madison House.
Madden has done all of it while training at a level she hopes will be good enough to qualify for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Madden laughed when asked about her long list of extracurriculars, which, this year, included tutoring local 10th-graders in geometry (through Madison House) and serving as president of Encore, which raises money for the Hospice of the Piedmont and programs such as Busy Blankets, which helps Alzheimer’s patients.