Emma Halter Talks Texas Culture

Texas is a team well known for its culture and that starts at the top with Jerritt Elliott, who has built this team on a foundation of culture. For as long as he's led the program, maintaining a strong, unified culture has been not just a priority, but the backbone of Texas' success. All at the center of it is one mantra: Good people love people. But sometimes it can be difficult to tell how exactly what that looks like on a day-to-day basis and how that gets applied to the team. For more on that, I got the opportunity to talk to senior Libero Emma Halter about how the team connects off the court.

Emma broke the culture at Texas down into three simple things: being hardworking, family-oriented, and loving. Everyone knows that they're here to work towards the ultimate goal of winning a National Championship, but the relationships go so much deeper than that. "Everyone just cares so deeply about each other, and the love is just undeniable. I would do anything for these girls and this team, just because I love them so much." For Emma and her teammates, wearing the burnt orange is about being there for each other just as much as it is about volleyball.

There is one thing that's a little different about this year, and it's the fact that this team is younger than it usually is, headlined by the large 2025 class of five freshmen joining the team. With that comes a lot of what Emma calls "young spirits," who "bring in new and fresh ideas and a bubbly personality, just so excited to be here." Somewhat ironically, I'd say Emma herself is a young spirit by that definition. That youthful energy has sparked a new kind of chemistry within the team, blending excitement with the program’s championship mindset.

Even as a young spirit, Emma is certainly aware of her age. As one of the rising seniors, Emma 100% thinks of herself as an emotional leader and takes responsibility for the culture at Texas. "Our leadership has done such a good job of maintaining the culture and I wanna do that myself. I've seen it done right by upper classmen above me and I try to follow their lead... I do feel the responsibility to carry some of the girls on my back." She adds that her and the other longest tenured players on the team are uniquely positioned to take on that responsibility—"We know what this culture's supposed to look like, we know what it's not supposed to look like."

Another part of our conversation that stuck out to me was when Emma talked about something that the fans and media don't usually get to see. On game days, the team is all business to get the job done and come out of there with the win. But being "all business" isn't necessarily what it feels like to be on the team on any other days. "I feel like we kind of come across as a pretty serious team just because of the way we carry ourselves, which we are, but we're also super goofy... I can be as goofy as I wanna be and no one's gonna judge me." It serves as a great reminder that elite volleyball players are still just people and college students that enjoy having fun and hanging out with each other. Some of this team's best moments with each other don't always happen on the court when the cameras are rolling—sometimes it's just laughing the day away at the poolside.

Emma really is the perfect ambassador of Texas culture. She's been on the team for years through plenty of ups and downs, always devoted to this team and to those around her. She's a perennial hype woman, always making an extra effort to support and boost up her teammates. Emma makes everyone feel welcomed into the family and brings a joyful attitude to the gym day in and day out. There's no one else I'd trust more as a leader of the Texas culture. The Horns are in good hands.