Have you ever been so nervous that you can only rely on instinct? That all you can think of is getting that perfect pass up. Your body sweating and then when the coach substitutes you in…You’re in a whole other world. A world where every effort counts, one mistake can cost it all but if your team has that drive, that urge to make the impossible happen  you can achieve anything but it all starts with you.

Last year March 1st was the first day of spring sports and all I thought about was volleyball. My goal was to make the varsity team as would any other high school athlete so I get to the gym, tie my sneaks like I’m choking my ankles and we get started. Since I was new to the school my first instinct was to analyze everyone trying out, their style of play and all of the things that they did positive and negative. One of my biggest struggles in sports is my height. What people didn’t expect from me was my high atheism, it was my turn to hit from the outside. I take my approach and in a split second I could see my shoulders over the net. Everybody’s jaw dropped to the floor thinking I had springs in my legs. Then a week or so later the coach meets with us one on one to tell us if we’ll be jv, varsity, or both. He tells me I’m varsity and once I heard those words travel into my ear I had some goals to set up as an individual. We practice every day Monday through Friday and honestly I wished we practiced the weekends too. Every time I got on the court with them it was like we were a family. Coming up soon we had our first game.

The school we faced wasn’t really a threat but since it was my old school I felt like I had to put out a burning flame. I didn’t start until the second set and when it was my turn to serve it was like playing tennis with one person. It was obvious from the score that we were the better team. Without even saying anything to my teammates I could tell that we had to leave an impression that day. We were pretty confident coming into practice that next day, we took a look at our schedule and noticed that the fourth game was a bit of a problem. We played a private school called Salesianum or Sallies. They had the number one volleyball team in the state. Our mind set from the rip was that we had to work hard in practice to be mentally and physically prepared for them.  We did end up losing to them three sets to zero. That game didn’t bring us down it only made us stronger.

As the season passed by we become more like brothers than teammates. Which leads up to our next game which was an out of state school called Unionville. The upside was that the game was home so we had the crowd cheering us on. This game was one of the most significant games of our season. We traded blows one play after another. At one point we had a decent lasting rally. Then it was go time. They were up two sets so we snag the third set. At the end of the third set we start chanting our school name. To me the most gut wrenching feeling is giving it your all and coming up short. When the fourth set came we ended up taking a loss. When the game was over I thought to myself we only get stronger from here and I promised myself that there will be different results next year.

The next game was Charter but then after that game we had another a couple days later. It was at a school in PA called Avon Grove. Watching them warm up gave us a big sigh of relief but there is one game changer that they had and any team can have it. It’s called momentum the funny thing about it is that it can carry the whole game out to a victory. The referee blows the whistle and Ryan serves the ball. I was amazed to see how many mistakes the other team was making. We won the first two sets with ease. Our only mistake was thinking they wouldn’t give up without a fight. We lose the third set 23-25 and I thought to myself this can’t happen again. During the fourth set we went through some bumps one of the line judges decided to call the ball being in when clearly the ball was three feet out minimum. Of course the refs side with them so we just brush that aside to take the victory. Close to the end of the season we looked at the standings and saw that we obtained the third seed. Our upcoming game was a very energetic team who was based off of momentum. They were St. Marks and this was our second encounter with them. We faced them in the beginning of the season and ended up barely winning. When they walked in the gym you could feel the tension waiting to be let out. This game was the meaning of volleyball and it showed everything about us as a whole. They took the first set by two points but we took the second set with ease. As soon as we had momentum in our hands it all just went away they took the next two sets and one. That game changed us as a whole and I know I’m not the only one who thought about that game for the rest of the week. We dropped down to the fourth seed which was highly unsettling. Our next game was a walk through the park… literally. By the end of the first set we embarrassed them 25-2 Kevin couldn’t resist but to take a picture of the scoreboard. If I had my phone I would’ve take a picture too. Weeks later it was playoff time and we had to prepare after because when we beat A.I. Sallies was knocking at the door waiting for us. We ended up smacking A.I. out of the playoffs but fell to Sallies. We ended up winning third place by beating St. Marks and even though we won it wasn’t over.

All these events that’s happened to us have formed something. People think that what you say won’t affect them. A coach literally thought that our team was less skilled than his but the disrespectful part was that he said it publically online. People really think that we’re not ready but they have it all wrong and what they don’t realize is that they’ve started something on the court by trash talking and we’re going to finish it on the court. Not by trash talking back or fighting but by giving it our all and showing them who we really are. This upcoming season you won’t even recognize us.