As a young girl, I looked up to those who were older than me and I was fascinated by how much they could do. I was especially fascinated with girls that were older than me and played volleyball. I wanted to become awesome volleyball players just like them. My older sister played volleyball in high school, so I had the pleasure of going to every game she had. A normal child would have refused to go and watch, but I loved going to see what I would call “volleyball stars.” I was excited to go with my family to watch the varsity high school match. It was something that I looked forward to as cheesy as that sounds. There was one particular game that I remember and affected how I viewed volleyball for the rest of my life.
It was a Thursday night and it was a typical humid night at the end of summer. It was a night for a volleyball match. The usual family went, my mom, dad, aunt, and my grandma. We all piled into the car and we were off to the game to watch my sister and her team beat their rival team, North Posey. It was going to be an exciting game because both teams were doing really well in their season and we hadn’t won against them in several years. We arrived at the school gym just in time to watch the end of the junior varsity game and watch the varsity warm up. As always I would sit with my little grade school friends and we would watch the game together. The game started and the high school girl’s gym was packed. Almost the entire county was there to watch. You could smell the fresh popcorn that was lingering in the gym. I was so close to the floor and the action that I felt like I was a part of the game. I could see the glistening sweat pouring from not only the players but also the fans. This was how intense this game was. I could hear the coach yelling from her seat, “Side out girls!” and “Get to your side lines!” I noticed her pacing back and forth anytime the team made an error. I would look back to the fans and they too would hang their heads at the faulty play. I would see a few parents stand up abruptly and yell a curse word or two at the referee. Our team really wanted this win.
It was bump, set, hit, and dig and so on for four agenizing games. To win the match they had to win the best three out of five games, so there was one more game to play to 25. I could see the players really starting to drag. After an awesome dig, it was followed by a slow, painful getting back up to finish up the game. It was almost too hard for each team to serve because they were just exhausted from playing so long. Soon their shoes looked like they were stuck to the floor with crazy glue. My friends and I were on the edge of our seats cheering on our team, “You guys can do it!” We were bottled with energy that I think we could have played for them.
The game was coming to an end and it was down to the last point. Our team had the serve and the battle was on. The other team got the ball back over and our team was able to set up the last play and slam the ball back down on the other side of the net. Our team won the game! I remember the sounds of the fans clapping, the high pitched whistles, and parents screaming out their daughter’s names. This was an exciting game to watch and it taught me something. Even though the girls were so tired after playing this game, they never once gave up. They pushed through the pain and won the game for our town. They also just had fun while playing and would say comforting words to each other to bring them back to positive thoughts. Watching games like this made me into the athlete that I was in Jr. High and high school. I thought about this very game when we played our rival my senior year. It made me want to work as hard as I could and to never give up on myself. I also thought about the little fans that may be looking up to me which pushed me to become a better role model for them.
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