Michigan Elite Volleyball Team

Mere peasants conquered the great Yuan Dynasty. Genghis Khan, who united the Mongols and turned them into a world class army, ordered his army to conquer China. They succeeded and a new empire rose, the Yuan Dynasty. The Red Turban Rebellion was an uprising by the Chinese peasants against this new empire. The Red Turban Rebellion led to the downfall of the Yuan Dynasty due to dynastic decline, the rise of the Red Turbans, and major battles.

Ever since I was young, I had always dreamed of playing college volleyball. After playing volleyball for 10 years college letters were finally beginning to flood my mailbox everyday and college coaches were sending emails to me left and right. This all began in January of last year. At my first tournament of the year in Columbus, college coaches were swarming the courts. They were like worker bees after the first bloom of spring. I remember crossing paths with one coach, in particular. That coach was Pete Hoyer of North Carolina State University (NCSU). I vividly remember greeting Pete with a smile and a simple hello. Pete Hoyer did not return the greeting.

I was doing everything I could to make Rock Ridge’s volleyball team. I was working out almost every day, I went to every volleyball open gym, and I went to many clinics and camps. Making this team was very important to me, and I didn’t know what I would do if I didn’t. I’ve been working very hard to get a spot on the team. However, nothing could mentally prepare me for the three-day long try-out process.

What do you think when you hear volleyball; serve, bit, pass, net and ball. It's so much more than that it's aggression, passion, oomph,uphill battle, and love. At first I thought volleyball was just for fun, but then one day that all changed. "Hurry up and make sure that you have everything you need," my mom shouted. "Okay, I'll be out in a minute," I replied. I promptly jammed my shoes into my bag, zipped it and rushed out my bedroom and down to the front door. My mom rushed in and said, "Let's go." We seemed to accelerate down the road. As we approached the gymnasium the car and dashed into the building. Legion points into the game everyone started to glance around frantically

Sally Harrison is adroit when it comes to playing volleyball. She is the best volleyball player this school has ever seen, although some people continue to scrutinize the way she plays the game. They claim she is belligerent, and hasty when she plays the game. They’re wrong she is benevolent, and amicable. She plays the game how it should be played and plays it meticulously. Not only does she lead the team in points, she is the driving force of the team. To the people who think she is no good for the team her confidence is impervious to the comments, but her reputation isn’t. Her future career in being a volleyball player is in jeopardy because some people continue to have an averse towards her because of her past reputation. She has matured

We start with the stretches. The seniors move to the middle in order for the younger volleyball prospects to see the exercises clearly. To teach them about Union’s school spirit early on, we chant U-N-I-O-N twice for every exercise. Then we lace up and hit the track. Run a lap, get low, run a lap, high knees, run a lap, butt kicks, run a lap, karaoke, then sprint for the finish. After our brief water break, we head up to the bleachers and a sense of dread fills the group of one hundred and fifty girls. “How many will they make us run today?” we ask each other. Three, four, five? It always fluctuates, so it is good to guess. As usual, the seniors start up the bleachers first and we shout out our names as we step a single foot on the first bleacher. By the end of the first round of bleaches, I am sweating profusely in the unforgiving August heat and praying for mercy. I look in the faces of other prospectivevolleyball players and share a look of exhaustion, while the sweat drips off my forehead and down my back. After the bleacher exercises are finished, we head into the gym and start tryouts. That is how it has been for the last

America in the 1920’s was a mixing pot of growing social and political issues that mirror some of the same issues we are having in our nation today. Some of the main problems to surface in the 1920 was the rise of fundamentalism and the scopes trials, the massive waves of immigrants coming to the United states for the cheap or free land available to them, the organized crime forming do to the passing of the 18th amendment and the start of prohibition, and the last major problem of the era was the conflict of reproductive right which leads to the planned parenthood created by Margaret Sanger. All of these issues started in the 1920’s but many have carried over to our generation and will still be here after our time has come and gone.

Our school was never very good at sports and only about five girls would be cut. I was jittery the day that the varsity roster was to be posted; I wanted nothing more than to be part of the team. After classes ended, I walked to the athletic board, where the varsity roster would be posted. I anxiously scanned the list for my name. I scanned it again. As my eyes ran over the page a third time, my heart began to sink. I hadn’t made the team. I was one of five girls who were cut from the varsity team. In a daze, I went to practice. Instead of focusing like I usually did, I went through the motions. The five of us who made up the junior varsity team had a separate practice with the assistant coach. After the sting of failure finally faded, I began to work harder than before. I showed up early to practice and stayed late every day. Every weekend I spent at least two hours on the field practicing. I was determined to make the coaches regret putting me on the “JV” team. As the season ended, I didn’t stop working to become better. Any day that was not too cold, I could be found on the field. When spring came, I joined the soccer team, hoping to improve on my endurance and speed. Over the summer, I spent at least two hours every day running and practicing. When the field hockey season rolled back around, I was ready to show off my skills and make the varsity

At tryouts all I wanted was to be on that team. All I thought had to do to reach my next goal was work hard. I remember walking down that back stairwell, full of students, rushing to get to the clear front doors of the school, where the list that my goal depended on was surrounded by my teammates. I used my height to my advantage and peeked over the crowd. My anticipation was quickly crushed, though, by an all encompassing sadness of not making the core team, but secondary one. That sadness quickly morphed into an unbridled anger. I was angry at myself, my teammates, God, but especially my coach, who I would later find out made promises to parents from the past season that their children would be starters. I never let the anger show during that forgotten season, I made some good memories and grew closer to people I thought I couldn't, but that anger was bottled up and needed escape. I needed revenge and that came in the form of club volleyball. I made the top team, and grew exponentially as a player, even playing on an older team for nationals. I came back ready for that next school season. I walked into the air conditioned, orange lighted, smelly, old gym full of confidence. I could do anything and no one was going to stop me from reaching my goal. I did make the core team that year. My goal I’d wanted for a year was completed and yet left me feeling unsatisfied and wanting more. These memories block out many others I’ve made in a wonderful six year volleyball career. It has formed me into the volleyball player I am today and that unsatisfied feeling gave way one of my next goals now, to play volleyball for a collegiate program at a division one school. But the only way to get that dream, as I have learned so many times, is work hard, pursue what you want, and never let anyone decide your fate for you, because if they do, it won't fulfill the goals you have chosen for

Throughout the duration of middle school, I had always engaged in played volleyball. When middle school was over, I spent my whole summer at volleyball workouts at the high school, because it was something that I really did take pleasure in doing. I went every time, without exception, when they were offered. When it came time for tryouts, I felt that it was unquestionable that I had made the team, because I had played before. In life, however occasionally the plans that you make for yourself don’t work out. I didn’t make the team and it bothered me to start with. I knew that I still wanted to play volleyball, but not being able to play wouldn’t be the end of my world. The following days I began to look around online at some places in the area that would entitle me to still play volleyball.

This was our opportunity to do so, before we had to act as competitors and not companions. After catching up, we rushed out of the changing room and into the gym, planting ourselves on the polished floors, our knee high socks sliding with every move we made. We sat in silence as the coach, Mr. McBurney, approached us and informed us about how each practice would play out, and about how even if some of us did not make the team, we should all treat each other as if we are teammates.

I instantly felt dismayed at the remark the coach had said to me and left wondering what I'd done wrong. As I got home, my dad asked me how the practice had been that day. I confided what the coach had told me and he advised me to forget about it and to work hard during the practices. So, every time I played volleyball I played hard and rigorously, even when it was just meant to be for fun. My dad also supported me by taking me to the church building so I can practice there, we'd set up and start doing drills. I ended that volleyball season playing the most with the junior varsity team. The coach congratulated me because he noticed that I had improved a lot since the beginning of the season. Once I began my junior year and tryouts came, I was more confident about my ability to succeed, this newfound faith in myself led me to re-join varsity and to become starter of the

I started playing volleyball in 1st grade on the CEGCYRA teams here in Eureka. I immediately had a connection between the competition and just having fun with my friends. One time I remember playing a game where the ball went into the net and I got it, then Ashley Leman got it back up. It did not go over but when you were in 1st grade and got the ball out of the net, it was a big deal. I feel like I can remember every detail of that game for some reason and don’t know why. I play volleyball here at the middle school and we are doing pretty

Here comes high school. My friends and I from middle school all went to the same high school, and played volleyball once again. The only difference between us was when I was on the B team they were on the A-team, and when I was sitting on the bench they were playing. We got to high school and things didn’t change, they were on JV as a freshman, and little old me was still on the freshman team. I decided that for the next year they weren’t going to be better than I am. I worked so hard the summer going to my 10th grade year.

One rainy night in November, I arrived to the church gym for my first basketball practice of the season. As I walked in the doors creaked and you could smell the gym floor. As I already heard the basketballs hitting the ground, bouncing up and down. My friends Brittany and Destiny walked in right behind me through the door. That was when we realized we were the only girls surrounded by all guys. As practice came to a start we began to run, it felt like we were never going to stop. Up and down the court as we ran suicides, you could hear the squeaking of shoes as we went from the next line back and then on to the next. Before we started scrimmaging, the two captains were boys. Brittany, Destiny, and I stood in amazement as we were the last three standing there. You could see by their expressions they didn’t want any of us on either team.