Personal Narrative: My Volleyball Team At Island Coast High School

I was born to run. I adore the feeling of aching legs, winded breath, and the absolute joy of knowing I have accomplished something so utterly momentous: winning a race. When I run, I feel strong and vivacious both on the inside and on the outside. Last year, I decided to join the high school cross-country team. I was extremely excited and could not wait for practice to begin, but I was also somewhat nervous. What if I was not talented enough? What if my skills were not competent enough? What if the coaches thought I was just… mediocre? I was so nervous, I began to doubt and feel dubious about my running potentiality.

Anxiety surged through every portion of my body. Tears streamed down my face almost as fast as thoughts flooded through my head. “It won’t be the same. You’ll be uncomfortable. The coach will hate you. They’ll all make fun of you. You won’t be good enough.” I struggled to push the thoughts from my head.

“Vivian, we are the only two returning players on the team next year”, my co-captain for the Mira Mesa High School Tennis Team notified me.

Competing for the spot. This kid named mike plays center field for the rangers, his high school baseball team. He is the captain of his team and his teammates and coach expect a lot from him. Their first day of training there was a foreign exchange student that plays the same position as mike and his name is Oscar Ramirez. When he first got their no one thought that he was good and no one knew who he was so they all looked down on him. Once he started batting and got out in center field then they all realized that he wasn't a joke. Everyone thought that if you played any sports than you are a jock and this kid named Zack always made Mike mad. Zack was walking down the hall way and stopped in front of Mike and was annoying him and called him

Ever since I was seven years old playing t-ball I dreamed of playing high school softball. Every year I waited not so patiently for the season to start. My junior year in high school I was the second basemen for my school softball team. That year my team and I were more determined than ever to get our team to the state finals. Before the state tournament we had to win conference, sectionals, and super sectionals. My junior year my team and I had our hearts set on being the first team in Somonauk history to ever win to the state championship.

Middle school is a time when kids attempt to figure out how they fit in, and that is exactly what I was looking to do when I started playing volleyball. I was in seventh grade when I decided to try out, and it was only because my best friend was playing. Little did I know just how organized and complex the game was; I just assumed volleyball was a more intense version of “don’t let the balloon touch the ground.” I never thought that I would become so passionate about this sport that it would have an impact on my character.

Starting high school was nerve-wracking for me just like everyone else. I had made the Varsity competition cheerleading team as the first Freshman to do so. I was also one of the first three Freshman to audition and make it into the Wind Ensemble, the top band. Being a Virtual Performing Arts School, where arts are weighed as college courses, it was very competitive to get in. I was surrounded by upperclassmen on both ends of the spectrum and was determined to prove myself.

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, not arrogant, have humor, but without folly.” Implementing leadership is not hard with a good leader, who conveys the qualities of mental strength, self-motivation, and confidence. As head cheerleader, I will be able to exhibit these qualities while implementing a structured leadership program with some of the three major factors in leading a successful team: communication, bonding, and organization.

Volleyball has been a large part of my life the past five years as I've played on Greenwood High School's Team. My transition from elementary school to middle involved joining the high school volleyball team, along with two other to-be seventh graders. These past few years have been marked with both struggle and triumph as we experienced three different coaches as the original coach stepped down. This left us with only 14 girls to play with one year, when an average volleyball team plays with 30 girls. We struggled as a team that year but we also came closer together through shared experience, which enabled us to work together even better as a team the year after under the tutelage of our third coach. My ninth grade year I participated very heavily on the team as I played both Freshman and

My 6th grade team has been extremely helpful with students who have behavior issues and with discipline. We would have a meeting each six weeks (I feel the meetings should happen more often) to discuss students who were doing often and need recognition and the students who were struggling with their behavior. If any of us had any strategies on how to help the student(s) we would share with each other. Through out the six weeks if one of us felt we needed to have a parent teacher conference, we would check with everyone else to see what time everyone was available and would set it up as long as it worked for the parent(s). If someone felt that a student needed to be referred for a Care team meeting, they would get everyone’s input and then proceed.

High school athletics can form a bond that nothing else can. Throughout my high school career I have been blessed with the opportunity to participate in multiple sports such as cross country, basketball, and track. These sports have shaped my character in a way that nothing else has. It has taught me to stay loyal to those who push me to be better, it has taught me to encourage others when they think they can go no farther as well as the other way around, and it has taught me that the people you play with in high school will have an effect on your life forever. They turned me into a person that is willing to go the extra mile for someone, and they have turned me into a person that will not give up in the sight of

Mark Zuckerberg once said “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." Without the opportunity of taking a risk, I would have never learned the skills imperative to succeed. One significant risk I took during my high school career, was joining my school’s volleyball program.

I first started playing volleyball at a very young age. I was in the seventh grade when my volleyball career started. My sister started playing in the seventh grade and I just wanted to follow her footsteps. My seventh grade year was ok because I had just started out and really didn’t know the game. There was A team and a B team, where A team was better than the B team. I tried my best to be on the A-team, but guess where I ended up, on the B team.

My basketball team and I were going head to head against Lamar Bruni Middle School for the second time that season. The parents loved to cheer us on and capture so many pictures of us, they were our cheerleaders all season long. We were 5-0 at the time and losing that game was not an option for any of my teammates nor the coaches. Unfortunately, I was not able to give it my all in that game due to me twisting my ankle in the third quarter.

Playing on the varsity volleyball team is an adrenaline rush like no other. To be able to play the sport you love with teammates that are like family, in front of a crowd of actual family members is the ultimate feeling. Playing is even better when you, a small town nobody, beat a ranked team in the first set. We had just beaten Humboldt 25-17 and I was on top of the world. We were playing like our lives depended on it and I couldn’t be more proud of the girls.