Personal Narrative: One Of The Best Travel Volleyball Team

While preparing for tryouts, I was expected to condition for two hours every day, playing and exercising vigorously. Once tryouts came along, I was in my best shape physically, but mentally, I still feared I wasn't good enough. Luckily, I was wrong to doubt myself because I made the team. All three teams spent hours practicing together, which made me nervous because most of the girls were more experienced. Even though I made more mistakes than the varsity players, they always encouraged me. Because of this, I became a better player and person. As the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu stated, “If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” By allowing me to make mistakes without making me feel like a complete failure, the varsity players set a good example of leadership. Since they were understanding and did not assume an attitude of superiority, I was inspired to be humble and compassionate toward others. Honestly, I am glad I persevered through the tough times because it has taught me the necessary lessons to be a great role model. I hope I can motivate girls to not only play volleyball but to also express the importance of transferring the life lessons learned from the game to their everyday

I was dropped off the travel baseball team? “How could this be” I asked my dad, he replied “I don’t know Josh you didn’t put that much effort into your last game and you don’t try in practice”. The travel baseball team is the most prestigious youth baseball team when I found out I had been dropped I was heartbroken I wanted to crawl into a hole and cry. My dad tried to talk me into trying to try out for different team I just turned around and didn’t say a word. I ran outside, grabbed my baseball glove and threw it in the pool I never wanted to see a baseball glove or bat again.

Gold was close, but certain with under 1 minute left. On July 30, 2016 the Keystone West Lacrosse team had gone 2-0-0 at went to York PA and were hoping that even with some injuries they would still win the championship tomorrow.

A memory that is etched into my brain is when I was asked to come back and be on a national lacrosse team. This summer I went to try out for a national lacrosse team down in Ocean City. The team’s was named, “ Diamond National” and they were a pretty good national team. This is the first time I tried out for a national team and I thought I didn’t do my best at the tryouts. Even though I didn’t do my best I was still asked to come back.

It was my sophomore year, and the day had come to find out who made the varsity lacrosse team. We piled into the locker room to discover rows of brand new helmets. The list of the varsity players was written on the whiteboard. The team was excited, the locker room buzzing with noise. My heart dropped as I realized that my name wasn’t written there. My friends were admiring their new helmets and I had to hold back tears and disappointment. I know now that I still had to be developed at the junior varsity level, but it wasn’t easy to understand back then. At practice that day, I played out of pure spite, every move filled with rage. You aren’t good enough, I thought. I left practice that day without saying goodbye to my friends.

I believe joining my high school lacrosse team was an influential part of my high school career. Having social anxiety, it was not always easy for me to be around others kids. Joining the team thought me to face my fears and that sometimes it is better to stop thinking and just take that “leap” into whatever you're afraid of. Secondly I learned to push through challenging times even when I wanted to quit. Lacrosse also allowed me to meet people who I would come to look up to, and cause me to want to improve myself for the better.

Sixty pairs of ears belonging to the sweaty high school boys still in their lacrosse pads eagerly tuned in to the list Coach Griffin was relaying. First, he sounded off names of seniors, followed by juniors. Then he started reading sophomore names, and I perked up, anxious and nervous. He read off about six or seven names, but not mine. He then folded the paper he was reading from in half and slipped it into his pocket. As he did this, my heart sank, for I knew what he would say next: “Those names I just called have been selected to be on the varsity roster for the 2015 Marmion lacrosse team. Congratulations! Let’s have a great year. If I did not call your name, you are on the JV team.” I was devastated.

“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.

“I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! One! Two! Three! Gooooo Breakers!” I believe that those six words helped my lacrosse team win the championship game and motivate me to score my first goal of the season!

There were 3 families going to Toronto, Canada to watch the “Panama Girls Basketball Games.”They were staying in a large house in a small neighborhood. When it was time to go to the basketball game we had to drive to a small train station about 3 miles from the house. The train station was very small it only had a few trains going to the station. As we walk up the concrete stairs to the track we can here wheels on the solid metal track. As the train pulled up it kept going and you saw lots of heads from the large windows go by.We got on a long silver train with about 25-30 cars and each had two levels. You walked onto one of the cars and the seats were blue with red,yellow, and white spots on it. The carpets match the seats and each car had maybe 20 seats and seat held 2 people.

The green, leafy smell of the grass beneath my feet. The deafening cheers of the spectators around us. It was my very first season playing travel soccer. I played in years prior but it was just a recreational league, and I was playing with and against all of my friends so there was no true competition.

I still remember that first game, 10 years old dressed in a blue and white cheerleading costume, and pom poms in my hands. The teams comes running out of the locker room and the crowd goes wild, standing and cheering. My mom kept talking about her first game, and watching the guys shot the basketball and taking pictures of her favorite players. The game ended that day, and the Villanova men’s basketball team won that day.

Before the 2012 championship, men's volleyball did not have an official divisional structure; even now, that structure is truncated. The National Collegiate Championship remains as the NCAA's top-level championship, but Division III members now have their own championship, officially known as the NCAA Men’s National Collegiate Volleyball Championship.

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.

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.