Personal Narrative: Volleyball

It was a hot summer day in Hammond, Louisiana and I was pouring down sweat like I had just jumped in a pool. The game was just about to begin, me and my team was eagle eyeing the bomb squad. It was so quiet that you could hear your own sweat hitting the bench. The umpire broke up everyone’s concentration by saying, “play ball”! The defense had ran out on the field and I started rolling ground balls from 2nd to short-stop to third base. They had all made good throws back to me and then I threw the ball into the dug-out because the game had begun.

Senior year is known to be the best year of high school. It's your final year, you're at the top of the social food chain, and for me, my last year of volleyball. Varsity volleyball season starts the first Monday of August, starting a month before school. The team goes to a tournament in Houston, Texas every year and it is always the best weekend of the season. The four days are full of bonding, long bus rides, hotel room talks, and free food. Making varsity for the first time, this is what you look forward to the most. The trip was going amazing, and we blew everyone out of the water on the first day, winning all of our games. That night we had a curfew of 10, a few minutes before lights out, the coaches did room checks to see if we were in bed. Ours went fine, others, however, did not. The coaches walked in on six team members, three electronic cigarettes, and one cloudy room. The girls, four of the six essential to the team, had been sitting in a circle part curfew passing the electronic cigarettes around. The legal age for owning and using an e-cig is eighteen, and none of them were of age. In fact, the youngest was only 15. The girls in the room were all who I spent time with on the team, and I had no idea what was going to happen without them. They were the "leaders" of the team, and

I had always wanted to go and try out for the school volley ball team but i wasn't sure if i was going to make it or not. I made the first cut and then the second cut. At the last tryout i put all the effort i had into it, hoping that I could make the team. The final cut came and i was not on the list. I was devastated. This was very hard to take. I told my parents that i didn't make it and they said that they knew i tried my best and that there is always next year in high school. Sure enough they were right. Coming into grade 9, I made the volleyball team and have been playing ever since. I thought that i was panicking and it was over but it turns out that i was just choking and thanks to my parents they helped me out of that

I wanted more than anything to prove them wrong, for myself, my team, and for Mather. This was my last year and I wanted to make every moment count. Every excruciatingly long three hour practice. Every early Saturday tournament. Every home game filled with cheers and chants. Every single moment. Whenever I felt that there was something I needed to work on, I stayed after practice. If I was on the volleyball court, I was always putting 100 percent effort into the game. No matter how tired I was, I loved every minute of it. Throughout the whole year, the team definitely proved people wrong. We never lost a regular season WaMaC game, and that is a very hard thing to do. I also got the opportunity to attend the senior all-star game. Getting the chance to play in that game, meant the world to me. All the hard work I put into the sport of volleyball my whole life was finally recognized. Sadly though, that meant my volleyball career as a West Delaware Hawk was officially over. I was heartbroken, but I was also

I have never been a sporty person, but there is one sport that has always intrigued me and that is volleyball. Since sixth grade I have been a part of CIPLC's Volleyball team, attending most VANASs & CEVACs of middle school and high school. However, before middle school I participated in the roller hockey and the basketball club. In addition, I joined the Chess Club and went to the Chess CEVAC on May, 16 2013 in the international school in Anaco, and in 2015 signed up for MUN and then attended SAMUN in Caracas in November.

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

I have been playing volleyball for as long as I can remember. From playing in club volleyball tournaments in the spring to bumping the volleyball around in my living room, I spend most of time playing or practicing for a sport. Most people believe that the only reason kids play sports is because they have athletic skill. I believe that playing a sport is more than just becoming the best player physically, but becoming the best player that your team needs you to be.

Many moments from our youth may fade while other experiences remain vividly embedded in our memories. Perhaps because, like a cut to our skin, an open wound, it takes time to heal. At the start of my sophomore year I was cut from the high school volleyball team I worked so hard to be a part of. All my life I have trained to be the best athlete I could be. I joined volleyball at the age of seven with a goal of being on my high school volleyball team. During sophomore tryouts as the final minutes ticked by the coaches started to call individual people in their office one at a time for cuts and unfortunately I was called. The finality of the coach’s words, ‘you’re not on the team anymore’ filled the room as my world fell apart. The practices, the games, the knee pads, the uniform—was suddenly present but

An all time favorite activities of me to do and to watch is basketball. Basketball is something I relish because it's exciting and really affecting, I started playing when I was in fourth grade. When I became attentive in basketball it was because I was trying out sports that year and I determine I admired it and really, enjoying it. Basketball is something my dad, and my brother plays, too. My brother and I try to practice, and learn from each other when we both have the time to practice.

I have been playing volleyball since I was ten years old. Now that I’m a senior, I applied to be a coach for the seventh grade volleyball team at our local middle school, Taylor. During the first week, I had a small team with nine girls, which was not nearly enough. Tryouts continued and the sign ups trickled in and soon enough, I had seventeen girls and two teams. I was sharing the gym with the sixth and eighth grade teams, so vying for gym time for each team was taxing, not to mention the two games per week for each team. The girls I was working with were scattered in skill level, ranging from beginner to near expert.

Have you ever been forced to do something that you really don’t want to do? It could seem like agony at first, but in the end it will usually always turn out OK. Well, at least it did for me. It all started on a chilly, winter morning in third grade when my mother’s heartfelt words and tears, changed who I am today for the better.

“Hey Angelina, what sport do you want to try out for? Which one either soccer or volleyball?” my dad said, “I don't know actually, I'll find out next week.” I said, “Well you better find out soon, you dont have much time to choose, I really want you to try out for soccer, you know, maybe I can help you out with a few new skills.” my dad said. “ Well okay then.” I said not knowing what sport I wanted to play.

While the social aspect of school was not always easy, being on the volleyball court gave me a sense of belonging and confidence. I had been playing for a few years and I had definitely started to excel. My team was phenomenal that year but nothing came easy. My hard work, skills and leadership were major factors, along with all of the diligent work my teammates put in. I had been told that I was talented: however, I was more than humble because talent itself would never be enough. It was the leadership skills that I developed through something as simple as a game of volleyball that added to my personal and team success. I started getting recognized and winning things like MVP and the sportsmanship award. It was evident that my teammates looked up to me. Those major accolades were massive confidence

Middle school past, and my time on the court was little to nonexistent. But I wanted to be a high school volleyball player. I started doing camps, joined a club team, and at night would pass the ball with my wall for hours, which made my sister

I would give it my all every practice and whenever i had free time i would work on perfecting my craft. Practice was making perfect, i was beginning to see results, i honed my reflexes and made receiving and serving into muscle memory. I had begun to earn the respect of my teammates and coaches. even the coach who doubted me was discussing the possibilities of me playing volleyball in college. By the end of the season i had received the “Most Improved” award, my teammates considered me an ace and the former captain wanted me to take over his position.