Set and Spike

Melissa and I are continuing to write on topics.  Today’s is about our first athletic milestone.

The earliest memory I have of playing volleyball in high school is during tryouts.  It was the school’s first year with the sport and I think my sophomore year.  The psychology teacher had volunteered to start a team and somehow my friend Michelle and I decided to go for it.  I was never into sports.  I once went to a few tryout practices for cheerleading in middle school but every time I kicked my leg up, some nerve in my neck would snap.  I still laugh out loud thinking about it.  I may be peppy at times but I’m no cheerleader.

I remember the tryouts distinctly because it was in my church’s gym.  It wasn’t my church at the time.  In fact, I hadn’t even met Scott yet.  But I was bad.  Really bad.  I can remember trying to serve the ball having no idea of any proper form and I could not get it over the net.  I may have made it once or twice.  Michelle and I bumped the ball back and forth a few times.

I don’t recall the acceptance process except that I think Coach ended up accepting everyone because he felt so bad.  So there we went.  We were on the volleyball team.  And there we stayed for three years (I think I played 10-12).

There was one girl who was really into volleyball and I think she hated the fact that we were on the team (or at least me) because we had no idea what was going on.  She would practice her spikes by herself against the wall while Michelle and I or even Melissa’s sister (who joined my last year) and I laughed and practiced together.  I can’t really blame the girl, she actually wanted to WIN a game and I will say that I for one was no help.

We traveled to all the games on the bus gathering bruised knees along the way.  I only recall playing in a game every once in a while.  And usually never long enough to serve the ball.  I didn’t blame Coach for that either.  But somewhere along the way, I got better.  Not great, but better.

I missed the Most Improved award in my junior year to a senior.  I honestly still think I deserved it.  Coach even took me aside to explain that he thought she should get it since she was leaving.  But I have no hard feelings.

I found myself in “the game” my Senior year.  The game I will always remember.  I was in the back once and flew forward on my stomach to try to get a ball on the back of my hand.  The local newspaper caught it.  I missed the ball.  But it was a pretty cool picture even though the caption of my only sports picture ever was “Just missed it”.

But the real action happened when I rotated to the front row (honest to goodness I think this was the same game).  A girl on the opposing team tried to spike a ball and I reached up with both hands and actually spiked it back down and it hit the ground!  I can’t tell you the almost out of body experience adrenaline rush I got from that.  Coach actually wrote on my Facebook wall recently that he would never forget the look on my face when that happened.

The team never had a fantastic season and I never won Most Improved or MVP but thanks to a ton of great memories and especially one special game, I didn’t feel like a fraud when I found this in my box of memories Sunday.