sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

April 12, 2021


a lot is riding on volleyball
posted by soe 1:34 am

Volleyball is set to resume next week. Outside of seeing my parents and my friends, these games have been what I’ve missed most. I’ve played in various leagues and on various teams for nearly a decade down here, and going from what had been a twice-a-week schedule to not playing at all for over a year has been bad for me, both physically and mentally.

The group I’ll be playing with is most of the team that we played with last year. One teammate returned to Germany and another has (at least temporarily) relocated to Florida, but the rest of us are back. We play well together and I think we like each other, and our vibe is competitive but not at the expense of being supportive and having fun. I have played on and against teams that have lacked some or all of those values, and I’d rather give volleyball up than to play on them again. (I can stomach playing on non-competitive teams if the players support each other and enjoy playing, but it does get discouraging to keep losing. Those teams tend to shed players as the weeks go by, and then you end up losing because you can’t bring enough people to play in the final weeks.)

I’m putting a lot of pressure on volleyball to force me out of the apartment during daylight hours, to give me a reason to look forward to a day that isn’t Friday, and to get me out of my head so much. It’s possible it’s too much to ask of a rec league sport and eight teammates. But maybe it’s precisely the right ask. We won’t know until we meet at the net next week.

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