This story began recently this past weekend at my volleyball tournament. This was my first tournament with this new team, and it was a qualifier that would determine what division we would have to play in the whole season. We had barely little time together and only had three practices in preparation for this tournament, so there were a few doubts we would be in the higher division. It was 7:30 in the morning when I got to the gym and I was freezing cold despite having three layers on. I was excited to play as my mindset was to just enjoy my final season and I had no worries because I was not stressed out in recruiting unlike my previous year. Thankfully, we did not play first as I was still freezing cold along with my other teammates. Before our first game, my coach decided to make me and my teammate I have been playing with for three years, captains. This was very exciting because I had never been captain before as some of my previous coaches had chosen captains by voting, just like a popularity contest or just by pure favoritism (the captain had kissed up to the coach!). My coach decided to choose me and my teammate because he saw leadership qualities in us during the practices we had, and he knew us as we had both been returners to the club and knew a lot about us based on our previous coaches. The first day I thought was a great start to the season, we won 2 games and lost 1, but it did not make us upset that we lost because we still qualified for the upper division. The loss was also a close loss that led to a third set to break the tie, so none of us were upset that we did not win all of the games. The second day was extremely good as we won all 3 of our games! We definitely all were a lot tired from yesterday, but we still pulled off the wins. I was definitely tired as I was barely on the bench the first day, but I powered through it and definitely learned the lesson to eat something if we were playing back to back games haha. On a better note, my team and I placed in division 3 (subdivision) in the power division (highest division) and I could not be any more proud. My team had only just met but it felt like we had been playing together for years just by the performance on this tournament alone which determined where we would be for the rest of the season.
The lessons I learned in this volleyball tournament was to take more leadership and stand out on the court. I previously was more of a quieter person, and let my actions speak for me. But, I have learned that I can be even louder with my actions and communicating more. I learned leadership as I am one of the oldest on my team, so I should lead by example, but also be encouraging and lift others up along with myself. I encouraged my teammates and always talked to them on the court which led to more of my teammates talking on the court besides myself. I noticed when I was not on the court (my coach was testing the lineups), my team was less talkative and more errors would occur because the team was not talking unlike when I was on the court I made sure to communicate before every play. Lastly, the most important lesson I learned those two days was to just relax and have fun. I felt like I played one of my best I have in a while, and it is closely linked to the fact I was more laid back and played the game like I had nothing to lose, which was true, as I was no longer stressed about playing good and collecting highlights. However, being this relaxed certainly could not have been possible if it weren't for my coaches. Regardless of mistakes I made, my coach simply just told me to fix it and trusted me, and allowed me to stay on the court. This allowed me to play not stressed out because I have had my fair share of coaches who would take me out if I made mistakes which made me afraid to make mistakes and played more stiff rather than relaxed, but this was not the case for my coach. Overall, this tournament feels like it taught me more about character in volleyball in a span of two days than I had ever been taught in all my years of playing volleyball and the sad thing is, I learned it in my final season.
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