by Emily Almeida
Volleyball, originally called “mintonette”, was invented by William G. Morgan in 1895. The game is supposed to be a combination of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball.
The boys volleyball team is known for their amazing spikes, sets and bumps. They have made their way to nationals and plan on doing it again this year taking home first place like last year. We got the opportunity to interview the team captains of Varsity and Junior Varsity.
Junior Varsity:
Bruce Jackson (graduating year 2020)
-What made you decide to play volleyball?:
I wanted to try a new sport.
-How long have you been playing volleyball for?:
I have been playing for one year.
-Do you play club? If so, where?:
No
-Do you play other sports?:
Baseball
-What goals are you trying to achieve this year?:
My goal is to get better and better since this year is my first season playing.
-Is it hard being a student athlete? Why or why not?:
Yes it is hard because you have to handle long hours of practice and then getting home to stay up late to do homework.
-What is your favorite thing about volleyball?:
My favorite thing is that even though we take the volleyball program very seriously we can have a lot of fun and brings people closer.
Ashby Barnette (graduation year: 2020)
-What made you decide to play volleyball?:
I wanted to try a new sport.
-How long have you been playing volleyball for?:
I have been playing for two years.
-Do you play club? If so, where?:
No
-Do you play other sports?:
I do cycling
-What goals are you trying to achieve this year?:
My goal is to improve my skills to move up to varsity next year.
-Is it hard being a student athlete? Why or why not?:
Yes it is hard because you have to handle long hours of practice and then getting home to stay up late to do homework.
-What is your favorite thing about volleyball?:
My favorite thing about volleyball is celebrating the wins with my teammates.
Varsity:
Nick Espelage (Graduation year: 2019)
-What made you want to play volleyball?:
I wanted to play volleyball because I wanted to try a new sport.
-How long have you been playing?:
I have been playing for about five years now.
-When volleyball season is over do you play club? :
Yes I play club at OG.
-Do you play any other sports or just volleyball?:
yes I do curling it’s honestly my favorite thing to do sometimes even more than volleyball. It really just calls to me.
-What goals are you trying to achieve this year?:
We really want to make it to states again.
-Is it hard being a student athlete? Why or why not?:
Yes it is because you still have a ton of work to do and there isn’t a lot of time to get it done.
-What is your favorite thing to do in volleyball?:
I love to be able to get better and better because you can always improve. It’s also really cool when you can learn from other players on your team.
Ryan Lynch (Graduation year: 2019 )
-What made you want to play volleyball?:
I really wanted to continue to play volleyball so that I could get a second varsity letter.
-When volleyball season is over do you play club?:
Yes I do play club I go to OG with some of my fellow teammates
-Do you play any other sports or just volleyball?:
No I just play volleyball because it is my main focus.
-What goals are you trying to achieve this year?:
I really want to be able to make it to states again.
-Is it hard being a student athlete? Why or why not?:
Yes it is because practice runs super late and you still have to do all the work from your classes.
-What is your favorite thing to do in volleyball?:
I love to spike the ball because it can relieve stress for me and that results in a stronger hit so it’s a win win.
The boys have videos of them playing, here are their social medias to check them out:
Bruce: Instagram: @lil_bruzie, Snap:beast_bruh
Ashby: Instagram: ashby.barnette, snap:acb01studios
Nick: Snap: espelage_88
Ryan: Instagram: ryan._.lynch