By Lenaia Powell
Another night in the Joe A. Sterling gymnasium. Whistles blaring, crowds cheering, the smack of volleyballs being hit and bounced around— rekindling the sport whose first season ended about four months ago. That’s right ladies and gents, volleyball’s back. But this time, the net is 7 inches higher.
Ever since the end of the women’s volleyball season back in October, fans have been anxiously awaiting the start of the men’s season in February. The difference between the two being the men’s teams typically have quicker plays whereas women’s teams have longer, anxiety-inducing rallies. What’s even better is how this year’s team seems even more promising than ever. “I think they’re better than they have been in the past,” said Mrs. Anderson, the assistant coach. “They have a couple new freshmen— the freshman setter and then another freshman, Mrs. Robert’s son. And then a boy moved in, he’s an outside hitter. I just think they’ve got a lot of potential.”
Jonathan Gardon, sophomore, team member since freshman year, agrees that this season is going to look really good for them. “I think we have a really strong team, we have a lot of potential and ways to grow.”
But don’t just take their word for it, as it is evident in the team’s performance during the preseason games that they are a force to be reckoned with. As we all know, West Orange has a very reputable athletic (and particularly volleyball) program, and they experienced defeat against our boys.
The team is also close-knit, contributing to why they play so well together. “Taking some relationships from last year— that we were all on the team— there’s a lot of new people that we’ve gotten to know, but we’ve quickly become friends,” explained Jonathan.
In team sports, how you interact with your teammates off the field— or in this case, the court— plays into how well you play together. “We each communicate and we actually talk to each other— we actually have a good chemistry,” Jonathan added, showing how the aforementioned relationships are beneficial to their performance.
Conditioning also plays a role, as Mrs. Anderson expressed the importance of staying fit by working outside of practice. “I think conditioning prevents injury, makes you stronger— I think it makes you faster,” she stated.
I, personally, am able to experience the JV team’s practices because I help them. From my experiences, they are much more intense than the practices I had with women’s varsity. Every time a ball dropped, the whole team had to run two laps around the gym, a routine that wouldn’t differ from JV to Varsity. But if anything, that’s not even as bad as what varsity has to do if a mistake is made.
With much more left in the season, it is hard to say much about the team so far. However, from the way things are going so far, we can all look forward to the upcoming season.