There are a ton of great memories I have of my high school volleyball years. From running laps through the band room because it was air conditioned, to burning one of my knee pads into my leg. This one has been popping in my head for a couple of weeks now. It happened during my junior year at the end of one of the practices. We were told to serve 20 good serves in a row. Once we were done doing that we could go home. Usually I probably would have counted a couple that I had missed and gotten out of there. But for some reason I decided that I was going to play by the rules this time.
I served several and then served on in the net. Started over and served one out of bounds. I did this over and over. Over serving, under serving, low serving so it hit the net (back then that was an illegal serve). The more I missed the more frustrated I got. And the more frustrated I got, the more I missed. It's one of those vicious cycles. My fellow players were finishing up and leaving the gym. And then there was only me. It would have been easy earlier to cheat, but now I was the only one the coach was watching.
She stayed giving me tips. And there was one other player that stayed as well. They were both there to support me and to help me get the job done. At one point I was so frustrated I was just slamming the balls and they were going every which way. Coach decided this was a good time for me to get a drink of water. I didn't want water! I wanted to finish this and get out of the gym. I wanted to be as far away from that gym as possible. I thought that I was just showing that I couldn't do this simple task. She was the coach though, so I went out in the hall and got a drink of water. The other player came with me and told me just to breathe and not to worry. I would get it done.
When I got back the coach said the same thing. Before she let me try again, she made me get my nerves under control. I started again. I messed up. The count started over. And again I messed up. I started a third time. I made it to 18. 19. 20! Finally! I still remember the coach and the player (I've chosen not to name her though, just in case) clapping loudly. I had done it. Sure it was about a 1/2 hour after practice had ended and everyone else had left, but I had actually finished it. I thank you two for doing that!
After that day my best position was serving. Serving was my main job my senior year and I ended up getting quite a few Aces and helped to win a spaghetti dinner for the varsity team. Even now I can help teach a serve better than any other move. When scrimmaging against the high schoolers, I still manage to get an Ace or two.
