I started playing volleyball in 6th grade. My friend Abagail had wanted me to play for our school, so she would have one friend on the team. From there I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play volleyball. I had never watched volleyball and never played it either.

I didn’t really want to play but a new experience is always good; I was willing to try it out. I kept thinking that if I play volleyball I would make a lot new friends and it would be fun to make friends.

The first day of practice was pretty hard because I didn’t know what to do. I was glad because we didn’t have try outs so I wouldn’t have to embarrassed about making the lowest team. I made a lot of new friends and they helped me out with moving around and memorizing a lot of the positions. Some of those friends are my best friends today such as Kali, Hope, Dani, Tina, Alice. I did not like memorizing things at all, and so it was a pain. By the middle of the season I was good, I loved volleyball and everything about it, because I had more time to play and I had something to do, I also liked hanging around with my friends at practice.

In 7th grade it stared getting harder, more challenging. We had to do tryouts and that was not fun because I felt like I wasn’t as good as others. I had found out that I had made “B” team and that was okay with me because I wasn’t ready for such competition or like the stress that was put upon you. I thought that “B” team was going to me easy but I was wrong it was harder than I had been use to. The coaches expected a lot more out of us. We had to learn totally different rotations but the coaches said that they were getting us ready for high school. During the season i had learned the more practice I did my skills had improved. By this time volleyball was one of the most important things in my life, because of how much I had fun doing it and how it made me happy every time I played it. I loved all the friends I had and how much time we spent together.

8th grade was my last year of middle school volleyball, next was high school. 8th grade had been the hardest years for volleyball for me. Again we had tryouts and it was a lot easier because I knew how it went. After all the tryouts I had the information that I had made “A” team and I was really happy because I had been waiting for this. I had not really liked this year because the coach moved me around a lot, to different positions. I had first been a setter, then she moved me to right side, and then to left back and I very dislike playing back row. When this happened I had to learn different rotations and that really stressed me out because my brain is not that big. This year was a big disappointment because we never won full games but we won sets and I guess that is better than nothing. I loved volleyball; I had loved all the court time and playing time I had. I loved hearing the coach tell me the good things I did and how she kept cheering me on.

After the season was over all of us went out for ice cream… it was the most amazing time I have ever had! Our coach had told us things/improvements we had threw out the year. She had said to me that she was so proud of my serves, that at the beginning of the year they had almost touched the ceiling and now they are just barley above the net. My coach had really inspired me she was a really good coach for me.

I loved volleyball, I didn’t want to leave playing it for so long, I had talked to my friend Abagail and asked what club volleyball did she do, and she said she did M.A.G.I.C. So I asked my parents and they said yes, at first I wasn’t sure cause I didn’t know if I wouldn’t have any friends on the team, but I figured out I did, I had Kali and Dani. Now I am friends with everybody we are like sister kind of and I love that because I can always depend on them to help me up and comfort me threw the tough times.

Volleyball will be a big part of my life now and I hope my kids someday will follow my foot steps. When I grow up I hope to be a volleyball coach because I want to follow my coach’s steps and what a big impact she has put upon my life.