It’s been a few weeks since the boy’s volleyball team began their season and they’re off to a rough start. As of April 19, 2016, the team’s record is 2-0-2. However, it is still the quite early in the season and as the saying goes, “there’s always room for improvement”.  I am confident that the boys will do better as the season progresses, as they polish their skills to their pinnacle and they beginning winning ways anew.

Sophomore Firaoli G. had quite a lot to say about the current season, positive things of course. When he was asked whether or not he has felt that his skills  have improved since the beginning of the season, he stated that he did feel like his skills have improved: “[he] can jump higher” and of course, this means he can block more oncoming shots and that “[he] also feels more agile”. Agility in any sport is key, especially in a sport like volleyball. Players must be able to stretch their limbs quickly and in quite unorthodox ways in order to hit the ball over the net and back to the opponent’s side of the court. Firaoli wasn’t the only player who felt that his skill have improved, sophomore Ndubuisi A. stated comically that “[he] can finally serve”.  A good sense of humor is always nice. Moving on, most sports teams have a little “ritual” they do before they begin their matches, according to Firaoli G. the team captain “Xavier D. and Omer B. came up with it”. The basic premise of the ritual is that the whole team congregates together and Xavier D. saying  “who’s got my back” which the other team members respond with “I’ve got your back”.  The ritual sound pretty cool. It feels like it would inspire the team and boost their morale.

Since the start of the season, according to Firaoli G., Coach Severns has changed the training a bit, Firaoli G. states that “before [they] used to do conditioning and now [they] run plays”. His teammate Ndubuisi A. had a similar statement when he was asked the same question, he stated that ” [Coach Severns] wants us to focus on what we are lacking”. Running plays and focusing on the needs of the players will only improve the team’s overall performance, this shows how skilled of a coach Mr. Severns is. Coach Severns had something similar answer to what Ndubuisi A. said: since the season has now begun, they’ve been “working on improving skills”. Once again the improving of skills will only do good for the boys and lead to nothing but success. Sadly, I forgot to ask whether or not it was a good day for running. However, team captain Xavier D. seems to reinforce the idea that the boys run by stating that “[they’ve] begun to run more now”.  Looks like Mr. Severns will never let a day pass without making the boys go out for a nice run, because, as they say, “it’s always a good day for running”.

The boys’ volleyball team still has a long season to go and plenty of room to improve, as time passes by they will win more games and their morale will improve because of it.