Volleying

I love middle school sports.

Around here, anyone can participate.

Taylor played football; Lex did cross country, basketball, and track; Shi ran cross country.

(I didn't forget Britt - she was more of a choir and poms girl in middle school)

Mar decided to try volleyball this year.

I was a little nervous for her, since she's never really played before (except at our family reunion this summer), and I personally never had great experiences in all my years of church volleyball as a youth (I recall jammed fingers and balls-in-the-face more than actual play time - although I had a mean underhand serve). Even Lex - I would say the most adventurous athletically of my children - mentioned how awful she was at volleyball.

The Monday night before tryout week we headed to the church for FHE to practice up a bit.

I talked up the benefits of the C team.

(equal playing time, the girls are distributed on the 4 C teams evenly so each team has some girls with more skills and some with less, the opportunity to make new friends, etc.)

(This is the entire C team - the girls are divided up into 4 smaller teams for playing)
Note: Upon further study of these photos, I have concluded that the A/B team is probably pictured as well. All three coaches are in the pic, so my guess is that this is everybody.

So far, Mar has loved it.

I've tried to figure out the scoring and rotation (so far it's been different at every game).

Three opponents down, it's been fun to see the improvement the girls have made.

At Monday's game, there was actually more volleying going on vs. the which-team-can-get-the-most-serves-over-the-net scoring of the first games.

Mar's team played 4 games (many of the schools they play have 6 C teams, so our 4 teams have the opportunity to play more - bonus!), and they were all good, close, fun-to-watch games.

(It's also kind of fun to note how much smaller Mar is than most the girls her age... reminds me of when Shi was younger... I had to include a couple pics to illustrate my point):

Shilo's VB commentary lately: "If I would have known I would be this tall, I would have played volleyball... maybe then I'd be more coordinated!"  I think swimming takes coordination, too, don't you think? She played one Rec season of VB back in 5th grade, along with the girl on the left in the CC photo with Shi at the top of this post. Kennedy continued playing on club teams after that season and is now a varsity player for LHS.

I'm looking forward to the rest of Mar's season (with a nice long Fall Break in the middle of it).
Keep up the good work, girl!