On October 18th, 2016, I was a spectator at a Stockton University women’s volleyball game. This isn’t going to be a sports narrative about how many kills a player has, or about the history of the Stockton Ospreys in volleyball, or even about the results of the game. This blog post is about how beautiful athletes are when they are doing what they do best.
Let me start by saying that I know nothing about volleyball, so my sheer enjoyment was due only to my love for athletics as a whole, not to any attachment I have to the game. That being said, this post will be written using my limited – and by limited I mean nonexistent – knowledge about volleyball. As lost as I was to how the game works, I had nothing but the purest admiration for the way the athletes moved, swiftly and knowingly. It was like an ocean that had purpose in its waves, the way the women’s team covered each other. When one girl moved toward the front line to execute a play, the athletes behind her fell into line, knowing exactly where they had to be to support her.
It’s moments like those that I can reflect on and relate teams to families and their undying support systems. Families put issues, quarrels, and grudges aside when one of their own is at risk, as did this team. If there had been a dispute between teammates at any point this season leading up to this game, I would never have been able to tell. These ladies worked with precision and effervescent words of encouragement. After every well-executed play, they quickly circled up and tapped each other on the backs, both congratulating and encouraging each other with as many words as one can cram into two seconds. This was to be expected after a successful play. However, these ladies culminated quickly in this exact same manor, even after bad plays were made.
The athletic ability of these women was outstanding. The women on the front line soared high in the air in preparation to spike the ball, as if her fluorescent Nike sneakers had wings. It’s incredible that their time in the air could be solely accredited to the power in their long legs. The player who served the ball moved her body with such precision, knowing exactly where she wanted the ball to go and marking that spot with her eyes before swiftly sending it sailing over the net. Athletes had to rotate between setting their teammates up for a spike and being the person to execute such a play, and this beautiful volatility is what makes athletics both an art form and comparable to being on the front line. You never really know what your next move will be, because you can’t predict how the opposing party will act, but you know for sure that you have to make your counter attack effective. An effective counter attack is, in many cases, a beautifully executed one, especially to another fellow athlete.
There is such beauty in how both the body and mind of an athlete works. I’m not going to reveal the outcome of this game, because truthfully, my opinion of these young women wouldn’t change no matter the score. They played with clear determination and genuine adoration for the sport, and is that not the goal of collegiate athletics? If you ever want to see beauty in its truest form, go watch the Stockton women’s volleyball team play.