This semester, I decided to try something new with some friends: joining a volleyball team. Throughout my high school years I had played soccer and softball, and was a part of the swim team. I had always thought that volleyball was a cool sport, but never had time to try out or play. I would play in the backyard with some friends once in a while, but never play competitively. Once I found out there was an intramural league at Stockton University, I was excited to join.
After talking to a few friends, I found a team of six people who were interested in playing with me. Once November came around, we paid the bursar’s office and got t shirts made as our uniform. One of the kids on my team designed the logo himself, and we only had to pay five dollars for the shirt! We were all set to go, and everyone was looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, it didn’t go as smoothly as we had all hoped. We only had two boys on the team, and in order to play games each team needed two boys and two girls on the court at a time. That meant that we couldn’t afford for one of the boys to miss a game. However, one of the boys on our team started having personal issues, and couldn’t make any of the volleyball games. He had to go home almost every night, and all of our games were at night. We had to email the leaders of volleyball multiple times and ask if we could replace him with a different boy. After a lot of running around and stressing out, the people responded and told us they understood and that we could have a replacement. We were all excited and grateful that they were so understanding.
After that fiasco, however, our struggles were not over. Two of the girls on the team did not put the volleyball games on their priority list at all, so they rarely came. We played every game except one with only four players, and as a result lost every single one. One of my best friends on the team is a commuter, and she still made every single game. She would stay at my dorm overnight to avoid driving home at midnight. The other two girls lived on campus and simply chose not to come to the games because they didn’t feel like it. It was a little disappointing because we were all counting on each other to show up and play, but it was still really fun to be playing with friends, when they did all show up.
Even though the season caused my team a lot of stress, the games were really fun. It was a great way to get a group of friends together and take a break from our school work. I feel like I have become closer to the people on my team, and I have definitely strengthened friendships. It was also great that the people who run volleyball were so understanding with our predicament. Intramural sports is a great way to put yourself out there and try new things while having fun and goofing off with friends. I recommend intramural sports to anyone looking for something to do. I am upset that the season is ending soon, and cannot wait for next season.