Spike This Part 3 (She didnt need those eyebrows did she?)

The next match Beth didnt play at all.  She kept working and going to practice but she wasn't put in to the game.  I had mixed feelings about the next time she was put into the game (if there was a next time). 

We continued to practice at home too.  I just didn't get the sense that her heart was in it any more.  I felt like I needed to say or do something to help her get her confidence back or at least the desire to play. 

Beth is kinda funny. 

I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, though. 

If she is interested in something she is something akin to an unstoppable force.  You don't want to get in her way.  She will do anything or work as hard as necessary to get what she wants.  By the same token if she isn't interested or has lost interest in something she is the unmovable object.  She is extremely hard to motivate and will do only the bare minimum necessary.  It has been true with her in school, piano and everything else.  When she wanted straight A's, she made straight A's.  When she wanted to learn piano, she learned piano.  When she wanted to play volleyball she learned the game and all of the techniques on her own. 

I got the sense that her motivation for the game was waning and that was bad.  She would spend what was left of the season on the bench or just going through the motions of the game and getting little or no playing time. 

I felt like I needed to do something to help her want to do this again. 

I wasnt sure what to do. 

I didnt feel like threatening to pull her off the team was the right approach though.  A few days passed and we were in the street practicing and she was half-assing it and going through the motions as she had been doing ever since that game. 

I finally stopped and walked over to her and asked her if she wanted to play volleyball anymore.  She gave a disinterested shrug and said "Yeah, I guess so". 

I said "Do you, really?  I'm serious.  If this isnt what you want tell me and I'll understand". 

She said "I do, I guess". 

Thats when I kinda lost it.  "Then play the game.  Get out there and play.  Play volleyball or get off the court and quit wasting every ones time" I said. 

I came out pretty sharp and I could tell that she was a little misty eyed after I said it. 

Then she said "Ok.  I will" with a little bit of venom in her tone.

We played a little while longer and went in. 

Beth is a tough person to read.  I didnt know if anything I said had actually registered with her or if she was just giving me a little but of her normal attitude.

The next match was at Pleasant Grove Middle school.  As with all of the matches the team from the fartherest out plays first.  Since Rudd was the farthest geographically we got to play Hueytown first. 

Beth didn't play. 

Rudd played poorly, they didn't call their balls or work together.  It was 6 individuals on the court.  There was no team work at all.  The sad thing is that it was a game they could have won easily if they would have worked together. Rudd lost and went to the sidelines to prepare for the next match against Pleasant Grove. 

Beth didnt play the first game. 

The girls played better but not great.  There was some more cooperation between the girls but again it wasn't a lot.  In the end it was enough to win the game 25-23.  The second match was about to start and I could see that the girls were huddled on the sidelines and Ms. Binder was talking to Beth.  She had her by both shoulders and looked like she was encouraging her.  I leaned over and told Melinda that it looked like Beth was going to be put in. 

The butterflys came up in my stomach. 

The truth is that I was probably more nervous than she was.  The Lady Indians took the court and sure enough Beth took her position.  As usual she looked over at me and I gave her a smile and a thumbs up.  I said a silent prayer that things would go right for her and she would have a good game and get to play a while. 

I was totally unprepared for what came next.

The match started and the first couple of points were volleyed back and forth and went to Pleasant Grove.  Pleasant Grove served again.  I went back and forth a couple of times and came to Rudd.  The first girl to hit it bumped it up.  The setter hit and put a perfect set on the ball. 

It came to Beth. 

A thousand thoughts went through my head.  Would she hit it.  Would she duck.  Would she watch it hit the ground thinking it was someone elses ball? 

No. 

She moved under it, bent her knees and went to spike it as she had tried and missed so many times before.  She jumped slightly and her arm moved to the ball. 

The sound of her had hitting the leather on the ball sounded like a gunshot. 

The ball sailed over the net very fast right at the head of the girl on the Pleasant Grove side of the net. 

She put her hands up and covered her face and ducked. 

The ball bounced off her her hands and went out of bounds. 

She had scored. 

Beth scored and spiked the ball.  The Rudd side of the court erupted in cheers.  Beth looked over at me and a tiny little smile crept up at the edges of her mouth. 

It. Was. On.

It was as if the heavens opened up and the gods of volleyball had possessed my daughter.  She spiked three more balls, all for scores.  She served 5 serves for points.  She returned three balls that she had to dive for that no one else had a chance to get.  What was even better was that her team responded.  They began to communicate and they worked together.  She got high fives from her teammates and their parents were yelling "Go Number 20".  She looked over at me in the middle of the game and instead of mouthing "Im scared"  she smiled and mouthed "Its hot in here".  I smiled and thought to myself that right now the hottest thing in here was her.

Poor Pleasant Grove never stood a chance. 

The final score was Rudd 25, Pleasant Grove 17.  When the game was over the team gathered around Beth and congratulated her on the game.  The parents all patted her on the back and told her how good her game was.

I couldnt express how proud I was of her.  What was best was that the twinkle was back in her eye and she was happy to be playing volleyball again. 

There have been good games and bad games since that evening at Pleasant Grove.  Beth has played fairly well for the most part.  She hasn't gotten discouraged even when things don't always go well.  I think she has learned that she can play and just has to keep working hard.  Her dedication to the game has increased and we are now looking at playing club volleyball to keep her in the game and help her to continue to develop. 

There might be another chapter to this story in the future.  We'll just have to find out where it goes from here.

Spike This (Part 2) ((The Empire Spikes Back))

So the season started...

Let me just say that as a first time sports parent I was unprepared for several things.  First, was how short the season is.  Well I should clarify...  The season is short time wise.  It runs from August to the end of September but in that time nearly every day of the week has some volleyball related activity (practice, games, etc) so your entire life revolves around volleyball for those two months.  The second thing that I was unprepared for was how skilled these kids are.  I expected them to play ok, maybe a little better than your average school yard game but these kids are good and hit hard.  They dive, slide and jump at the ball and set up complicated shots against their opponent.  A large part of them serve overhand and some of the serves will flat take your head off.

Again I figured that Beth would be overwhelmed, that maybe she had started a little too late in sports to catch up with where these kids are.  I realize now that I have underestimated my daughter and her desire to play this game.

The 2011 Rudd Lady Indians have 17 members on their team.  4 or 5 of them played last year and are the veterans.  The coaches try to insure that all of the girls get some playing time as much as possible.  But due to the large team size and being a first timer Beth typically plays about every third game in relief of one of the veterans.  After several practices they determined that Beth would play middle.  Most of the time she plays front middle.  Beths typical playing schedule is to have games on Mondays and Wednesdays.  The first week we were at home for the games and after that we travelled to other schools to play.

With Beths limited playing time and her natural disposition to be quiet and reserved she is not the most aggressive player and didnt have to opportunity to develop as quickly as she needed too. 

About the 3rd of 4th game in Rudd played McAdory and Beth was put into play in the first game of the match.  She played well, better than before.  She served 4 straight un-returned serves and returned several balls that came to her.  Overall I felt like it was a good game for her and that her confidence in her skills would benefit from it.

The season rolled on.

I am making this sound like months ro weeks went by but in reality the whole middle school season takes place in a month and a half start to finish. At this point we are a little over midway through the season and Rudd was scheduled to play Irondale and North Jefferson at North Jefferson.

The game started and the first match was Rudd vs Irondale. I learned that in these games the team that is the farthest away geographically gets to play first. Presumable this is to help with the travel time back home from the game site. This meant that Rudd would play the first and the third matches since they were a little closer to North Jefferson than Irondale. Beth didn't play the first match against Irondale and Rudd got beat in two straight games. They didn't play well and Ironale took advantage of their mistakes. Once that match was over Irondale played North Jefferson; the team that just had beaten Rudd pretty convincingly got hammered by North Jeffereson. During this pounding I started to look around and I noticed that there were banners on the wall and North Jefferson was the reigning the County champion two years running. Yikes.

Rudd took the court and Beth was put into play. I was already a bit nervous about our chances against them and rightfully so. North Jefferson seemed to be moving about twice the speed of Rudd. The girls were not calling their balls or working together in any way.

This was going to be bad.

After a couple of serves North Jefferson netted a serve and Beth rolled into the serving position. While we were still working on her overhand serve she was using her normally reliable under hand. She never missed an underhand, ever. She didn't miss in practice and she had never missed a serve in a game. She took her position and served the ball. It hit the net. The color drained out of her face and you could see any bit of confidence that she had drain with it. North Jefferson took over serving and the beating continued. Beth was in the center of the court and several of the serves came to her.

She missed every single one.

She was in the wrong position, her approach to the ball was wrong and none of them had a chance for anyone to assist. To make matters worse when she went after one she was slow getting back in position and and the next serve came to her spot and someone else had to scramble to cover it, unsuccessfully.

North Jefferson scored 6 quick points.

In between serves Beth frequently looks at me. I like to believe this is for reassurance or to see what my opinion of the game and her performance is. She did during this game and I struggled to think of something positive to say.  I mouthed "Its ok" and she mouthed back "I'm Scared".   I knew right there that she was done in this game. Her confidence was gone and she was not going to be able to help her team. She was in the process of self destructing mentally and it wasn't going to get any better. I told Melinda that the best thing they could do at this point would be to pull beth out.

They should have cause it didn't get better.

The next serve came over and someone managed to get it back over the net. On the return it came directly at beth. I said a silent prayer that she would somehow find the strength to get the ball, that luck would go her way and something good would happen to settle her down and get her back in the game.

It didn't.

She did the one thing that you never, ever do in volleyball.

She ducked.

She ducked the ball like she was in the world championships of dodgeball.

She had no intention of trying to return it or play anymore.

Finally, mercifully, they pulled her out of the game. I think she was as relieved as Melinda and I were. The game finished, North Jefferson beat Rudd very convincingly and we went home. Privately I wondered if volleyball was the right sport for us or if Beth was really cut out for the pressure of team sports or not.

I tried to reassure Beth that it was ok and these things happened but I could tell that she was pretty upset about the whole thing. I hoped things would get better as the season went on but there wasn't a whole lot of time left in the season and it didn't appear that things were going to have a chance to get better. Honestly, it wouldn't have surprised me if they never played her again.

Stay tuned for Part 3...