Harclerode Week 1 - First Volleyball Tournament of 2021

     This week in general has been very... interesting. We've returned to school after a nice long break and have had to readjust our schedules and mindsets. For me, this week also included a return to volleyball. The restrictions on sports were finally lifted, so my club team was able to resume practices. This Sunday, we are going to a volleyball tournament at Spooky Nook Sports Complex, and we're all very excited, but there's just one problem: we haven't played for weeks. We had our first practice since shutting down on Tuesday, and if I'm being completely honest, it was definitely not one of our best. Now, we only have one more practice before we have to head to our first tournament of the season, and we can hope for nothing for the best. On the bright side (if you could even call it a "bright" side), every other team that is going to this tournament should also be in the same predicament as we are. They all had to stop practicing too, so we should all be relatively on the same level... hopefully.

    Aside from our lack of preparation, there's still one thing we have to take into account when we go to this tournament: COVID restrictions. It's going to be pretty crazy. The part that I'm most worried about is when we have to wear our masks. During this high school season, players only had to wear their masks if they were not actively playing on the court, and seeing as we didn't get shut down, it looks like that plan worked pretty well. At Spooky Nook, we are going to have to where our masks while we're playing. I know that the facility is just looking out for the well being of everyone involved, but I just don't see how wearing the masks while playing will be beneficial. If anything, it might cause more people to suffer through what happened to my friend at one of our practices (before we had to postpone practices). My friend is our team's setter, a position that requires her to be on the court for the entire game. At one of the facilities where we practice, they also require the players to wear masks. While we were scrimmaging the team that is an age-level above us, she had to suddenly run out of the gym because she was so overheated by playing in a mask that she got sick. If she could barely make it through a practice playing in a mask, I wonder if more people are going to get sick like my teammate did.

    Spectators are also going to be very limited. Parents can only stay inside and watch games if their daughter is on the court. If their child's team is not playing, they have to leave the building. While that may not seem overly horrible since parents are not the ones who have to actually play, it gets worse. Players are also going to have to follow this rule. If the team is not playing or does not have to work a match (keep score, line judge, etc.), they can't stay in the building. Normally, players would set up "camps" with their teams where they can keep all of their belongings together as a team. However, those camps have been banned in order to decrease the risk of COVID. Now, we're going to have to run all the way from our cars to the court, which I can only imagine is not going to be very enjoyable.

    Regardless of all of these new rules teams will have to follow, I'm hoping for the best. I played with this team last year, and we made it all the way to Nationals in Texas (they were cancelled because of COVID, but I've never played with a club team that has made it even that far before). Now that we got some talented new additions to the team, I think we can make it just as far, if not farther this season. I'm going to keep my spirits up and hope for the best!