Over the past 3 months, I’ve been playing a ton of volleyball. Scrimmages, games, tournaments, open gyms – I’ve become a little obsessed.
Now before anyone asks, yes, I have seen Haikyuu!!, and no, it’s not responsible for my obsession. I do, however, love the series. It’s incredibly accurate to volleyball, and when I watched it last year, I felt like I was reliving my high school volleyball days.
I was alright in high school – I played libero and DS. Our team actually won 2 NorCal Championships, but that was because we were carried by our teammate, who now plays professionally.
I never really thought I’d get back into the sport once I graduated high school. However, last April, I was invited to a volleyball game by a former coworker. It was a league match at UCSF, and I was a sub for someone who was on vacation.
I hadn’t played much volleyball since high school, but I had nothing better to do that Wednesday night, so I showed up. I had no gear on me, and I ended up playing in tennis shoes.
As a side note, now that I’m a little taller, I’ve switched from libero to OH, which allows me to spike. I love the feeling of smashing the ball and getting a crazy kill on the opposing team. To me, that’s more exciting than playing a purely defensive position.
I, however, did not get to experience that feeling in the first game. Instead, I touched the net twice in the first 5 minutes. Despite my errors, we ended up winning, and to my surprise, they even invited me back for future games. That season, we made it to the semifinals, which was incredibly intense. That match felt like my breakout game – I was finally derusting and playing well. I was hooked.
Even though we lost, I was now more motivated than ever. My main objective was to win the league, so that I could get a special t-shirt. I know – not the most exciting prize – but I love meaningless things like this.
And finally, after 4 seasons, I won my first championship title last week. Nowadays, my YouTube feed is cluttered with volleyball videos and shorts – it’s become so integrated into my life that I don’t know what I’d be doing otherwise. I used to wonder if reaching my goal would kill my motivation, but now, I’m more hooked than ever. My friends and I like to joke that we have an obsession – a problem – but after thinking about it a little more, yeah, we definitely do.