A Personal Narrative of Overcoming a Major Setback to Our Volleyball Team

I sigh as the bell rings to let me out for lunch. Typically, I would enjoy the science class, but today all I could think about was the volleyball game I had tomorrow. Our team is the best it had been in a while, and we were favourites to win the city championships. Our team consists of Spencer, the lone grade 8, along with Jayden, Ewan, Tom, Joe and I. Most of us played club volleyball last year on a variety of clubs, but together at school, we are unbeatable.

Joe and I are the outside hitters, we are the best passers and the energizer bunnies of our team. Spencer, who is new to volleyball, is playing well on the right side, and will be the core of the team next year. Ewan and Jayden are our middles, the big men of the team. Jayden's job is to shut down hitters, while Ewan uses his height and vertical jump to hit down defences throats. Bringing us all together, we have Tom. He is our setter, captain and our teams' heart. He is the quarterback on the court and without him, we would not be as strong as we are.

Getting out of my chair I sigh with relief, as we only have two more periods before our Riverbend Centurions can finally become city champions. Walking out the door you can see the happiness in me as I walk through the halls, giddy with excitement. As I turn out the door, I call for my friend Sofia to wait up for me. Turning around, she slows down, and I start to jog to catch up to her.

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"Eric!" yells someone down the hallway. Not knowing who it is I spin around trying to find

"Eric!" I hear again, this time more panicked and closer. Turning around I see Jayden sprinting through the hallways.

"What's up?" I call back at Jayden, wondering why he sounds so panicked.

"Tom broke his leg! Tom broke his leg!" he yelled at me, all of the colour draining from his

I didn't move, I didn't speak, I just stared at him trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Eric, what are we gonna do?" he said with fear in his voice.

Trying to be the best leader I could be, I said, "we'll be okay, but we need to find Ms. Ayres and tell her." We ran down the halls bumping into people saying sorry as we went. When we reached her classroom, we burst through the door out of breath. At first, she thought we were there to bug her, as we do that a lot, but when she saw our faces she realized something was wrong.

"Tom broke his leg!" I blurted out in panic. I was shaking with all kinds of emotions not knowing what to do next.

Looking at me in surprise she stutters, "what, what are you talking about?"

Jayden explains that while in gym class, Tom was playing basketball and after jumping to block someone he landed on a bench, and the rest happened so fast.

After taking a moment to digest the situation, Ms. Ayers calmly stated, "Joe is going to be our setter and Owen is going to play power in Joe's place". We were all standing there not knowing what to do. We had a practice scheduled for after school, but that would only give Joe one and a half hours to get ready for the biggest volleyball game of our lives so far, so we decided to practice for the rest of lunch and through the literacy period, which is the period after lunch where we catch up on homework. Getting Joe comfortable was more important to the team.

We got to the gym and didn't even set up the nets. Instead, with the help of coach, we focused on the new rotations we would have to use tomorrow. We learned them all in 30 minutes before returning to class and stressing about our situation.

After school practice was intense and very emotional. We worked harder than we ever have and persevered to learn how to work together without Tom. After practice, Ms. Ayres gave a heartfelt speech and almost all the team had tears in their eyes. Just as we were about to end practice I got a call from Tom, and we all gathered around. I answered, and he just wanted to wish us luck and let us know that he needed emergency surgery and was getting it that night. I told the team one last cheer and that Tom was gonna do it.

Quietly he said, "Bend on two, one-two."

"BEND!" we all yelled at the top of our lungs.

That was the loudest cheer our team has ever done and it gave us something to play for. We were all doing this for Tom.

I went home and tried not to think too much about the next day. Knowing everyone was going to have to play better to make up for Tom, I had a good supper and went to bed at eight- thirty.

I woke up late and had a good breakfast to get ready for the game. We left the house at noon and picked up Ewan and Joe to watch our girls' team play for cities too. While I was there to cheer them on, my main focus was to get into my zone for our game. I had my headphones pumping from the moment I left my house to the moment we went onto the court to warm up. I was ready.

Our girls won quickly, in three straight sets, which was not a surprise as they are a very strong team. This was good for us because our game wouldn't start until 2:30, so we had some extra time to practice with Joe and warm up. We got on the court and our team was more focused then I have ever seen them. Throughout warm-up, I went around trying to encourage my teammates, as I had been made Captain in Tom's absence. The whistle blew to call the captains together for the coin toss. Vernon Barford won the toss and the right to receive serve first. I shook hands with the other captain, wished him luck and returned to my team.

I made it back to our huddle, and we cheered Bend on eight to honour Tom's number. The starting six lined up on the end line and shook hands with the other team and the referee, then we huddled together for one lastcheer before the game started.

"Wack," the game started as Ewan served the ball. They passed the ball and got an attack off, but we dug it and got a kill as Spencer hit the ball over the net. Throughout the first set it was a close game, but they ended up coming out on top.

The second set started great for us, as we won the first five points. We were passing, hitting, and blocking balls almost every possessionand were leading fifteen to five, Our whole team was fired up, as we were playing some of the best volleyball in our lives. Our strong play continued and we won the second set by fourteen points and were ready to play another.

We were off to a hot start in the third using the energy that we had created during the second set, but as the set went on we started to slow down. Twenty-twenty was the score and this was a very important set to win. I served the ball and they passed a perfect ball into the setter, which lead to a perfect set and hit. From then on our team lost confidence and couldn't pass or hit, and we lost all the momentum we were carrying from earlier in the set. Barford ended up winning that set and our emotions started to show. We were frustrated, stressed, and panicking as we came into the huddle after the third.

"We are all good boys," Ms. Ayres said as she looked around and saw the look of panic on our faces. After talking to us for a few minutes she managed to calm us down, and we walked out onto the court rattled, but still ready to fight till the end. The ball was served over and the set started with an intensity I have never seen before. It was neck to neck with both teams playing great, with almost no errors. After twenty minutes of hard play, the set got all the way to twenty to eighteen for Vernon Barford.

After shanking a ball into the wall we were then down by three. Once again panic started to set in, but luckily this time they served into the net and it was twenty-one to nineteen. With all the pressure on our youngest player Spencer, he served the ball out the end of the court, and they only needed three points to win. Our team called a timeout and tried to calm down to go out there strong, and take it to a fifth set. Walking onto the court all I could think about was Tom and how badly I wanted to win for him. We shanked the first ball from Vernon Barford and that was it. They used this momentum to their advantage and they won the last two points.

"Dammit," I yelled as the ref blew the whistle and signalled the end of the game. The tears started right away, and I walked off the court and punched one of the chairs. I felt like I had let my team, school, coach, and best friend down.

After shaking hands and getting our medals I called Tom and let him know the outcome. He told me that they just got lucky and that he was proud of how far we got. That was what I needed to hear and was able to calm right down. I wanted that gold medal so badly, and to this day I still wish we could've won, but I am also still proud of my whole team for how hard we battled. In a time of sadness, anger, and stress we still went out onto the court and played till the last whistle. We fought till the end, and despite losing I learned that in life there will always be obstacles, but with hard work, perseverance and dedication, you can make anything happen.

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