Just as the school year starts picking up steam, the volleyball season has come and gone. This year\u2019s team has learned a lot over their season, and the players have much to be proud of. Yael Mainzer, a junior on the team, felt the team was developing further than before, sharing \u201cwe are improving a lot more than we did last season.\u201d Sophomore Kayla Joel agreed, saying \u201cI think it’s going very well, especially compared to last year where we only won one game, and now we have won four.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team felt that the growth over the season can largely be attributed to new coach Pelumi Adesina\u2019s leadership. Freshman Izzy Khandadash lauded the coach\u2019s work on the team, explaining that \u201cwe have a coach that really wants to see us succeed, and she will do anything to get us to that point.\u201d But Coach Pelumi\u2019s goals for the team are only possible when the players put in the work and listen to her advice. Izzy added that Coach Pelumi \u201cdoesn\u2019t sugarcoat things, she really stays true to her morals,\u201d but that her candidness is crucial to the team\u2019s improvement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the team has been excited by their \u201cstats\u201d this season, their victories have required some serious sacrifices of time and scheduling. The volleyball season is short, but the players are certainly not slacking. Yael Mainzer mentioned that \u201cthe season is only three to four weeks, but we have five to six games a week, sometimes two in a day.\u201d For a high schooler, this responsibility is no joke when considering homework and travel time. Kayla Joel felt the tight schedule makes it \u201cvery stressful with schoolwork, so I am up pretty late.\u201d Izzy expounded on this point, explaining that \u201cmost days I don\u2019t get home till 8:30, which doesn\u2019t leave a lot of time for schoolwork,\u201d but also added that \u201cit’s not impossible\u201d when players take advantage of office hours and lunch to get their homework done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These late nights and tough practices cannot be sustained without the motivations of a cohesive and encouraging team. Izzy characterized the team as \u201ca very close family,\u201d and said that although \u201cit can be very hard to join a new team, you get very close once you’re on it.\u201d A team is only the sum of its parts, and the morale is in no small part a result of the players’ efforts. Yael and Kayla both emphasized the team\u2019s ability to \u201chype\u201d one another up and make volleyball an energetic and fun space to spend their time and hard work. Thus, the long nights spent playing against other schools and the challenging practices are worth it for the players because they are a part of a larger unit. The team succeeds with their dedication, and the team rewards them with joyful camaraderie and the satisfaction of hard-earned victories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the team has been really excited by their \u201cstats\u201d this season, their victories have required some serious sacrifices in terms of time and scheduling.<\/p> <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The dedication and joy of playing the sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":2180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","entry","rows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/6MBUM67NWZEYVDVISB45M4MU4I.jpeg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2181,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions\/2181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}