Personal Narrative: Junior Varsity Volleyball Team

My sophomore year of high school I played on the Junior Varsity volleyball team. We began preparing for the season by doing two-a-days the first week of August. We worked out hard the first two weeks then had our first scrimmage that next Friday. We won the scrimmage, but it was a pretty messy game. It was like we were all doing our best individually, but we were not working together as a team. The court was silent during each play and each time somebody messed up the rest of the team got mad at them. The next three scrimmages were the same way except we began to lose. We always won the first set but then fell behind in the second and third giving the other team the win. Our problem was nobody really understood how much volleyball

That next day at practice I immediately sensed a difference. Instead of quietness on the court I began to talk to my teammates and encourage them. Once I did this others quickly joined in. This showed us how important communication is. Instead of getting mad at one another when a mistake was made, we began to encourage each other to just do better on the next play. The team started to feel less like just a team and more like a family. I began to truly know my teammates on and off the court. After this great week of practice we had our first real game. We were all warmed up and ready to play when we decided to pray before the game began. I decided to step up and pray for my teams safety and for a win. I prayed we would all work together as a team and leave everything out on the court, and that’s exactly what we did. When we were losing and began to get down on ourselves I began to cheer each teammate on and remind them how hard we had been practicing. Everybody began to communicate with each other and we won the game! Of course we did not win every game that season, but we definitely played our best as a team. When I stepped up to lead the team, the leadership became contagious. Others saw how great it was to be