Tryouts conclude for girls’ volleyball
March 18, 2022
As spring rounds the corner, it brings the fourth athletic season of Clague Sports: Girls’ Volleyball. With three teams — A, B and C — and twelve places in each, this is the first Clague Girls’ sport that required cuts.
“Tryouts is probably the most stressful part of Clague Volleyball,” eighth grader Jane Hu said.
With around 45 girls and only 36 slots, Hu wasn’t the only one stressed. This anxiety was dramatically increased when Hu injured her hand during one of the last few days of tryouts.
“I was busy putting up the volleyball nets when my partner accidentally let go, cutting my hand on the adjustable portion of a pole on the net on accident,” Hu stated. “I even had to go to Urgent Care.”
Hu admits that it still hurts when stretching her hand in certain positions, even two weeks after the incident.
“It was definitely unintentional,” Hu said. “But the days following, I was extremely nervous I wouldn’t make the teams because I wasn’t present and proving my worth for two of the five days of tryouts.”
Nonetheless, Hu received a congratulatory email for successfully making it into the first “A” team.
Hu is focusing on improving her setting skills to get the best sets to the hitters for upcoming matches.
Eighth grader Faith Weems is a tri-athlete, who dances and plays basketball along with volleyball. She’s a fellow player on the Girls Volleyball “B” Team.
When asked to describe how tryouts were, Weems said, “Hard work. Vigorous. Learning.”
“We did a lot of learning — even in tryouts,” Weems said. “To be honest, tryouts were easy, but once we made the team, it got harder because the coach was expecting more from us. We even started conditioning and she made us do numerous different types of drills like sit ups, push ups and wall sits.”
The girls are hopeful the drills and practices will lead to a victory against different AAPS middle schools. The season and fun has just begun.
