Some of the most epic sports memories of my young life took place in Seoul, Korea 1981-1982. I wasn’t in high school yet, but attended a relatively small 7-12 International school where my parents met as high school students, some 20-plus years prior. This unique experience meant having the opportunity to participate in high school “things” as a 7th grader; mostly as a spectator.
I’ll never, ever forget the girls volleyball season in the fall of 1981. The Varsity team was made up of an incredible group of players with a spunky coach who was about half the height of any of them. The coach led them to victory over and over against much larger teams.
Our family lived on the campus of the school, so it was just a brief walk from our community housing to the same old gymnasium where Dad had once ruled the basketball courts to watch the home games, and just a public transportation trip across town to the Seoul Army Base to watch the team play the American military high school. Other “away” games took place all over the Korean peninsula: eight to ten hours away. I remember my sister signed up for the “team manager” job and therefore was able to travel with the team everywhere they went. I was a little envious for sure and wished I had thought of it first.
Those days were the first time I had ever seen a competitive volleyball game in real life, as far as I can remember. The speed and precision with which the older high school players were able to serve and hit seemed larger than life to my 11 year old-self.
The games were so exciting, always close in score, and as the victories piled up, game after game, it was just fun to feel a part of it all; to see the players in the school hallways and in the cafeteria; receive a high five and a smile. Amazing and memorable role models, all. The team won some kind of championship in the end, and they played the Queen hit over the school loud speakers on the day after their great victory. You know the one.
The song had only been released four years prior, and that day in the school hallways was the first time I heard it. Ever. Link here, if you are just dying to hear it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04854XqcfCY
Fast forward 40 years from those childhood experiences, to the fall of 2021.
If you follow my blog, you know that I have been a parent of one high school student or another, at the same high school, for the past 10 years, but no volleyball players since my older daughter’s freshman year in 2013.
Although we are not quite living in a “post-COVID” world yet, we are a very long way from where we were a year ago, as far as extra-curricular activities & high school sports go. Therefore, few things could be more nostalgic and enchanting and EXCITING than following the high school girls volleyball team in person over the past few weeks with my daughter and one of my 10th graders. We have traveled to several away games and most recently, the two home games in the Virginia State tournament as the team made school history to make it to the State Finals this weekend in Richmond.
“Scrappy and collaborative” is how I would describe this current team. The camaraderie and good sportsmanship is what caught my eye in the first game we saw live. They fall down and get back up again. They are behind in the game and they work together to start chipping at the lead. They cheer each other on, they brush off errors and they move on. They trust each other, and it shows. The head coach is calm and encouraging, even in the ugliest moments of a given set, when her girls are down. She pulls them up just in her non-verbal affect, hand signals and enthusiasm, and in the end, they are winning, and joyfully celebrating the victory in the fight. Game, after big game.
And we, the spectators and school community, LOVE it.
The home crowds have felt like reunions for our community. These have been state tournament games with the home court advantage earned, and all the well deserved “pomp and circumstance”: the spirit-wear and the band and the balloons and the mini pom-poms and the younger children attending with their parents, proudly wearing their little “future high school student” sweatshirts. It just makes you smile and smile big.
The older kids in the “hype-squad” on the end bleachers, making more noise in support of the team than anyone could dream possible, and just being teenagers, as if they are taking back ALL the moments and experiences lost over the wretched school closures due to COVID-19 in one evening, has been wonderful. God bless them all.
Compilation clip of the home game hype-squad, November 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QTcvz7J_UI
All the parents, school staff, siblings and community members on the side bleachers, perhaps like me, just enjoying the chance to see the game and be a part of history in the making, in support of the girls volleyball team.
Win or lose this weekend in the final State game, I feel incredibly happy for the memories created and a chance to spend this time with my kids, in cheering on our hometown champions.
November 20, 2021 Update
The school held a pep rally on Friday to send the team off, and put together three charter buses to carry student spectators to the final game in Richmond. The spectator buses pulled out of the school around sunset for the 8 p.m. game.
In a close contest, the girls were defeated by the opposing team. Regardless, 2nd place in the Commonwealth of Virginia is an incredible achievement. Congratulations to all! We are so proud of your accomplishments this season, including your amazing victories in the journey to win the Regional Championship and make it to the final game in the State tournament.
Thank you girls volleyball for bringing us all together again over the month of November, 2021. Memories for a lifetime.
Remember the Hornets, indeed.
