From March 1th:

During the past weeks the school has been offering volleyball on Mondays, afterschool.

The first few sessions were practice heavy and technique. At the very start, there were about 4 people  coming, but some weeks in, that number changed to over 10. There hasn’t been a volleyball team for 2 years, so a majority of the people who joined were new to the sport, and we covered certain moves, and what a game would look like. Later we were given the opportunity to play a match with a club outside, so we spent the session before that going over positions and rules for an official game.

From March 24th:

Since then we’ve had 2 games with a team that came in and in between those two we’ve had another practice session.

I took part in the first match and it was a very rewarding experience, because although we did lose all three sets, we learnt a lot about how to work as a team and fine-tuned out set-up. Strategy against another team was also stressed and our coach, Ms. Kelly, taught us a little about her experience and some of the strategies she’s picked up.

I didn’t take part in the second match, but did stay to watch and warm up. Seeing the game play out whilst you’re not on court offered some new perspectives, which were helpful.

Lunchtimes:

Apart from Mondays a group of people have also taken up playing volleyball (albeit extremely informally) during lunchtimes in the gym. We’ve been doing this before too, though irregularly because there hasn’t always been a volleyball available, but recently I’ve started bringing in a volleyball from home, which means we always have access to one and have been playing at lunchtimes more regularly.

Thursdays:

A few years ago the school had a slot on Thursday evenings where parents and other people would come in and play volleyball, which was something I used to partake in, and really, was how I was introduced to the game seeing as how when I was too small to play, I would still come in and watch others play.

After the easter bombings, and then too after covid, this hasn’t been available, and is something that’d be good to get started up again.