By Ashlee Walker, Lavanya Lehl, Zimo Wang, Ada Jolly
After a two-year hiatus, competitive sports at CIS have resumed. Let’s see how it’s going.
First, we will introduce the ideas behind the leadership of our 19U Volleyball coach, Mr. Ozsarac. One of his leading views is that we must somehow win something within ourselves, to learn the true nature of humanity, before we can win anything on the court. Additionally, here are some of his opinions:
- The priority should be team practices and plays for self-betterment, with winning coming next.
- The importance of playing to honor the sport
- The physical and emotional health of players, coaches, officials, staff, fans, and spectators should be prioritized
- Understanding that failure is not a long-term companion, but rather a short-term transformational aid
These ideologies have transformed the 19U volleyball team into a family. We have interviewed players from the 16U football and volleyball teams to learn more about school spirit, and how they feel about the resumption of sports.
How do you feel about sports resuming?
Keith: “The end of COVID regulations has been fun, and it’s good to get back on the court. In general, you’re making more friends and you’re having after-school activities, which is way better than just going home.”
Zoya: “I feel like it’s a good thing because it’s a good pastime when there’s not a lot of homework, and it’s like you get to make new friends so it’s really nice.”
Are there any specific things you do to keep yourself motivated?
Keith: “Sports should be for fun, right? So, in general, it’s just fun to play the game. The more your team gets better and better, the more it’s fun and enjoyable.”
Ada: “I talk to my teammates and we keep talking on the court for good feedback, so we keep uplifting each other.”
Zoya: “I really like football, so I don’t really have to motivate myself; I just go play.”
How do you feel about your competitors?
Keith: “We’re all on the same level, basically. We’re all not that good. There are some stronger players and there are some weaker players that bring the team down, so we have to work together.”
Ada: “We’ve had lots of really good teams playing against us. For our first game, I’d have confidently said we were better than the other team because we worked really hard. Since then, we’ve had certain teams that we barely scraped past. We only lost once, though, which means that we’re working very well.”
Zoya: “I think they’re better than us, and I don’t like that. They have more experience, which is really annoying. Lots of them are not the nicest people, so overall I honestly just feel like beating them up.”
Do you feel that your team has efficient collaboration?
Keith: “Personally, I think my team’s kind of lacking in some areas, but other than that, it’s been a fun season, and it’s better than having no sports.”
Zoya: “Yeah, I mean there’s a variety of skill sets, I would say, so what’s kind of happened is that the good players solo and the rest of them don’t really do a lot. We have a good team because everyone is friends and everyone collaborates so there are no hard feelings. I think that we’re getting in tune with each other, but not quite yet, because a lot of the people just crowd around the ball and start kicking each other.”
Have your games been getting many supporters? How do you feel about this?
Ada: “Our home games have people that come in and watch but our away games don’t. I like it when people come and watch our games, at least at home, because we get a show of support and that just makes us feel a bit better.”
Zoya: “We’ve got, like, 10 people coming to the bleachers and stuff so there’s not really, like, supporters, but I don’t mind it. It’s kind of annoying when people are screaming ‘L’, though. I feel like everyone wouldn’t get so riled up if there weren’t so many spectators.”
Do you think your coaches are helpful in building team spirit and collaboration?
Ada: “I mean, our coach told us from the start that she’s no expert in volleyball, but she’s really just here to make sure we have a really good time, and that’s helped because there’s a lot less pressure on us.”
Zoya: “Yeah. We do passing drills that help people work together to pass the ball and we do team cheers and we have an Instagram group chat for photos. We all wanna do better and, like, we all wanna win a game. The coaches say to have fun, but put a little more seriousness in it.”
How does your team build spirit/motivation for each game? Do you ‘pre-game’?
Keith: “We’ve been watching tutorials on how to play volleyball on the bus to the games. Other than that, we’re just on our phones — not as a team.”
Ada: “Before games, when we’re on the bus ride there, we will do karaoke, 2000’s type of thing. On the court, we are always cheering for each other. We have a couple of chants that we sometimes like to do. One of our biggest things is that one of our teammates has this insanely powerful voice, and we do a ‘huskies on three’, and out-cheer the other teams.”
Zoya: “We usually play Just Dance before all the games to get hyped up, and we usually say ‘“good luck guys’ or ‘you can do it’ or ‘at least try to score one goal’.”