Last night I got the chance to go and watch my niece play some summer league volleyball. Usually this time of year they are playing games at a park down by the river on sand courts (beach style). This year they decided to keep things indoors and participate in a league that one of the local schools is holding.
Lucky for us, the school happens to be right down the road from where we live, so it only took us about five minutes to make the short drive. It's pretty intense with eight teams participating on any given night.
As you can see in the photo above, they have the courts set up all in a row and they have four games happening all at the same time.
Since this is more of a skill building thing, they don't even keep score. Each game lasts a half hour and then you rotate through the teams and through the courts. They barely even take any time outs, they just try to play as many volleys as they can in the given time.
It's actually quite nice because it allows the ladies to relax a bit and just have fun playing the game. The parents still get into it and the coaches are there to give guidance and direction, but with no score, there is literally no pressure for the players.
My nieces team is the one in pink. They did quite well and there was a point in the last of their four games that my niece was serving and was able to score something like five or six points in a row. It has been really impressive to see how her skill has grown over the years.
I heard that she might not be doing her regular travel volleyball in the future. I know she will play school ball for sure this fall, but after that she might look for a different team. The team that she was playing for was very expensive and included a lot of travel. I think now that she has a job, she would rather work and make money than play on a mid level travel team.
I could be wrong though.
I'm not sure if she plans on playing volleyball at the university level or not. She also plays soccer and if you asked me which one she enjoys more, I wouldn't be able to tell you.
Either way, it was a nice evening getting out to watch her play. I am looking forward to when school ball starts. That is always very exciting and competitive.
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