Volleyball Player during a match. Photo from the Blue and Gold Archives 2016-2017.
The Boys Volleyball team have also started tryouts for prospective team members. Their tryouts started on Monday, and were supposed to end on Thursday, but ended on Friday due to the cancellation.
Junior Ryoma Yonetani stated that new members are chosen based on their skill level. Since the Boys Volleyball team only has a varsity team, they are also looking to “take any freshmen in”, despite their skill level.
Senior Kamal Moussa added that freshmen are usually “always accepted”, since the team desires to “build a strong foundation for future years”. However, the newcomers ability to do basic volleyball skills and their willingness to learn how to perfect their abilities are also taken into consideration.
According to Yonetani, tryouts usually consist of stretching, followed by an “introduction to basic fundamentals of volleyball”, such as passing and setting, which is intended to help the new members. They also complete a quick “one on one” passing drill set, and then a series of other passing drills “as a team”. Then, they would “split up based on [their] positions”. The hitters would do “hitting lines” as the “back row players are receiving the balls that were hit”. Lastly, they would “gradually move on to a scrimmage to wrap up practice”.
For Moussa, he recalled that he tried out for the first time last year, saying that it was “a bit stressful” due to the fact that the tryouts were “[his] first time playing”. Moussa also added that there was a “lot of people trying out”, which meant that the “competition for spots was tough”. He was happy that he made the team, and he feels that he has “improved drastically from there”.
For Yonetani, his first tryouts were also last year, when he was a sophomore. Yonetani also agreed that the experience at tryouts was “challenging”, also due to the fact that he “never played competitive volleyball” prior to tryouts. After securing a spot on the team, he started to “gradually fit in”, adding that he “got better day by day”.
Yonetani’s advice for the new members on the team is to remain “hopeful” and “keep on going to practice”, because “you would get better slowly but surely”. Moussa’s advice is to “just go for it”. To Moussa, the most important thing a newcomer can work on “no matter what position [they] want to play is pass[ing] properly and how to serve well”, adding that working on those basics is greatly beneficial, and “the rest will come through hard work and time”.
With new players and a fresh competition, the Boys Volleyball team is looking forward to the upcoming season.
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