Volleyball Forges Bonds On and Off the Court
Volleyball is among the most popular sports at Athenian, featuring three teams and nearly 50 girls from different grades who practice and compete during the fall season. This team is more than just a group of athletes. They are a close-knit family full of connections and laughter united by their passion for the game.
Just like many fall sports at Athenian, the volleyball teams were formed with tryouts that started this August, before the academic school year started.
“We try to keep a smaller varsity team. Because otherwise, players don't get time to practice when the team is big. It’s hard to manage practice. And obviously, there's the aspect of considering what grade you're in and whether you like to play on varsity and how you might decide to go about that,” assistant coach Victoria Akinsanya said.
Athenian’s no-cut policy ensures that everyone who shows up for volleyball practice has an opportunity to play during the season. “They get placed on a team pretty much no matter what unless they change their mind. In terms of the number of players this year, the varsity is 15, junior varsity is either 16 or 18, and frosh/soph is 10,” Victoria said.
On the team, each member takes on different roles. “I think it depends on how the coach sees your impact on the team. For me, I am either the libero, also known as the defensive specialist, or sometimes the outside hitter. Most people will only play one position the entire year, such as they are only outside hitter, only right side, or only setter,” senior Ava Lourenco, from the varsity team, said.
In addition to winning competitions, the team this year also established a strong connection between the group members. “This is definitely the most bonded that any of my volleyball teams have been in my experience at Athenian,” senior Paloma Porter, varsity co-captain, said. “The connection between the underclassmen and the upperclassmen on our team contributes to our successes.”
Ava was on the frosh/soph team freshman year, the junior varsity team sophomore year, and the varsity team junior and senior year, so she has had a holistic volleyball experience at Athenian from different perspectives. “I feel very comfortable speaking with everyone on the team. I think the seniors are so open to everyone and the freshmen are so talkative. I think that is the main reason why this year feels special,” Ava said.
“There are a lot of new freshmen this year, and one of them is even my freshman buddy, so it is so much fun getting to know them,” said senior Barrett Smith, co-captain of the varsity team.
Barrett runs the student-run Athenian volleyball Instagram account passed on from previous team captains to continue sharing the team with the Athenian community. They take creative group pictures before games to invite people to attend their games. One day, they all wore blue in the picture. Another time, they all had sunglasses in hand.
“For games, we’re not having that many people,” Paloma said. “So this is one of the Student Athletic Committee’s ways of inviting more people to support the team.”
“By doing dress-up games and dressing up days before our games, we have definitely increased the number of spectators. There are themes for every game. We had done blackouts in the past. So I think those create a sense of community,” Paloma said.
Barrett believes the dress-up themes have been effective in uplifting the crowd. “We feel really good as a team when we do have so many people coming to watch our games because it creates more of a fun environment when we do play well and do succeed. Everybody starts cheering, which creates a really good atmosphere,” Barrett said.
“For Nest Night, the nest is packed. There is not an empty seat. Normal games start with a lot more viewers than what we end with because sometimes our games can be long. We have 20 to 30 people for a regular game. I wish it was more, and we are trying to get more and more people to come out,” she said.
The Athenian community also has an interest in volleyball outside of the court.
“We [Athenian] have made volleyball more chill. There is a net out on the grass sometimes. Anyone in the school can play. For a while, there was a Friday volleyball lunchtime thing. I have also seen kids playing in the gym and the MPR almost every day during lunch, especially last year. So I love how much we all love volleyball. I think there has always been energy around volleyball,” Victoria said.
The Women’s Varsity Volleyball team invites Athenian members to continue playing volleyball and start this sport if they haven't already.
“No matter if you have never played a year of club or a year of volleyball in your life, it does not matter. All my friends and I started without having any experience and yet we have been able to flourish underneath our coaches. If you are the type of person who likes to be competitive but also wants to have fun, this is the perfect sport to play, and everybody in the community is super open. I would suggest everyone to give it a shot if you can,” Barrett said.
