After a nice Thanksgiving Break, we were back to the normal grind this week, having practices both Monday and Tuesday. Both went well overall, although I'm still nursing a sore thumb from a bad block, which is making me a bit more conservative overhand passing on defense. It's getting better faster than I had originally thought it would though, and I don't beleive I'll tape it come Saturday, as I don't like how it affects my contact while hitting.
Overall, the team is doing well. We still have struggled to have all the guys at practice (seems like almost everyone's flight was delayed getting back to Boston), so we haven't had more than 10 people the last 2 weeks. It will be a relief to have a full squad on Friday (hopefully), get the starters some reps together, and prepare for the Boston University tournament, which runs this Saturday and Sunday.
There are 30 teams, so it's going to be wide open for who wins it. Our pool is supposively Georgetown, Syracuse, and Bryant (school from Rhode Island?). I hear that Bryant is a bit of a weaker club, but I haven't seen them play. Syracuse had a heavy hitter last year on the outside, who set for Sacred Heart my first year at Newbury, but other than him they didn't have too much firepower. I remember watching Georgetown, but nothing sticks out in my mind from it, which makes me feel like they were somewhere in the middle. Hopefully we take care of business on our side of the net and make all of that meaningless!
My passing is starting to get back to where I want it to be, and I'm picking up more digs at each practice, which means I'm starting to anticipate better. The pleasant surprise of the preseason has been hitting backrow attacks, which I may be hitting better than in the front row. The downside to that is I feel like my front row attacking isn't where I want it to be. I'm hoping that part of it is that we haven't had our starting setter at practice, but I think a bit part of it is simply not snapping down enough. We shall see. Off of practice today, two more on Thursday/Friday, tournament this weekend, then preseason is over!
My body is starting to get pretty sore, but I think it's just part of the grind. You read blogs from guys like Reid Priddy, who talk about how they sometimes wonder how they're going to play later on that night, only to go out and get it done. I keep reminding myself that despite all the soreness I've felt the last two years, I've only sat out one game due to a rolled ankle, and had it been a crucial match I could have suited up. On top of that, this article from ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?page=tisdale-081203) reminded me of how a person's outlook can overcome any physical obstacle. I know I vented about guys like Marbury in my last post, but athletes like Wayman Tisdale remind me that there are still good guys out there.
"You can never give up because quitting is not an option. No matter how dark it is or how weak you get, until you take that last breath, you must fight."
--Wayman Tisdale
Which brings me to the political portion of the blog. As of yesterday, we were thisclose to losing our Spring Break trip, with a couple guys even already talking about what we should do instead of going to California. After finding out that everyone still wanted to go to California, myself and a couple others began hitting the phones, coming up with a plan, and with about an hour to spare did what needed to be done to keep the trip alive. It's going to take a lot of work, and people need to be accountable, but when you want something and work hard for it, I firmly believe anything is possible.
I feel bad, because I do feel like a couple people were being crucified for simply making decisions that 18-20 year olds tend to make due to lack of life experiences. As I told coach, I know that I made similar mistakes when I was that age, and if we're a team, the older players should help guide the younger ones to help them avoid the same mistakes they made. Although this whole fiasco with fundraising has caused some stress, I firmly believe that working together to get back on track will help our team bond in the long run. Plus, when we're on the beach in March enjoying warm weather and playing doubles, I know it'll be all worth it.
I'm going to end the blog there as I'm exhausted from the day, but I wanted to make a brief update on how things are going. I've been enjoying getting my thoughts in writing, and hope that others get something from reading it. I was talking with someone from NECVA (the conference we play in), and after taking a look at my blog he mentioned the possibility of doing one for their website too! I would be very interested in that. I will keep everyone updated on how things go.
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