Volleyball Finals the Winner is

This last Tuesday was the end of my V-ball league for the season and I wasn’t going out quietly! My team came out strong. We played intensely winning the first four out of five games. I had thought we were unstoppable. My serve was strong and I when I played center I had made some incredible saves. Over this season I had gotten much more fit.

Then it happened. We started loosing! The games were tight but we lost the next four games in a row!!! My team had played so hard that we were loosing steam fast… then loosing team cohesion, not setting the ball up for spikes properly and not backing each other up right. The score had slipped to a 5-5 tie of games won and lost.

I looked at the time and we had two more games before the night was out. We gathered as a team and reminded each other that we were in it together. I even gave a couple of tips to a fellow player to get her serves to hum with more power. The next game the other team got out to a quick lead and two of our normally great servers had bad shots. As I got to serve someone said, “It’s up to you now.” No pressure huh?! When I’m “on” I can place the ball right in the center or corners. 1-2-3 I was able to start building our points up… then bringing up our score to even and another to get us ahead. I had burned the candle at both ends all night and after that serve run I was literally like I had jumped into the water, but with sweat. Yet it was enough even as I lost the next serve, my team had rallied and the others shook off that demoralized feeling and gained a second wind (or third at that point). We rolled over the other team to bring it up to a six games to five score.

Yet there was one last game. We could go away with a season ending win (7-6) or a tie (6-6). Everyone felt the superhuman energy of this night… Neither team was going to yield. It was a game that had to be won. Something just swept over me. Normally I play for fun, but this game… the end of the season was important. There is no prize or trophy or anything but everyone wanted to go out on top.

I got ripped. I was not going to loose… well, I wouldn’t settle for a six games to six tie. I worked too hard for this. As I stepped up to serve I put the other teams players off balance, on the floor on their knees trying to dig the ball up from shots at their feet. That ball had been infused by my energy, I even joked about unleashing the Dark Side of the Force on that ball. I got us to two points from a win… then…

Before I tell the end of the story I want to make it clear that I played my heart out… BUT so did every other player. While I had some powerful serving runs I did not win (or have loss of) games by myself. Win or loose we had all played at 100 percent. Yet after all this, my first season back in a adult volleyball league since my college days if I had any will in the matter I would win. I earned this, and I wanted it baaaaad.

I know I have you on this precipice, on the edge of your seat and then I tease you with how it ended… At this point I could be cruel and say, well read my next post… after all this one is in fact getting a bit long…

But I won’t do that to you. That last game we fought, and the other team was not about to give away any win. It was to be EARNED from either side. The nights final tally we took 7 games and lost 5. I can’t remember how much I glowed after that, or the last time I had been that sopping wet from sweat. Moreover the next day I was shocked, I wasn’t painfully sore in agony at all, but just stiff sore. There’s some muscle sneaking in this here body!

To top it off I got another award for my blog (this one from Deb Willbefree) Thanks so much. I appreciate people reading my blog and commenting, and I’m thrilled to know that folks enjoy it enough to give me honors. I’m horrible about following the directions to awards but I do like them. Yet even more than awards I love the comments. Sometimes it’s a real tough fight and it’s always great to be reminded that we are in this together… your support, and hopefully in return I offer a bit of encouragement somehow myself to you in writing my adventures to share in the blog. Knowing we have got each other’s back in the fight to health is the best part.

I thought about that old saying, “It not whether you win or loose, it’s how you play the game.” at Foolsfitness it’s how you play the game of course. But do play with passion to win.- Alan