Volleyball and Me
By Tynan

I’ve been through many different sports throughout my life starting with 5 years of downhill ski racing at Lake Louis and Sunshine. Then through me loosing some interest and the time commitment going through the roof for Racing i made a transition to Go Kart racing in the summer and Biathlon (skiing and shooting) in the winter, with a mix of school sports throughout the year. Then in short order I outgrew Go karting but kept up with Biathlon for a few more years then in grade 8 I made the school Volleyball team and that was my first taste of what was to come later. After one more winter and summer of biathlon i decided that I was going into volleyball after my next school season and my team being undefeated throughout the year. I then joined Canada West which was my team for the next year. After a decent showing at Alberta Volleyball Association Tournaments (AVAs) my team went to provincials where we came first on the consolation side finishing though lower than we were hoping, rather well. After a few more weeks of training the team went to nationals and placed 13th overall, an amazing showing. During the next school season my team did very well placing high throughout all of the tournaments we entered and all of the games we played. Unfortunately in a rather disappointing final game against Foothills Composie High School we lost in three sets. When zones came around we came out swinging and it came down to the finals against a school from Acme Alberta. The school had beaten us for the past 6 years in a row in finals in the JV bracket and in an intense final showing we beat the team in two matches with scores of 25-15 and 27-25. the entire team was ecstatic even a high level hockey player Quinn Peplinski was almost brought to tears of joy when we won (though he never even played). The energy from the team didn’t really quit until weeks later and after our amazing upset against the favored team we went to Earls for our wrap-up dinner with the coaches parents and players. Though for most of the team that was the end of their volleyball experience for the year for me it was just the beginning a few short weeks after zones were done we had our first tryouts which unfortunately were the morning after our final presentation for my school’s musical Footloose. For the three weeks after that my life was very hectic and high strung. I was trying out for two different teams, Canada West my old club who was my backup and Elite West which is a three year University development program for volleyball. After the first tryout I was not feeling great about Elite I had not had the best showing. then after the second tryout everything turned around with one of my friends who I was trying out with got cut and I stayed when the people on the team who were “guaranteed” spots on the team joined the tryout. at the end I was buzzing with energy, then I realized that I would not be able to make the last tryout and my heart dropped. I felt very good about the tryout, but I was not sure if it was enough for me to make the team. I kept pressing on hoping that I would make the team with my future in volleyball on the line. After the last tryout (which I was not there for) I knew the team was made and I was not sure if I had made it. I checked my school e-mail to see an e-mail from my teacher and saw an e-mail from the coach Brad Kilb saying that he would like me to be on the team! I was ecstatic as was the rest of my family and an e-mail was sent out in short order to the entire company telling them that i had made the team. Since then we’ve had about 8 practices and our most recent being when we choose our numbers and there was me and three other guys who wanted number 11 (that being my number since i started playing sports) so one of my teammates suggested that we throw a volleyball into a basketball hoop across the gym the first person threw it and missed the backboard I was the second person to throw it and with the motivation of keeping my number I threw the ball and swished the throw the other 3 people were amazed as well as everyone else in the gym. Needless to say the other two people missed so i got my number again. Now I have a two week break from training then when we start up again were into full swing training for a few months till AVAs start up again. Here’s hoping that my team will win some this year.
This is how I am Fitter how are you Fitter?