Tuesday, one the girls in my eleventh class approached me after class and told me that the girls’ volleyball team would be playing at PMG that night. “Would I come out and support the team?” she asked. Of course, my first thought was “There’s a girls’ volleyball team here?” but that thought passed quickly and I told her that I would come.
So, that night, after my regular visit to the internet club, I walked to the gym at PMG. PMG’s is probably the best gym in Silistra. It has a good solid floor, 4 baskets, and a decent amount of sitting space around the court. The first time I had visited I was playing a pick-up basketball game after the city’s teams had finished for the night. When I arrived before the second half of the last game, I’d estimate there were about 30 people there watching. I can’t remember who was playing that night, because I had been so taken aback by the fact that there was any kind of city-wide basketball at all.
I bring that up because the language school’s girls’ team (EG) was playing PMG Tuesday night in a first round game of a small tournament. As soon as I walked in, the girls noticed me and cheered and kind of clapped. I felt honored, but later realized that it was only half because of who I was. Turns out I was one of two, maybe three people from EG there supporting the team. More on that later.
I walked across the court to the single row of benches along the side of the court opposite the team benches. The PMG crowd had already gathered and filled the benches so I stood next to the bench on the EG side of the court. When I entered, the teams were in their pre-game discussions. The game started shortly after I took my position.
It wasn’t what you would call pretty. It was entertaining, worth going to. But no. No, it wasn’t a good-looking game. EG played pretty well considering that they didn’t seem to have a girl who could get both hands above the net at the same time. Neither did PMG for that matter, but PMG had an artillery division when it came to serving. They had a few aces that dropped hard and fast on the sidelines. It didn’t help that the ceiling in the gym is low, and most of the bumps off the harder hits went straight up and high. A ball into the ceiling was side-out. Anyway, that night it was three blow-outs and good night. Dejected looks for EG all around.
After the game I went up to the girls to congratulate them on an entertaining game, and before I even made it to the group they gave me grins and told me not to say anything. I gave a shrug, thanked them for the invitation, said that I had had fun, and that the match-despite the loss-had been entertaining. They thanked me for coming and told me to come the next night, when they would win. I said that I’d come, of course, and wished them good night.
A day of teaching later, I cut my Bulgarian lesson a bit short so that I could make it to the game on time. I arrived at about the same time I had the night before, and took the same spot next to the benches. It was a colder night, and everyone in the not-really-heated gym had their thick coats on. Fortunately, the games went EG’s way and they won three close games to sweep the team from-well, I never did figure out what school they playing-but it was a well-played victory nevertheless, and they were all a little more receptive to my congratulations after the game.
I walked out happy, they walked out happy, and three-quarters of the audience stayed in the gym to watch the next game. I was, again, one of maybe four or five non-participants from the school watching the game. PMG was up next and by the time EG’s game was over, there were about 60 or 70 students in the gym. This confirmed that, as rumored, volleyball is more popular than basketball in Bulgaria. But it didn’t explain why no one from the language school really bothered to come to either game.
I think this might be another of those things I’m going to want to focus my energy on. People need to come to these games. And not just students either. During the second game, I noticed that apart from the coaches and referees, I was probably the only person over twenty in the gym.
Sports are a great way to get the community involved in local schools, and since there aren’t bands or orchestras at the schools not dedicated to music, sports in Bulgaria are really the only way for the community to get involved in the schools’ activities. Sports might just be something schools should advertise and not leave up to word-of-mouth from students.
Of course, I say this as if it applies to all of Bulgaria. It doesn’t. In the smaller towns, if a school is lucky enough to have a gym, it usually has no room for an audience and no sports program to go along with it. As in most cases, Silistra is just big enough to have all the nice things that go along with a big town. I’m lucky in that, I suppose. But it also makes my job more about improvement than creation. Many volunteers are the only people around to coach their teams, making it pretty easy to get involved. But here I feel like I have to show my worth in order to be part of the circle.
Fortunately, coming to two games seems to be enough at this point to label me a booster, if not a die-hard fan. So I think things are off to a good start.
Posted by Rob at December 4, 2003 03:26 PM