This week saw the big local volleyball tournament. Here in Silistra, volleyball has the place basketball had when I was in high school in Alaska. It's the big sport that everyone gets excited about and pumped up for. There were games every evening this week and the gym at the math school (The best gym in town, which isn't saying too much. But still a nice gym, don't get me wrong) was full by the time the guys started playing every night. There aren't any bleachers in any of the gyms in town, but there is a very long bench and quite a bit of standing room.
I'm not a huge volleyball fan by nature, but the girls' team makes a habit of inviting me and keeping me up-to-date on all of their games, so I feel an obligation to go. Their games are usually fun to watch, and the language school's team won the city championship for the first time in a while, but I always have the problem when watching less-than-stellar volleyball of not wanting to cheer for the other team's mistakes. The only points the girls' team made this week that came out of skill were on great serves. Girls here seem to think that jumping for a spike isn't really part of the game, so most spikes are just a way to get the ball over the net.
Still, fun games to watch, I just always feel iffy when I cheer for our team because the other team bumped the ball into the net on their third hit.
The guys' games, it turned out, were a completely different animal. And it all starts with the warm-ups, which always turn into a game of life and death for everyone in the gym. The warm-ups around here start nicely enough. Guys on the same team bump, set and lightly spike the ball back and forth on their own side of the net. Then it starts to turn deadly. The second warm-up is a spiking drill, where both teams spike balls across to the other side of the net at the same time. This means that spikes regularly whack players on the other team in the head and the occasional bouncer catches somebody in the audience unawares during conversation. Last night, it was during this warm-up that a guy from the math school, No. 5, got hit in the face by a spike from our side, got angry, and drew my attention for the rest of the match.
The third warm-up is a service drill, where players seem to stand anywhere they want on the court, hit the ball as hard as they can across to the other side of the court, and seem to be trying to get it inside the lines about half the time. Before this drill, No. 5 started yelling at the language school's fans. Then, during the drill, he served ball after ball straight into the crowd. Since balls were flying back and forth across the gym like cruise missles and audience members were getting hit in the head, arms, and legs every minute or so, his little indiscretions went mostly unoticed, but it was a small step in the anger he could never fully control, much less use, the entire match.
So, after surviving the warm-ups, the crowd settles in for the game and all the players come out and show their numbers. Then the guys play, and they play pretty well. My school's guys, a team full of seniors, ran through the entire tournament, and season, without losing a game in any match. Absolute domination from guys that aren't too tall, but could all jump out of the gym and certainly had some power behind their hits. They won the first two games in the best-of-five easily last night, and the other English teacher I was watching the game with and I kept a close eye on No. 5 between plays.
Her contention was that anger was a huge part of sports in Bulgaria, with guys getting ticked off and roaring around the court for small reasons, and she believed that there was no room for anger in sports. She also believed that one of the best ways to see a person's character is to watch what happens after that person takes a hit to the face, whether or not it's accidental. Intuitively, I agree with her on the second argument, although I don't have libraries of experience in watching different people take hits to the face. Her first point though, I disagreed with. Sports in America have the same anger management issues, but the key is, whenever anger rises, to take that anger and use it for something in the game. Directing anger at any other player on the floor is useless, and directing it at the other team's fans is just plain harmful, but if anger is used for focus on the game itself, it can be some of the best stuff in sports. It's part of the magic that gave Jordan his best games, and makes linebackers hit a little harder. I think she bought this argument pretty well.
At any rate, our No. 5 did not use his anger well. He yelled at his teammates after their mistakes, he spiked as hard as he could into the net, and the only plus he offered his team during the match was a very solid service game. He didn't drive his team to 3 and out, but he certainly didn't help.
So after the fury of 5, and all the cheering and chants of "Ay-Gay!" (Language School, abbreviated), the old school is left with volleyball domination and dim hopes for next year. The best girls will still be around for another year, but over half of the guys are graduating. The coaches will need to find 3 or 4 new players from within the school just to put six on the floor next year. But that's the high school cycle, I suppose. I'm just kind of glad I won't be around to watch.
Posted by Rob at February 25, 2005 03:21 PM