Volleyball is everything.
After 2 weeks of solid practice, the day has finally arrived! May 11th was Mokpo's annual Elementary school teachers volleyball tournament. In this tournament, every school puts together a men's and women's team, 9 players per team play at once, and everyone seems to serve underhand (how polite).
Now, if this were in Canada, with all due resepct to elementary school teachers everywhere, the games would probably suck pretty bad (again, sorry teachers).
These teachers are good. I guess when you play your entire life, and your principal forces you to practice once a week, all year for this one day, you are going to be marginally good, eh?
We arrive at 9:30 at the Mokpo sport arena (picture large arena, seats 6000 with plenty of room for 2 basketball or valleyball courts) and sit down for the opening ceremony. My principal gets me to sit next to him. As luck would have it, our team draws the first game.
Considering my SUPER DUPER inconsistent history in volleyball, I understandably started off a little nervous... but that quickly blew away as landed a couple of solid spikes on the 7 foot nets. (yes, 7 foot nets, and my flat foot reach is about 7'3") But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. With 9 players per side, there really isn't much room that isn't covered. On one play I landed 5 consecutive, hard spikes that were all dug up and returned to the delight of the crowd.
It was plays like that by the other team that eventually led to our defeat and an early end to our day. Each team seemed to have 9 guys who could dig up anything and one or two hitters (not to mention a blocker or two).
On the other hand, Steph and her school continued to win all day. Steph was under extreme pressure by her team all day, to "kill" the ball, and "hit down". They were making reference to another "waygook" on another team. "Karen", who clearly had been playing competitively for a long time, and was hammering balls down in each of her games and stirring up lots of "I love you"'s from her coach. (Karen's team went on to win the women's tournament... Congrats Karen!).
Steph was unphased by the pressure and took her team to the semifinals with a truckload of blocks, solid kills and some super tricky "placements" and redirections. She was a destroyer!
After the women's teams were eliminated (from my school and Steph's) we headed to watch Steph's men's team play in the final, which they won in a varsity calibre battle. A 10pm dinner celebration ensued.
All in all, what I thought was going to be a day off, ended up being a marathon of a day.
Now, if this were in Canada, with all due resepct to elementary school teachers everywhere, the games would probably suck pretty bad (again, sorry teachers).
These teachers are good. I guess when you play your entire life, and your principal forces you to practice once a week, all year for this one day, you are going to be marginally good, eh?
We arrive at 9:30 at the Mokpo sport arena (picture large arena, seats 6000 with plenty of room for 2 basketball or valleyball courts) and sit down for the opening ceremony. My principal gets me to sit next to him. As luck would have it, our team draws the first game.
Considering my SUPER DUPER inconsistent history in volleyball, I understandably started off a little nervous... but that quickly blew away as landed a couple of solid spikes on the 7 foot nets. (yes, 7 foot nets, and my flat foot reach is about 7'3") But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. With 9 players per side, there really isn't much room that isn't covered. On one play I landed 5 consecutive, hard spikes that were all dug up and returned to the delight of the crowd.
It was plays like that by the other team that eventually led to our defeat and an early end to our day. Each team seemed to have 9 guys who could dig up anything and one or two hitters (not to mention a blocker or two).
On the other hand, Steph and her school continued to win all day. Steph was under extreme pressure by her team all day, to "kill" the ball, and "hit down". They were making reference to another "waygook" on another team. "Karen", who clearly had been playing competitively for a long time, and was hammering balls down in each of her games and stirring up lots of "I love you"'s from her coach. (Karen's team went on to win the women's tournament... Congrats Karen!).
Steph was unphased by the pressure and took her team to the semifinals with a truckload of blocks, solid kills and some super tricky "placements" and redirections. She was a destroyer!
After the women's teams were eliminated (from my school and Steph's) we headed to watch Steph's men's team play in the final, which they won in a varsity calibre battle. A 10pm dinner celebration ensued.
All in all, what I thought was going to be a day off, ended up being a marathon of a day.
posted by Brent at 1:44 p.m.
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