Tag Archives: volleyball

The Bard Plays Thursday

Every Wednesday around noon I send out a reminder to our Thursday Lunchtime Volleyball participants. Sometimes I have a report on last week’s games, sometimes a joke, and occasionally an extract of some volleyball rule. This was this week’s version.

(Where Juliet spake)
O volleyball, volleyball. Wherefore art thou volleyball?
Deny thy job and refuse thy lunchtime;
Or if thou wilt not, notify me such
And I’ll no longer bug thee.

(And Romeo responds)
Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

(And being Juliet she denies Romeo the opportunity to speak and she replies)
‘Tis but thy presence that makes my team.
Thou art thyself, though not-at-volleyball?
What is not-at-volleyball? It is nor hand nor foot,
Nor arm nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a Player
By any other word would play so well?
So a Player would, were he a player call’d
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Not-at-volleyball, doff thy name,
and for thy name, Player! As a part of thee.
And take all games.

2009 Sand Fleas Conclusion

The 2009 Sand Fleas started play in late May. Over the summer we played with a core group including Kathryn, Julia, Rachael, Rob, Ron, Scott, and myself. We got major contributions from Danielle, Bill and Dan as substitutes throughout the summer and I enjoyed their presence on our team.

We finished 3rd overall in the 10 team league during the regular season and we earned a 1st round bye in the playoffs.

In our 2nd round playoff match we easily beat the 5th place team, Git It Up, 2 games straight and faced the 1st place Team 5 in the semi-finals. I believe the Poland based Team 5 only lost 2 games in the league all summer and we had not scored more than 10 points against them during our regular season matches.

So to make things interesting we spotted them a 9-1 lead in our 1st game.

After our time out we rallied and I believe our stretch of volleyball during the remainder of that game was as well as we played all year against a quality opponent. We lost the game 25-17, but the 2nd part of that game was as competitive and as good a volleyball as we were capable of playing.

The 2nd game felt like Team 5 controlled the tempo and we lost, ending our season.

In the championship game Team 5 lost their opening game against Swingers but went on to win the championship2-1, with the 3rd and final game being a close match throughout; last tied at 20-20.

I had a enjoyable time, played fun volleyball and consider it a successful season. I want to thank everyone who played for the 2009 Sand Fleas, agreed to sub and/or just endured my countless emails.

Sand Fleas Volleyball 2008 Wrap Up

This past Thursday, 8/14, was the playoffs and conclusion of our Adirondack Lanes Thursday night volleyball league. We started on what seems a long time ago – back on 22 May. Our main team included returning members Ron, Jim, Kathryn and Rob along with new members Brian and Julia. Our subs included long time associates Josh, JoAnn, Becca and Joe with new additions Dan, Scott A., Scott T., Stephanie and Rachael.

A common theme over the summer was our shifting line-up as we utilized 15 different players and the substitute team played in 31% of the games. While I greatly enjoyed playing with the large number of friends, it did have it’s challenges as we all worked to understand one another’s strengths and tendencies.

Some of the highlights were:

The temporary return of Becca early on as she fulfilled a local nursing internship
Rob’s injury in early July that sidelined him for the season
Julia (or someone looking like Julia) showing up on the night of her birthday celebration
The mid-season addition of Rachael, our ninja setter
Scott T.’s “It’s on!” after taking a hard spike to the chest

We won 2/3rds of our games and went into the playoffs seated 4th in the 10 team league.

We got a 1st round bye and faced Matt Sudol’s team with a team of Jim, Kathryn, Julia, Rachael, Josh, Scott T. and Ron. We missed serves, botched passes and did everything we could to hand the game over. Down 10-6 we called time out, re-captured the serve and pulled a tie and finally pulled out a 15-13 win. The 2nd game we jumped out to a 9-0 lead and coasted to 15-6 win.

In the semi-finals we faced #2 Parson’s team and again played poorly, giving the game to Parson. Unfortunately our time out did not change our fortune and we limped to game 2 licking our wounds. Game two was competitive, but our mistakes again caught up with us. We lost 15-12 and bowed out of the playoffs.

Ron, Kathryn and I hung around and watched the finals (there were only 3 other spectators) and Swingers easily beat Parson’s in two straight games.

I want to thank everyone for being part of the 2008 Sand Fleas volleyball team. I especially want to thank Josh, Joe, Dan, Becca, JoAnn, Scott T., Scott A. and Stephanie for helping out during the season. Thanks to Kathryn for acquiring and making T-shirts.

While I was disappointed in my individual performance and our team performance in the playoffs it is really about the journey – not the destination. The journey was great. I got to play decent volleyball with a bunch of great people. We got better as a team as we went along. I already look forward to Sand Fleas 2009.