What is a team?
According to the dictionary it is "a number of persons associated in some joint action". In my opinion this definition, quite frankly, sucks. It's one of the worst blanket statements I have ever heard. A team is not something that can be defined in a few simple words. It is a complex, difficult, and wonderful thing that can change, mold, and bring people into something so powerful, even the realities of our everyday world can't break it. The word "team" cannot be summarized, it can only be experienced.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Palmetto Regional Volleyball Championships in Charlotte, North Carolina with my own team. We, along with hundreds of other teams from Georgia, North and South Carolina, played two, three, or four matches a day for three days, trying to do what all teams want to do: win. My team and I had been very successful in this area all season long, and I, along with my other eight teammates, thought we were ready for the hardships that the biggest and most important tournament of the year was sure to throw at us. Man, were we ever wrong.
Now don't get me wrong, we were very much physically ready. Our team is one of the best when it comes to skill and talent in our age division. What caught us all off guard was the very big mental part of the game. Ever heard that saying: sports are ten percent physical, ninety percent mental? Well let me tell you guys, truer words were never spoken. Everyone thinks that the skill part of the game is the hardest to accomplish and perfect. I can assure you all that this is most definitely not the case. Mental toughness is one of the most difficult traits to aquire and obtain. In my opinion it is the single most important and difficult thing to learn as an athlete.
The first day of the tournament was this past Friday. We started our first of two matches that evening against the number one team in our region and age group. Let me just say, we found out that they were in that number one spot for a very good reason! We started the match not expecting too much, and therefore played extremely well. We actually kept up with them and were even beating them at one time. This of course resulted in all of us getting overexcited and thinking that we really were capable of beating them. Don't get me wrong, we were very much capable of winning against them if we played to our full potential, but when you actually do something you didn't think you could, you start to get nervous and start trying way too hard to keep doing it. That's exactly what we did. Offense and defense crumbled, tempers flew and nerves frayed. We lost faith in playing together and started playing individually, and you will never succeed in volleyball individually. The worst part about it though was that none of us tried to pick our other teammates up when they got frusterated. No one gave anyone a pat on the back or said a few encouraging words to someone who was down, and that's what a team is, a support system. And when you fail at that, you are no longer a team. You are only a group of people doing the same thing in close proximity to each other. And in volleyball and even sometimes in life, that never leads to success.
Needless to say we lost that match with flying colors. We then went into a the second match against a much easier opponent and proceded to lose that as well. When we left the convention center later that night, we were all at our wits end with each other and our coaches. Nothing this bad had ever happened to us before, and we had no idea how to deal with it, let alone fix it.
The next day we showed up somewhat better prepared for a fight. We lost the first game but procede to win the next three. The difference between the first three games and the next three games was all in our heads. In the first three, we all lost individual battles. In the next three, we won a single battle together. That's what a team is supposed to do: fight together, hurt together, smile together, laugh together, work, win, and lose together. There is no individuality in this sport.
We ended up pulling it together enough to win the bronze metal for our age group. I'll say that I'm definitely happy that we won anything at all, but I know that this team could have done so much more. This group of girls that I was blessed enough to get to play with are some of the most talented young women I have ever met. They inspired me every game and every practice to be better, work harder, and rise to the occasion. I've never wanted so bad to make my teammates proud of me, and to help them be as great as they were meant to be. These girls have helped me become a better person, and to learn to take responsibility for my actions and to always think of others before I ever think of myself. I'm never happier than when I've made one of my teammates happy in a tough situation. Let me say that I am also so thankful for the coaching we all received at this tournament. We all needed to be pushed to overcome our young, selfish, and yes I'll admit it, immature teenage minds. And we ended up not just getting pushed in that direction, but shoved with such intensity and passion that we couldn't help but feed off of it and improve.
Team to me is not a word. If it was just a word it would be black and white, plain, ordinary, one meaning, simple. In my mind, team is exact opposite of all that. It is toughness (both mental and physical), devotion, eagerness, selflessness, and a willingness to play and win not only for your own personal satisfaction but also for the building up of your teammates as people and athletes. When it all boils down, we're all playing a game, and a game isn't that serious. But the formation of strong young women who come to understand that anything is possible if you give yourself over to faith in yourself and in those around you is something far more serious and important. All of us, even our coaches, took a step closer to that level of greatness after this weekend. We'll fight our whole lives to get there, but if we take one step at a time, and take them all together, we'll get there. No matter if those steps take us down separate paths, we will always have each others backs. That is what my team is to me. They are my strength, my everlasting source of joy on and off the court, the people who bring the best out in me and make me a better person everyday and make me feel secure and invincible and loved. But most importantly, they are and always will be, my family.
"Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."
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