As you all know, in high school there is a very strict pecking order. Freshmen are at the very bottom, being the youngest and newest to arrive on campus. The sophomores come next, being neither true upperclassmen nor disdainful underclassmen. The next level of students, juniors, are seen as true upperclassmen but still bow to the all-powerful seniors. Seniors get all the privileges, and call all the shots. They've earned that right though, being the oldest and most experienced at the school, and everyone else understands that. At least, most of us do.
The first practices of a new volleyball season started this past week. Spring practice is always so interesting, what with all of the new little freshies coming up from the middle school and the new varsity and j.v. teams being roughly formed. Upperclassmen are somewhat in charge of getting the new players up to speed on the new techniques and formations that come with playing volleyball in high school. This is what I and my fellow upperclassmen were doing last Thursday, when we figured out that this season was going to require a whole lot more senior authority if we were going to last through the new season without killing each other.
Practice had been going fairly decent so far, and everyone was just starting to get used to the new varsity coach. We have been issued a new one every year that I've played, not because we're a bad group of girls, but because some adults just don't know how to commit to coaching. I mean come on, if you're going to take the job, take it with the understanding of the amount of time you will be giving up to the team and the mindset that you're going to be in it for the long haul. It might not matter that much to you, but to us players it's our whole world, and we deserve your dedication when we so readily demonstrate ours. Maybe this guy will be different, but we'll see.
We had just started running through a drill that we like to call Queens. Its basically when six girls play three-on-three and whichever team wins the point stays on the court and the one that doesn't is replaced by three more different players. The object of the game is to just get as much game-like experience as possible and to help players work on communication skills and basic passing, setting, hitting, and digging techniques. It's fun to win though too, I'll admit.
At the time, another player who happens to be injured at this point in time and unable to practice, was in charge of tossing easy free balls to either side of the net to get each rally started. This girl, a friend of mine who we'll call Ann for privacy reasons,(and the fact that she'll be super-duper pissed-off at me if she ever reads this and sees that I used her real name), was succeeding in angering every single upperclassman in that gym.
Ann, instead of simply tossing balls over the net to help the newer players adjust and get better, was hitting hard down balls and tipping impossible tips to each new group of players.
"Ann, just throw easy balls to us. That's the way we've always played it and that's how we need to do it now. Not everyone knows how to dig balls like that yet." said one of this year's graduating seniors, Kathleen.
"What, you guys can't handle a little down ball?" retorted Ann sarcastically. Now let me just say, Ann is a rising junior, like myself, and Kathleen is one of our senior players from last year who has been coming to our practices to help us and the new recruits get acclimated. For her to be so outwardly rude to one of our old captains made mine and everyone else's mouths drop wide open. A bomb could have gone off in the parking lot next to the gym and none of us would have moved, so dumbfounded were we by such a display.
"WE can, but some of the new players can't, so just ease up." said Kathleen evenly. It's a good thing she has a level head, because had it been me that Ann had talked back to, I would have ripped her a new one. Next year will sure be interesting when we're BOTH seniors. Lord have mercy.
Ann then ignored Kathleen's remarks about 'easing up' and continued to drill balls at us and try to act like she was large-and-in-charge. Since she's neither of those things, you can probably imagine the tempers that were boiling up in that gym. (In case you're wondering, as I was too at the time, where our actual coaches were when all of this was going on; they were happily chatting away on the other side of the gym about different drills and players and whatnot. Way to be vigilant, new coach. You're showing excellent promise so far.)
The next actual verbal confrontation happened between Ann and Nicole, Nicole being a rising senior and current captain. Nicole was in one of the groups of three people getting ready to play against the others on the other side of the net at the time.
"Ann, just throw free balls. It's what we've always done during this drill. Some people can't handle that yet. It's only the second day of practice."
"I know YOU can though. What, are you scared of a little tip or down-ball?" said Ann. She then proceeded to hit the ball straight at Nicole who, making no effort to pass the ball whatsoever, calmly caught it, and then tossed it back to her.
"I know I can, but that's not the point. And no, I'm definitely not scared of you or your hits. Don't flatter yourself sweetie. This isn't your team. Your just a regular player like the rest of us." And with that said Nicole stood in the middle of the court and waited, refusing to play or move until Ann listened.
"Whatever," said Ann, who, being somewhat embarrassed at being out-argued, then proceeded to throw free balls for the rest of the drill, like she was originally designated to. At that point, I had been in the back of the line watching this all go down with all of the other upperclassmen players. I had been yelling retort after retort at Ann the whole time (in my head at least) and was grinning by the time Nicole finally succeeded in putting her back in her place. I did have enough decency to wipe off my little smirk by the time it was my turn to play, but just barely!
The moral of the story? (Yes there is a moral to average girl drama. It DOES have a higher meaning. But then again, so does a rock if you think about it hard enough. The earth's crust and all that. Who knew.) It's simply: RESPECT YOUR ELDERS, regardless of if your 'elder' is eighteen or eighty. They still have seniority over you and should be respected. You don't have to like it, most of us don't in fact, but its another one of those unwritten and universally understood rules that you just follow. Just because. So the next time you think of smart-mouthing your boss, think of Ann's stupidity and what she got for it, and refrain from telling your superior how you REALLY feel about their so-called 'intelligent' decisions. It will only come back to bite you in the end!
"When people honor each other, there is a trust established that leads to synergy, interdependence, and deep respect. Both parties make decisions and choices based on what is right, what is best, what is valued most highly." - Blaine Lee
