My Boys

As I've said before, I manage boys' volleyball. I started managing boys' volleyball last year when I was a sophomore. Last year the varsity team made it to playoffs. The team made it to the semi-finals and then lost, so they were out of the running for the Western Mass title. This year, we played the semi-finals against East Longmeadow and won. We advanced to the quarter finals and played Westfield. Again, we won. Now, we are going on to the finals. We are going to play Agawam on Monday. We have previously played Agawam twice in the regular season. We lost both times, so Monday's game should be interesting.

These boys really deserve to win the Western Mass title. I have spent the last month and a half to two months with them almost everyday. I've seen them work their butts off in practices and in games to make it to where they are now. I've heard them say from the beginning that they want to win this title. Especially the seniors because it's their last year.

In the quarter finals against Westfield, one of they boys got hurt and couldn't play. It especially sucked because he's a senior. Before the game started, I had to read a bunch of things and the lineups for both teams. This boy came over to me and told me that he didn't want me to read his name. At first I was like okay, but then I started thinking about it. He's part of the team if he plays or not. So with like a minute left until I had to start reading all of that stuff, I went back over to him to double check that he absolutely did not want me to read his name. He said he was absolutely sure. One of the other managers that was sitting in front of him turned around and said, "What if this is the last game?" and he responded, "It's not going to be" with complete confidence that they were going to win. When I was watching them play the third game, it dawned on me. He was so confident that it wasn't going to be the last game because they were going to win it for him. They were going to win it so he could play in the game on Monday. That literally gave me goosebumps. And they ended up winning. He was right.

Whether we win on Monday or not, they had a fantastic season. I know they will not give up no matter what. I will be proud of them no matter what the outcome is.