I started playing volleyball in 7th grade, but didn’t fall in love with the sport until my senior year of high school. I made varsity in 10th grade, earlier than most players at my school which didn’t make much sense to me. Our team also rarely won games season after season. When you lose often, you don’t hit as many balls as you should and you’re always praying your ball goes over the net as you prepare for a serve, you wonder why you’re even on the team.
New Management, New Results
My high school switched out the varsity volleyball coaches, leaving us under advisement of one of the best coaches in our conference Mary Parisi. The improvement in our game illustrated the drastic difference between day and night. We went from enduring defeated seasons to almost qualifying for conference championships. The players didn’t change, I played with the same girls since 7th and 8th grade. The only change was my coach.
Parisi introduced us to drills that accurately mirrored what we’d experience playing games. She quickly pinpointed each player’s strong and weak spots and used that to strategize our line up on the court. She changed our rotation sequence so we could cover more ground while playing. Parisi challenged us, and refused to let us give up.
Winning Or Losing, We Held Our Heads High
We used to walk into games ready to lose because since we rarely saw a win, we didn’t believe we could. And the rare times we did win, it felt like a miracle. Parisi helped us view ourselves as winners no matter what. She NEVER let us feel sorry for ourselves and taught us to take accountability for each choice we made on the court. She encouraged positivity at all times, because she believed in how amazing we could be. I went from walking into games filled with anxiety to strutting on the court ready to dominate the court.
With Parisi’s coaching, I made the sports highlights in Long Island Newsday every single game for my high number of hits and blocks. I even learned that I was an ambidextrous hitter, a secret weapon the other teams never saw coming. I became a player I didn’t recognize, wondering if I really had this talent in me the whole time. At the end of my senior season, refs loved me, my team said farewell to their favorite captain (me) and I became an All County player. I never thought I’d ever be an All County player. It was a fantasy turned real. All Conference is one thing but All County?! I was one of the best volleyball players in all of Nassau County, Long Island.
I learned later on that I received a spot on the volleyball team because of my potential. Parisi saw the star in me and brought her to life on the court. I walk through life ready to conquer the world, all due to having an amazing coach.