Marquette University Intimations Project

Anonymous

What’s going to become of my life? I could sense the end of it already—law school,  summer internships, 70 hour work weeks. It was ending before it really began.  A Facebook post rolled past my eyes: ‘Interested in coaching club [volleyball] this  coming season? Please reach out if interested!’ By this point, I’ve been sitting at home for seven  months, bingeing different t.v. shows trying to distract myself from how quickly my life will be  coming to an end. I remember the guy who posted it, Nick—he was my ‘connection’ to the South  Carolina college that recruited me when I was in high school. What the hell, I might as well ask.  After a cancelled team and a few turn of events, I ended up as the Assistant Coach to the  Milwaukee Juniors 18 Elite team—a girls club. Our roster was made up of nine high school  seniors and one sophomore. My first impression of these girls was ‘Wow, they are really, really  tall.’  

Being out of the game for four years, I took a backseat approach towards the beginning of  the season. Who was I to tell them anything? Do I even remember how to play? I was a shy,  nervous coach—I stuck mostly to myself. This group had been together for a few years and  seemed to know the other coaches well. I felt I was the odd man out.

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Our schedule was incredibly packed. We practiced twice per week: Tuesday and  Wednesday from 7:45 pm to 9:45 pm. Sometimes we had individual skills sessions on Monday’s,  too. Our tournament schedule consisted of eleven weekends over our four month season—this  meant I was with the girls sometimes up to five days per week. 

What this also meant for me was I was constantly on the move—from one job, to school,  back to the job, and over to volleyball. I hardly spent any time in my apartment or saw my  roommates. 

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Though I found my personal confidence again from playing on the court, I honestly  cannot recall a whole lot from our season in terms of volleyball. We probably underperformed to  where we should have been, talent wise. Our setting and defense wasn’t as consistent as it  needed to be. Sometimes we allowed ourselves to be consumed by negative attitudes and drama.  However, this season was not about ‘winning’. This year was about fun, friendship, and  camaraderie—team bonding—the human portion of life that had been missing over the last  twelve months. In Minnesota, we played ‘spike ball’ off of a lunch table inside the hotel. In  Indianapolis, we gathered in the hotel lobby to play ‘Heads Up’ and “Uno’ (being the Uno  Champion became a season long joke/goal for each tournament). In Columbus, we took a trip to  a local donut shop, shared breakfast, lunch, and dinner, shot each other with hairbands, and  stayed up late playing cribbage and Egyptian Rawscrew. After returning from spring break, the  girls were incredibly excited to see me and tell me about their vacations. The constant smiles, 

inside jokes, games, drawings on my car—these were all things that I was missing out on while  sitting in my room watching television.  

What this club season meant for me was a social life. While most people were confined to  their homes for work and school, I was traveling somewhere new in the Midwest almost every  week, interacting with my team, their parents, and other coaches. Surely, it will be this club  volleyball season that will be remembered as the defining moment of my end of college  experience.