The Miami Palmetto Senior High Boys’ Volleyball team has come a long way from last season, with help from hard work and dedication shown this year. Last season, the team was ranked 14 in the state. Although the season is not over, they have already passed that ranking, with a current state rank of seven at the state level. The Varsity and Junior Varsity volleyball teams are unique, due to the comradery and size shared between both teams.
The team dedicates much time to volleyball and the group, traits that make a difference on the court. They have practice every day, except Sundays, for two hours in the evening. Many of their games are tournament style, which requires a very tedious process; a bracket-style in which different schools go up against each other, with the next game being determined by the placement and score of the previous game. Each game lasts at least an hour, so going through each game is very time-consuming: each tournament runs for upward of five hours.
The Varsity team has a current record of 13:5 but still has a ways to go before their season is over, having five games left in the regular season. Leading them to a successful season, the team comes together to support one another and get pumped. Their pregame ritual includes huddling up and chanting. Also, a group of teammates from both the JV and Varsity teams often go to Chipotle together before their home games.
The team has gotten closer in terms of chemistry throughout the season. Whether the growth in chemistry comes as a result of tributes or tribulations, the way they come together is proven by the way they play on the court. Teammates are certain that in times of difficulty, they will be there for one another.
“When [one of our teammates] Achilles [tendon] snapped and he had to get surgery, everyone really came together to help him out,” senior and varsity player Nikola Lugo said.
In volleyball, teamwork and communication are essential. Each teammate should be able to communicate their area of the court so that they can learn how to move as one unit to accomplish the ultimate goal of not letting the ball touch the ground. Additionally, teammates need to trust one another. One must trust their teammate, confiding in them to meet their responsibilities of effectively covering their area and hitting the ball over the net if it comes to them. In many sports, to achieve this trust, communication and support on the court, it must be achieved off the court as well.
“Oftentimes, people run into each other if there’s no communication: sometimes, say there’s a ball going to two players, if they don’t communicate, they could run into each other and end up losing the point. So, I think it’s really important to be able to communicate, especially in volleyball,” junior and JV player Aidan Epelbaum said.
Despite being two separate teams, the JV and Varsity teams often see themselves as one unit. Although the teams do not practice together, they spend a lot of time with each other since their practices take place in the gym at MPSH, which is split between the hours of 6-8 p.m. for their practices. The teams are also required to show up and cheer each other on for their games.
“[JV and Varsity] attend each other’s games: Varsity must set up the court for JV, and JV must be present at the Varsity games and take down the court afterward to ensure that both teams are at each other’s games,” junior and JV player Adi Gold said.
Each of their most intense games has contributed to the team’s relations, whether walking off the court with a win or a loss. Big victories bring the team closer after a sense of relief from defeating a challenging team. It proves the team’s efforts, hard work and dedication to be effective, and generates a sense of overjoy. When a team wins, players produce more dopamine, triggering a pleasant feeling in the reward area of our brain that we want to experience again. This communal feeling overall brings the team closer.
The volleyball team experienced a memorable moment like this after playing a breezy game against Cardinal Gibbons, in which they won 2:0. This blowout proved themselves to be a good and fierce team.
“[The Cardinal Gibbons was] a very loud game: we had JV supporting and a bigger crowd than normal. We had the whole gym screaming and everyone trying to support us and at the end, we pulled out and won,” Lugo said.
In addition to all their hard work from this season so far, the team looks forward to a few more weeks of hard work until they begin districts at the end of April. They hope to place higher in the finals than last year.
