February 22 Volleyball Report

Play of the day….There were several great saves. We had some long, very competitive games as it took us 53 minutes to play the 1^st 3 games. But the play that was discussed in the locker room afterwards took place during a heated volley and I saw it perfectly from my setter’s position. Steve got a set and with a crafty look in his eye he prepared to ease the ball over the net for a clear dink in the opposing middle. Simultaneously, Dan launched from a deep setting position and clearly blocked the dink. The timing was perfect and made all the more impressive by Dan coming from a deep position to anticipate the play and make the block.

The upset victory…..Not technically an upset as the team didn’t come from behind, but the undermanned, 5 person team of Rob, Bill, Jim, Peggy and Steve faced the steroid infused, youthful team of six assassins including; Brent, Josh, Gregg, Mark, Julia, and Dan and won by a surprising margin. I am not sure of the final score, but I believe I recall hearing 12-2 at one point. Who would have thunk it? Not Brent, as he immediately requested a rematch, but was denied. Without getting into specific metrics, let’s just say that among Bill, Jim, Peggy and Steve there were enough combined years to know that giving them a 2^nd chance would ruin the storyline. ;-)

Blast from the past…..Some may remember Dave Christopher, a volleyball and ardent wallyball player from about 3-4 years ago. I saw Dave yesterday. He is still a pharmaceutical rep covering a large territory in the North Country. He has received a promotion and now moves psychiatric drugs. This is good to know in case you need psychotropics to cope with your last volleyball game; or perhaps to delude yourself prior to your next big match. Dave threatened to appear at a wallyball session some Tuesday as he is sometimes in the area on Tuesdays.

Player we hadn’t seen for a while…..After being waylaid by sickness and then put off by the weather, Mark returned to the court after a lengthy absence.

Serving run of the day……It has to belong to Josh. Serving from his comfortable position deep behind the end line, Josh ran off 5 straight points; causing the opposing back line “Serve one here, Josh” to go silent. Fortunately, Josh was on my team at that point.

How are those new procedures working out?....You probably read that I did a couple of exchanges with Michelle from the Rome Family Y to put our volleyball agreement into writing. My main issue was getting the net set up in a timely fashion so we can play a full hour. We agreed if Y maintenance personnel were missing then I would be contacted in advance so we could arrive knowing we needed to set up the net. The 1^st week of the written procedures we show up and the net isn’t set up. To the Y’s credit they got a fill-in, Bob, in quickly to set it up. I talked with Michelle who said their normal maintenance person, Nick, went home and Michelle wasn’t aware of his absence. It sounded like the Y was going do some internal memo with Nick as a primary topic. I plan to include Michelle on our emailing list to provide a reminder.