VARSITY ATHLETICS

August 25, 2008

"PRESEASON"

By Senior Setter Julie Schaefer (Independence, OH)

Last Sunday morning, bright and early, the first day of preseason began. With my shoes tied, kneepads pulled up, and shirt tucked in, I entered the gym for the first day of volleyball for the last time. The last summer of my college career had come and gone in the blink of an eye.

It’s hard to think how my summer could have flown by so fast considering how uneventful it really was. I spent my summer commuting to Case to work in an office with no windows on a research project in the Nursing Department. The project turned out to be pretty interesting and I was pretty good at what I did. This summer, there was one week that stands out to me above the rest. At the end of July I went on a much-needed family vacation to Hilton Head. Although it is hard to see why anyone would need to get away from Cleveland; it’s not like the weather sucks, there’s construction everywhere you need to drive, or there is rush-hour traffic when all I want to do is get to open gym.

When I was on vacation with the Schaefer side of the family, I learned to always expect the unexpected. It’s bound to be exciting when my dad is one of eight kids and I am one of 17 grandchildren. It also became unmistakably clear where I inherited my competitive attitude. Every day of vacation included a grueling match of pool volleyball and a corn-hole tournament during dinner, after which we would move inside for a poker match. And who knew that a game of Pictionary could be so intense? Of course while I was away, I was sure to bring along my training program for volleyball. No surprise, there was always an allotted period of time every day for working out and I had to be prepared to come back. [from left to right: Andrea Wojtowicz & Andrea Lamont].

When Sunday the 17th rolled around, it was hard to tell who was more nervous for preseason, me or the volleyball team’s newest members, the incoming freshmen. Even after three years, I did not know what to expect; this year was different from the minute we all walked into the gym. We had all met only once before, this July at our “Camp Veale” summer sleepover. Unfortunately, this get-together was bound to be much less fun. We struggled through the day together and were all equally excited when it was over. At the end of the day, I think we could all feel the tension in the gym loosen up a bit. [action shot from her freshman year]

During preseason, we spent the week working harder and sweating more than we did all summer. However, with the hard work comes a great amount of uncertainty. All along we wonder to ourselves, which lineup does coach like best? Who will be the starters this season? Who will be most affected by the new rules? Even with the insecurity we all feel during preseason, I can tell you one thing for sure: this year is definitely going to be a turning point for Case Volleyball. I get the impression that the incoming class and the returners are about to make a remarkable combination.

I think like any senior would say, this week, I found myself jumping a little higher than I thought I could and diving for a ball I never would have gotten last year. Just knowing this is my last season of college volleyball gives me that extra push to do things on the court that coach couldn’t pay me to do the last two years. If I could offer any word of advice to any freshman athlete it would be to play every game like it is your last. I know if seems far away now, but the games go by faster than you can imagine.

Posted by: Creg Jantz August 25, 2008 02:21 PM | Category: Volleyball

Posted by: cnj4 (Creg Jantz) August 25, 2008 02:21 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback