The Volleyball Trophy (The Girls Have To Play!)

Talk about a blast from the past! My mind doesn't normally drift back to my teenage years very often but I came across an old trophy while searching old boxes that brought back a flood of old memories. The high school years for me provided many less-than-stellar memories that have affected my life in negative ways but there were at least a few that belong on my highlight reel. This would be one of them.

From the 20th Century Fox movie "Cast Away"

You might think of many things when you hear the word "volleyball." You might be thinking of the name of the volleyball in the movie "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks. Fun fact, the Wilson brand volleyball was used in honor of his wife Rita Wilson, and that same ball sold for $308,565 USD back in 2021. (Good Housekeeping online, November 24, 2021). You may have a family member who plays volleyball. Or you may have just had one around with which to play soccer. For me it was a church volleyball league during my Joliet years that stands out as a highlight event for me and my friends.

Our church youth group was contacted about joining a weekly volleyball tournament over several months' time and it sounded like fun so we said yes. It would be held at one of the participating churches and there was really only one rule that we all had to follow that some of the church youth groups didn't like. You were required to use at least three girls all the time, which was no problem for us since our group was about half girls and half guys. I may have given a speech about how this was supposed to be a fun event for everyone whether we won or lost. We really had no expectation of winning considering our lack of playing experience as a team. Fun for everyone, that was our motto. But some of the other teams were playing for blood and determined to win at any cost.

The first half of the season we simply played volleyball. We figured out where each one played best and that's where we lined up. Other teams were surprised how many girls we had playing as they had decided to play the minimum. We ignored them and kept playing because we were just having fun. But we also turned out to be a very good team because in the first half of ten games our team was 10 and 0. Undefeated! Smiles all around. There was one other team who was 9 and 1 and they were quite a cutthroat team. They were not happy to have lost to a bunch of schmucks who were having a good time. They told us to watch out for them in the second half as they needed to be have a better record than us to win the whole thing.

The Winner's Trophy

The second half was a little more nerve-wracking as we were now the team to beat, but we kept reminding each other that we were in it to have fun and fun we were having. We kept using all the girls and we were doing well. When it came to the game between us and the other top 9-1 team we all had butterflies. We played our hearts out and, despite our best effort, lost that game and we were the team who went 9 and 1 while the other team was undefeated. No tears, just congratulations to the other team for doing so well. But there was one more game that needed to be played because now there were two teams with 19 wins and 1 loss overall. There would need to be a playoff game. I know this was only high school and it was just supposed to be fun but this had turned into a "winner takes all" scenario that made us all very nervous. But I remember we all stuck to our guns to keep doing the same thing we'd done all the way through, which was just to relax and enjoy the game. And wouldn't you know, we beat them fair and square and got the trophy to prove it! We were recognized at our church service the following Sunday and basked in the winner's circle. As much as a bunch of schmucks can bask.

First Place for our volleyball team

Those events occurred in the middle of the 1970's and I think I had just gotten my first car for driving to all those games. Fast forward forty years and I thought about that story enough to finally do something about it. I contacted the church and asked them if they might still have that trophy lying somewhere in a storage room. I knew it was a long shot but I'm always willing to try. Sure enough, a few weeks later I get a box in the mail and it's a volleyball trophy. But taped over the brass plaque that was meant for a more recent and long-forgotten tournament was a piece of paper that says "David's Trophy Memory" or something amusing like that. But not to worry, I buzzed on down to the local trophy store and had a proper brass plate engraved with the details I remembered. It is still perched up on a shelf in my office with other memories of elephants and Precious Moments figurines.

It's still a good memory

Life seems to teach us that we can't have everything or that we may never win. But then I look at that trophy and realize that sometimes it's us who wins. And for every child of God, we understand that we all win in the end.

Until next time,

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)