At Your Service

At+Your+Service

Will Ginolfi and Charlie Eaan

 

At 2:21 the bell rang and I walked down to the lower gym with an extra pep in my step because it was the first day of intramural volleyball. It was all I had been thinking about all day; I wanted to prove my skills to the whole school. I changed quickly in the locker room and then went over to a circle of excited kids gathered around Gardy as he went over the rules of the tournament. I remember looking over at the huge seniors and I wondered how hard they could spike it. Maybe I thought I would be able to play them on open challenge night!  

Finally, my team was up and I was returning the serve of one of the best servers in all of intramural volleyball… Andrew Gilligan. He threw the ball high into the air and hit it at an extreme speed toward me. I used one of my hits and bumped the ball up in the direction of my friend Clayton who spiked the ball down onto the other team. We celebrated together and went on to win the game. 

This was my memory of the first day of intramural volleyball and it was and is still one of the most fun things to do in high school. There is something about volleyball that gives you so much satisfaction to win. This is because it is a very team-oriented sport and you need to work together to be good at it. Many kids love intramural volleyball specifically because of the team bonding that comes with it. Intramural volleyball at Ipswich is co-ed which makes it more enjoyable because you get to play with everyone in your grade and easier to make fair teams. Gardy and Mrs. McGinley spend so much time teaching skills. “Mrs. McGinley and I rate the players and make the teams as fair as possible,” said Gardy. This way even if you are not the best volleyball player you can still go out and have fun with your friends and team. 

Since intramural volleyball is good fun and exercise the more people who sign up, the better. The fact that there is no cost for any of the players draws more people in and all you have to do is put your name on a sheet of paper and your all set. Usually, about two hundred people a year sign up but hopefully, the numbers continue to rise. Captain of the Volleyball team Haley O’Connor said one of her favorite parts about intramural is, “the fact that a variety of people play and you get to play and compete against many people in the grade.” Also, if more people sign up there is a wider range of skills and the teams have an equal shot at winning each game. In the beginning, all the teams play each other each week and the teams with the best record make the championship tournament where they battle each other until a winner is found!

During the intramural season, there is a challenge night where anyone can sign up and it’s five dollars per player with six per team. That night all the teams go to the high school and have a tournament and the winner gets to go home with the trophy. But this isn’t the only after school activity that is done in correlation to the volleyball program! 

The other one is the beach tournament in August 2020 which is pretty much the same system as the challenge night accept it is run by the volleyball teams coach Kerri O’Connor. Alumni teams can also come back and challenge the younger kids and it is usually a really fun day on the beach. Coach Kerri loves organizing the tournament; she said, “My favorite part is that I get to be at the beach from 7:30 am-8:30 pm straight and watch high school players and adults have a blast playing an amazing fun sport on beautiful sunny Crane Beach.” I personally have played in this tournament and it was such a blast; I would highly recommend it. Also, next years girls volleyball program benefits from this tournament because it helps to raise money. It costs fifteen dollars per team to be in the tournament and each team usually has 4 players. More and more teams get knocked out of the tournament until a winner is found and each player on the team gets Crane Beach t-shirts and gift cards to local Ipswich restaurants. 

Both intramural volleyball and the annual beach tournament are great ways to support the girls team most importantly enjoy time with your friends. I started doing it in my freshman year and every year I have more fun. The experience has allowed me to become a better volleyball player and meet new people. If you are bored and looking for something new and exciting to do you should sign up for intramural volleyball!