Volleyball

Cathedral Saint
Alexandar Nevski

We are required to lead an after school activity for at least one term at the school. I put it off as long as possible, but knew I would have to lead something. It's not that I am against after school activities, but after teaching all day staying for another hour to plan, prep, manage, and teach again isn't ideal.

I was placed on the PE department team this year, because of my expertise in that field (or maybe it was because that was the only vacancy. whatever). The Athletic Director at the school was also on this team and mentioned his need for volleyball coaches. I very clearly explained I had never coached volleyball and stopped playing early on in high school. Like I said, expert in the PE department. He seemed okay with my sorry qualifications and I agreed to be an assistant coach for the middle school girls team. The one who shows up at the practice but doesn't do much... that was the role I was going for! :p

Internationally known

Team sports at International schools are pretty interesting. We aren't part of a district and there aren't many other teams in the area for us to play. But we are part of the CEESA conference, which includes most international schools in the Eastern European area. So instead of several little matches or a tournament featuring local schools, we went to Bulgaria. The high school girls went to Serbia. The MS boys went to Helsinki.

I knew there would be international tournament involved, which is completely normal for all of the students- they acted as if it was another Friday night football game. I realized pretty soon into the practices that the 'assistant' part of my title would be dropped since the boys were headed north and the girls south.

Fancy view with my fancy breakfast

So, the first ever volleyball match I coached was for a team of middle school girls from Riga, Latvia at a tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. ..... sometimes, I still don't believe my life.

In the end, the tournament and experience was good. We only saw a bit of the city before heading to the school. But I did get to stay in a super fancy resort/hotel. The first day of the tournament, the girls lost every game. Some by a lot, some only by a little. One they lost, but only because they had terrible attitudes and didn't work as a team.

Watching the boys' team dominate
in Helsinki via live-streaming

On the second day of the tournament, they came back with better attitudes and a more can-do spirit. They were able to beat the first team we played, only to get beaten up by the second. But we knew that would likely be the outcome and they put up a decent fight. We played the first team again to figure out who would be final place team and who would play again for 5th place.

It went into a third game, but the girls won. That meant competing against the Helsinki team, whom we should have beat on day 1. Outside of the games, all the girls have been building friendships, mostly with the Helsinki team. They were super nervous for the game and being friends with the girls on the other side of the net wasn't help them. But they were able to put on their game faces, and after winning the first set and losing the second, they were able to win the third. Meaning they took 5th out of 7 teams.

The Sportsmanship trophy was
the biggest of them all

They also got the sportsmanship award, which I may not be in full support of them receiving because I heard a lot not-so-nice things from them about the other teams. But, I know I wasn't exactly a reasonable little angel at that age either so....
 
Congrats, lady Lynx!