My name’s Brandon Hu and I’m a sophomore, I play setter for Irvington’s JV team. Since I play volleyball all the time (both with practice and in my free time) it’s something I’m really invested in. I’ve been playing for about a year, but I used to play recreationally when I was in middle school.
I got interested in volleyball because of my friends and an anime called Haikyuu!! The show is pretty popular and I think they make volleyball seem really appealing because it’s really humorous and watching the characters grow and improve together as a team is really inspiring. Compared to other sports anime that I’ve watched, volleyball stuck with me because I have friends that are also in the sport, and the community at Irvington is huge. I didn’t realize so many people played volleyball in Irvington since a lot of people play outside with club teams.
I know a lot of people like volleyball compared to other sports because of the teamwork aspect, but to be honest, it’s not my favorite aspect of the sport. My position as setter is really reliant on teamwork, but sometimes it can be hard to communicate with my teammates during practice or in games. That said, I think having so many friends who play volleyball made me stay with the sport because you experience everything together as a team.
When it comes to playing volleyball, I’d say there’s a pretty high learning curve for skill. You can teach basic movements to people, like how to set, but it takes a lot of practice to actually get good and know how to play in a game too.
I spend around 2 hours a day playing volleyball right now, which is spent on weekday practices or afterschool watching gameplay from other teams. I think that I became a better player by watching other people, like online and also from watching our varsity team. I think a lot of the appeal for volleyball comes from watching games as well as playing them. Our varsity team is really good and their games are super fun to go to. The crowd energy is awesome since a lot of parents and some students are really supportive and will go watch, plus they have really good teamwork and coordination. It’s really entertaining to watch them play because they’re so good, and it’s always nice to cheer on your school team. Some of my friends will come to the volleyball games occasionally too, and it’s nice to see them around and hang out with them.
I think that overall, volleyball has had a positive and major impact on my life. It’s not like it’s taken over my life by any means, but it’s still really time consuming since I have practice every weekday. Playing volleyball also made me want to go to the gym regularly and go outside instead of staying home all day too.