The boys’ volleyball season ended with a 2-0 victory in the championship game against Thomas R. Policita Intermediate School (TRP). The team’s starting six (Francis Martinez, Derrald Monteverde, Jaylen O’Bannon, Jayden Salcedo, Ryan Cariaso, and Isaiah Baclay) agreed to an interview.
How long have you played volleyball?
Martinez: I started getting interested in volleyball, but I didn’t start playing volleyball until sixth grade, and this grade is when I committed to getting better.
Baclay: I started playing volleyball this year, and this is like the first time I ever played volleyball.
Cariaso: I started like three months before the season started.
Salcedo: I started playing volleyball during 6th grade and then tried out for 7th grade, but I wasn’t fully, like, good. But now I’m [in] 8th grade, I think I’m consistent.
O’Bannon: I just started playing this year, so I started school, played at lunch, and this year, I started playing.
Monteverde: I randomly tried out for the team in 7th grade and got on the team, so I’ve been playing for two years now.
What made you start playing volleyball this year?
Martinez: I wasn’t going to join, but Derrald asked me to, and all my friends were convincing me to, and I wanted to take advantage of my last year of being in middle school too.
Baclay: My girlfriend did. I started playing volleyball because of her.
Cariaso: Derrald also made me. I wasn’t going to, but he asked me.
Salcedo: I’ve seen like videos, and it made me look- I was just interested in playing.
O’Bannon: Derrald also convinced me I wasn’t going to do it. He told me that I should.
Monteverde: My mom convinced me to sign up. I’m being so for real. She made me do it. My mom said I should play, so I started playing.
What is one thing you like to do in volleyball?
Martinez: One thing I really like is yelling, and I’m also a big fan of saving the ball and diving for it.
Baclay: I really like trying to spike.
Cariaso: I like hitting the ball too.
Salcedo: I like setting.
O’Bannon: I like spiking.
Monteverde: I like spiking and the satisfaction of receiving the ball.
What do you enjoy about practicing volleyball?
Martinez: I like doing offense/defense drills as well because I just get to stand in one place and yell at everyone.
Baclay: I like doing scrimmage.
Cariaso: Yeah, I like hitting too.
Salcedo: I like hitting even though I’m not the best at it.
O’Bannon: When the offensive players would hit the ball to the defensive players, I always used to hit Ethan in the head. But he received it, so it’s ok.
Monteverde: Definitely hitting ’cause it’s really fun. Just hitting at the defenders.
What is one thing you find challenging about volleyball?
Martinez: Keeping the team’s morale high, especially during games, its really hard to not only keep yourself in a good light, or mood I guess, but you’re also responsible for like five other players’ moods
Baclay: Just knowing that a lot of people are watching while you’re, like, going to serve.
Cariaso: I think I struggled most with diving I didn’t even want to, like, get on the floor.
Salcedo: I think I struggled with receiving the ball.
O’Bannon: I think I also struggled with receiving the ball, but it was also hard to keep your morale up and also the teams at the same time. And then, like Ryan said, diving too.
Monteverde: Actually it was diving and the team morale too.
If anyone is thinking of trying volleyball, what advice would you give them?
Martinez: This goes for everything, but just do it, just try out, just go for the ball, just hit it and don’t care what anyone thinks.
Baclay: I would say always work as a team keep your moral high and just have fun and play.
Cariaso: I would say just have fun and try not to be better than everyone else.
Salcedo: I’d say practice a lot and have fun.
O’Bannon: I’ll say what he said and be the best of your abilities like coach says to us all the time, be confident but humble.
Monteverde: I would say never underestimate yourself, and you have to keep practicing to get better because it takes more than one day.
At what point did you feel like you were going to win the championship?
Martinez: I always believed in my team to do something, but once we started winning significantly by a lot of points when I got really confident.
Baclay: Right when we stepped on the court, and when we won our first set I got even more confident.
Cariaso: I think when we started faving fun and laughing thats kinda when we play our best.
Salcedo: When we started winning our games that’s when I thought that we were going to make it.
O’Bannon: Since the start of the game. when we won the first set, I started getting confident but when we started getting a lot of points I was very confident.
Monteverde: Definitely from the beginning, I was very confident in our team because our morale and our chemistry is off the charts.