Volleyball - Using Your Head

by Phil
(Oswego, IL)

In my senior year of high school I had to play volleyball during our gym class. No one was really that excited about it, each side had nine players. There was one exception, a guy named Andy, who was very excited to play. So envision a big gym with a volleyball net right in the middle of the room with 17 slow moving, slacker kids and one very excited kid. Whenever the ball went to Andy's side he returned it with really good form and force. Andy also kept running in front of his own players to return the ball. It was basically Andy vs the other team. His team was winning substantially all because of him, and the fact that the other side just didn't care that much and weren't trying very hard. Finally the gym teacher got tired of watching the one side (Andy's side) running up the score. The teacher complained at Andy to stop running in front of his team members and to let them return the ball. He obeyed only for a bit and then returned to racing around and slamming the ball back over the net. The teacher got angry and told Andy to just stay in his space no matter what. Andy protested at this, and refused to play at this point. Andy at this point was standing in the center of his team. He folded his arms, started whining like a baby and announced that he was not going to participate now, since he couldn't play in his frantic way. Immediately after going into his "on strike" mode, the ball just happened to be served right at him. He didn't unfold his arms and instead "headed" the ball (as if it were a soccer game) and the ball flew over the net with a strong arc. What made this all the more funny was that he barely even moved his body at all, just put his head down into the ball really. Two players on the other side actually tried to dig out the ball (who knows why they tried now) but both missed, going into the hardwood. The teacher was disgusted that not only had he "gone on strike" but that he still managed to beat the other side even when he didn't care.