Weekend Update: November 11
Sunday, November 11: County PTA Soft Volleyball Tournament
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since I arrived and Tokigawa and was instantly swept up into the crazy world of PTA soft volleyball. November 11th was my second trip to the county PTA soft volleyball tournament with the PTA team from one of my elementary schools, Tamagawa Elementary School (a.k.a. Tamasho). It’s the same team I played with last year, but here’s what happened last year (I’ve now come to realize): Almost all the members of the PTA SV team at Tamasho are on the town Womens’ (normal) volleyball team and are AWESOME players. Last year, the Tamasho team won the town PTA tournament (before I joined their team, which is why I didn’t realize this until now), but the county PTA tournament ended up being on the same day that the town womens’ volleyball team had a tournament elsewhere, so the Tamasho PTA “A” team couldn’t show for the PTA tournament. The other mothers stepped in and did their best as reserves, but volleyball was obviously not their favorite hobby. We lost our first match and went home. This year we got lucky and all the crazy-awesome volleyball mothers were available for the PTA tournament.
So, at 8am on 11/11 we caravanned to Yoshimi City, about 45 minutes from Tokigawa, to meet the other top PTA soft volleyball teams from the towns/cities in our county. In our first game, we had a rematch with the town that booted us out of last year’s tournament in the first round, Ranzan Town. One good turn deserves another, I guess. We sent them packing in 2-straight sets. Redemption. I’m not sure who we played in the second game, but they were unfortunately more of a recreational team and our attackers made quick work of them. Suddenly we’re in the final! Yipee! Our final match is against Namegawa, and the taller-than-6-foot teacher I happen to work with at one of my other elementary schools (her children go to school in Namegawa) is on the opposing team. We made a good comeback in the first game to win and take the lead, but between some funky playing on our part and some solid playing on the Namegawa team’s part, they took games 2 and 3 to win the tournament. So close! A couple of my team members’ husbands were playing in the PTA softball tournament that same day in Yoshimi City, and they happened to make it to the final too. The wives reckoned they’d never hear the end of it if the softball team won their final and we lost, but I supposed you could say as luck would have it, the softball team came in second also. :-)
It’s too bad we came in second when we had a really good shot at winning, but it was a lot of fun and the play was really solid. It made me realize how much I miss playing competitive volleyball.
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since I arrived and Tokigawa and was instantly swept up into the crazy world of PTA soft volleyball. November 11th was my second trip to the county PTA soft volleyball tournament with the PTA team from one of my elementary schools, Tamagawa Elementary School (a.k.a. Tamasho). It’s the same team I played with last year, but here’s what happened last year (I’ve now come to realize): Almost all the members of the PTA SV team at Tamasho are on the town Womens’ (normal) volleyball team and are AWESOME players. Last year, the Tamasho team won the town PTA tournament (before I joined their team, which is why I didn’t realize this until now), but the county PTA tournament ended up being on the same day that the town womens’ volleyball team had a tournament elsewhere, so the Tamasho PTA “A” team couldn’t show for the PTA tournament. The other mothers stepped in and did their best as reserves, but volleyball was obviously not their favorite hobby. We lost our first match and went home. This year we got lucky and all the crazy-awesome volleyball mothers were available for the PTA tournament.
So, at 8am on 11/11 we caravanned to Yoshimi City, about 45 minutes from Tokigawa, to meet the other top PTA soft volleyball teams from the towns/cities in our county. In our first game, we had a rematch with the town that booted us out of last year’s tournament in the first round, Ranzan Town. One good turn deserves another, I guess. We sent them packing in 2-straight sets. Redemption. I’m not sure who we played in the second game, but they were unfortunately more of a recreational team and our attackers made quick work of them. Suddenly we’re in the final! Yipee! Our final match is against Namegawa, and the taller-than-6-foot teacher I happen to work with at one of my other elementary schools (her children go to school in Namegawa) is on the opposing team. We made a good comeback in the first game to win and take the lead, but between some funky playing on our part and some solid playing on the Namegawa team’s part, they took games 2 and 3 to win the tournament. So close! A couple of my team members’ husbands were playing in the PTA softball tournament that same day in Yoshimi City, and they happened to make it to the final too. The wives reckoned they’d never hear the end of it if the softball team won their final and we lost, but I supposed you could say as luck would have it, the softball team came in second also. :-)
It’s too bad we came in second when we had a really good shot at winning, but it was a lot of fun and the play was really solid. It made me realize how much I miss playing competitive volleyball.
First photo: Play is on and I'm in the setter (middle front) position. For those of you I've told time and time again how odd soft volleyball looks with 9 players on one side of the court, now you have a visual.
Second photo: I'm up for the block!...and apparently not doing a very good job.... ;-D
Third photo: Holding the 2nd place trophy. Oddly enough, the lady over my shoulder with the boy in the blue shirt is the really tall elementary school teacher I mentioned previously.
Fouth photo: "Almost winners" team photo.
posted by Mandy | 9:06 PM
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