All the bros take on volleyball
Junior, Ben Kiernan goes up to attack the ball.
Who’s to say that girls and boys cannot play the same sport even if it seems gender exclusive? The junior and senior boys are defying this stereotypical social normal by participating in an event called volleybros in order to raise money for relay for life.
The team of boys that won the overall tournament consisted of several seniors who have been close friends for all of high school and shared their excitement with everyone in the big gym. One of the seniors to participate was Ben Luther who became infamous for his successful hitting skills on the court.
“Our boys up at the net slapped back any team’s attempt at a shot over us while our back court executed smooth serve after serve,” Luther said. “ !”
The tournament was broken down into a series of games where the juniors played each other and they also played the senior teams. Each team consisted of about seven boys. There are several teams within each grade. Junior, Ali Sharif, took on the volleyball court with a signature black headband and a strong determination to win.
“It brings all of us together,” Ali Sharif said. “It’s just a really fun time!”
One of the best aspects about volleybros is that it brings together friends from different grades and friend groups to compete against each other and still maintain their good sportsmanship.
The volleybros coaches were a major part of the whole event. The actual volleyball players at Wakefield took their time and energy to teach the boys necessary skills to play in their tournament. It was very meaningful for the girls to coach because they took the first place prize for their conference so the boys truly learned from the best.
Brynn Moore was one of the coaches for the junior teams. She was coaching on the court throughout the tournament, giving insightful direction during it.
“Their favorite thing to do was hitting,” Moore said. “We played fun drills and they all got really into it.”
Another junior who participated in this tournament was Ben Kiernan who was the middle hitter on a team with several of his friends from the football team. The juniors seemed to thoroughly enjoy the whole tournament, their excitement to play was felt by the students and parents who showed up to support the teams.
“It opened my eyes to new sports and made me appreciate the sport of volleyball a lot more,” Kiernan said. “It is a great tradition that we will keep going next year.”
Quite a few of the boys seemed to have a natural skill for volleyball and they brought it to the court for the tournament. One of the juniors that exhibited great serving skills was Luke Bentlage. Bentlage and Kiernan were on the same team, and the two of them worked extremely well together as Bentlage began the set with an underhand serve and Kiernan blocked the opposite team from gaining a point.
“It was a lot of fun and I got to play with some of my close friends,” Bentlage said. “We practiced setting, serving and passing.”
