Varsity volleyball hones life skills as well as athletic perfomance

By Emma Moriarty

On Oct. 11, the 2014 varsity volleyball season bumped off to a great start. One of the most intense sports TPA has to offer, the team prepared themselves for practices every day and hours upon hours of difficult conditioning, which ultimately paid off, as is seen by their win against Gilbert Christian last Monday, which adds to their record of five consecutive wins.

Though to achieve such great sucess, it takes loads of effort and practice. As Claire Ternyik shares, “The most important parts of practices and games are getting to know each other and learning to trust each other on the court. That is the only way we will be able to be successful in our season.” Through the two-hour practices they have every day, there is no doubt that the team has improved their trust immensely and in consequence of that has strongly improved their playing skills.

With the rigorous academics that TPA presents to every student, it is tough to keep up both a successful academic life as well as an athletic life, but being able to be involved in both may help students in future endeavors and in life.

Mary Goodykoontz shares her opinion on this and says, “I would say that the benefit of playing volleyball is doing what you love while representing your school.” Even the simplest action can help promote school spirit, like wearing gold and blue ribbons in one’s hair, or wearing the TPA Knights shirts on game days just as the Varsity Volleyball team does.

Claire Ternyik also describes the benefits that volleyball provides to athletes in the future: “I think being a student athlete helps prepare people for life. We athletes have to learn how to balance our lives in order to be successful. Even if we don’t pursue careers in athletics, student athletes have learned teamwork, leadership skills, hard work ethics, and good time management skills, all good life lessons that everyone should know.”

Athletics can teach students about our school’s core values through strenuous practices and glorifying victories. Truth, beauty, and goodness are seen every day throughout all sports when the players perform their best, when they give it their all in practices, and when they show sportsmanship with other teams. Through athletics, and volleyball in particular, Tempe Prep’s morals are portrayed in the best way possible: getting together and participating in something you love doing, and succeeding, whether you win or lose, because it is about the game, and not the score, about the true beauty and not the false ideals.