This week’s game was the second to the last game of the
season, it is being held at Conquistador Middle School located in the middle of
the district. From what I could see , the school appears well maintained for I
spotted no trash on the ground or
damages(chipping paint , graffiti ,cracks in the buildings ) to the building
itself. Walking into the school I notice the gym is small, with there being
about a two and a half feet extra space between the walls of the stage and the basketball
court’s lines. The inside is painted red and blue –appears to be painted
recently as the colors are still vivid. I look at the ceiling which appears to
be recently redone within the past few years for no panels are broken,and they
are all still white. When I played at
this gym years ago, the ceiling was old, as one of the panels fell during our
volleyball match. Most likely the new ceiling was redone for the previous one was a safety hazard , but
still it’s nice to see that the district’s allotted money has
been used to buy a new ceiling and beautify the
school with a new paint job. I also notice that there are no championship
banners hanging, like I’ve seen in other schools. Is this because the school
has not won any championships in recent years, or do they not desire to
purchase banners? Is this lack of banners an indication for how this game will
go? There are no bleachers for fans, and even no chairs set up on the stage like
how they had at Dragon Middle School. The only seating available are the one
role of seats lined against one of the walls with about twenty five chairs. No
tickets were being sold, I attribute this to not having the manpower to execute
this, for the only person I saw that was not a fan or a coach was the necessary
administrator. This differed to the other games when admission is charged when
there are other people with name tags -who work for the district- are in
attendance for the game. Though they are
not many spectators, and little sitting room, I still hear Spanglish and English
being spoken. I see no Lobo students came
to support, and from the limited seating and look of the crowd, it appears that
likewise no conquistador’s students went out to support their team
No concessions are being
sold. I assume the reason for no snacks being sold may be that there is no man
power to operate this endeavor, and there is no space to fit a snack table as
there is barely enough room for fans to be standing. Also most likely a snack
stand would not be successful due to the small crowd (less than forty spectators
) and the fact that from my experience of selling I’ve noticed that it’s the football crowd( which are present almost every
game as both teams compete against the same school at the same venue) that buys
the most- this week the football game is not being held at the Middle School
but at the close-by high school football
field(I saw on the drive to the middle school). This brings up another question,
why doesn’t Conquistador Middle have a field that can accommodate football? Is this
commentary of the lack of funds the district has, in order to create a field?
Is this due to poor planning as from the outside view, it appears the school
has no home to expand with the surrounding residential area?
I missed the warm up, so at the moment I have no idea of who
has the superior technique. The game begins. The conquistadors have the first
serve, it goes over and the Lobos play it. They perform the sequence of a bump,
set, and spike and are able to get a point. I wonder will this first point
encourage the girls to continue playing as a team in order to win. The score
board is old for a few lights are missing that they interfere with the score,
plus it has a Coke endorsement sign that is slightly yellowing. Turning back my
attention to the game, I observe the lobos losing the ball to the other team
with a serve that went out of bounds. The Conquistadors serve the ball, to
which the Lobos volley back but when the ball goes over to the Lobo side once more,
they bump the ball out of bounds.
The score is now fifteen to ten, with the Conquistadors
having 15. The Lobo girls are giving up, and once again are blaming one
another. There is not much cheering from the crowd, from Lobo or Conquistador
sides – the only cheering is mine and a few from the Lobo seventh graders and
my athlete sitting on the bench. The benches the athletes sit on are metal,
appear to be new –not individual folding chairs I’ve seen at every game. I look closer at the athletes and notice that
none of the opposing team’s seventh graders are present (the seventh graders
sit behind the eighth graders), about six of the Lobo’s seventh graders are
present. Is this because they’ve simply decided to take the bus back, are they
in good spirits because they won? I also notice that the coaches are not the
same age, the Conquistador coach appears to be middle age. She isn’t yelling at
her girls like the Lobo coach is – my guess for the Lobo coach yelling is her
frustration of her girls giving up. The conquistadors win the game 25 to 19.
Second game begins. I hope that the Lobos do not repeat
their pattern of giving up and fighting amongst themselves. Lobos get the first
serve, it goes over and scores a point. This win doesn’t last long , for as I watch
the game , I notice that though the Lobos have the superior technique/skills (more
controlled bumps, higher sets , killers spikes ) the Conquistadors have
superior teamwork . When they call the ball, the girls respect the claim and get
out of the way so their team member can play it, and they are hustling. Even
when they miss the ball, I don’t hear blaming. The Lobos on the other hand, are
not hustling and don’t respect the calling of the ball –instead running into
one another or leaving their spot defense less to try to get the ball. Though
some girls still high five one another or tell them to “shake the mistake off”,
the majority of the team doesn’t and I see from their expressions they are
upset and faintly hear blaming going on. Coach is yelling, which from the Lobos
expression isn’t helping. At the last
five points the conquistador girls start cheering loudly for their team. The
Lobos lose 20 to 25.
They shakes hand and while the Lobos go to the corner of the
gym to talk the winners gather in a circle and chant a victory cheer. The Lobos break and from the amount of athletes
running to their parents to get the form sign to skip the bus ride and go home
with them , I assume that few will be riding the bus back – I think about four
eighth grade girls will ride the bus as they hanging back near the coaches. As
we are leaving, some of the Lobo girls were telling each other “good job” –is this
sincere or not? Overall it seemed to me the quickest game, we were done by
10:35 when the game starts at 10:00 am. With another defeat, I sadly don’t think
that the Lobos will pull together to win the remaining games.
No comments:
Post a Comment