Basketball: This was a fun week. This was the actual last game of the semester. That being said, almost no one showed up to the games. My team showed up, but the other team didnt. So, what we ended up doing was playing a rematch of last weeks game versus the team we lost by 4 to. A couple people who came for other games and shows team didnt show came and played for us. It was a hot game. Going into the final quarter, we were down 13 points. I rallied my team before the quarter and emphasized defense wins this. I was vocal and led my team to tying the game. We ended up winning in triple overtime. It was a rallying and immense effort. It felt great winning after such a hard fought game.
Moving forward to today. I find myself in the difficult position to reach out to some members of my team and telling them that I wont be inviting them for next semester. Im doing this because many didnt not show up or were inconsistent at best. So far they were receptive to this. One person seemed a bit upset but no conflict came from it. Im relieved for this. That being said, the core group of people is motivated for next semester and I look forward to it.
basketball: I’ll be using a speech to text for this format so I can be able to more naturally reflect upon how this week went how that was a decent week it was a very tight game it was a loss we lost about four points however this was probably 1 of our better showings as a team I thought we kind of played well overall we had one of my friends come in to kind of help alleviate the load he was very helpful when it comes to just bringing in a very positive atmosphere as he is a very positive person himself my team was pretty easy going now I made sure that before the game started that I spoke to everyone about you know thanking them for coming for throughout the semester and just thanking them generally for for playing it was it was a blast and I was trying to be my best to be a leader and to give some positive pointers on the game basically just kind of forgetting about the previous play this focus on the new one if calls don’t go our way ignore them just keep pushing I was decent at following my own mantra That being said in the last minute we were minute and 1/2 we were down 4 points and where I thought we had room to win my team was not putting pressure on the ball and the universal lack of efforts I think on the team’s part kind of got to me at that point and I was very much invested but maybe overly so and um I did curse out out loud not at someone but just generally and that was a theme that’s kind of come up throughout this semester and it’s something that I’m going to have to get better at because it’s something that I personally do not value I think it has its place but I think in an intramural context I believe it is out of place so that’s been something I’m going to reflect on and find a way to become better at is just kind of keeping my cool especially as things become frustrating at the end of games
Volleyball: This was a fun week for volleyball playoff started we ended up playing our first game against the number one seeded team which was confusing for how rankings worked on our league because it’s not based off of record it’s based off a sportsmanship point system which is kind of confusing to everyone but regardless we played our first game we played well overall I think myself I played well I think that finally figured out the positioning and where I need to be on the floor I do make the mistake every once in a while no but I think there’s been a lot of growth in the aspects I was kind of worried about at the beginning of the year that being said I also need to be able to work on my approach as my physical like jumping approach as I think that is the my biggest weak spot when it comes to volleyball I was speaking last week I believe about potentially playing for a different team one of my friends he’s making a volleyball team and I would like to play with him and some of my other friends instead of the team I’m currently playing with and that’s caused a bit of conflict amongst myself and my current captain for volleyball now everything went over well in person we had no no issues however there was still a bit of negative energy kind of going into this volleyball I think I can understand where that energy comes from because I bring a similar energy when I play basketball I think I just hold a lot more importance to basketball than I do the volleyball as in that is folly is just my fun sport but I do need to be able to reflect and shift my perspective on how I carry myself and how I express myself towards the team as I know that it affects everyone around me but no I’m looking forward to potentially playing volleyball again next semester I know where I improved I know where I’m lacking and I am excited to be able to continue the journey
v.li.: Immanuel McElroy (Science City Jena, 23), Jerome Randle (Rockets, 9), Sava Lesic (Rockets, 15)
Basketball: So for this inquiry post I’m going to be using speech to text again so I believe where I left off last time on this inquiry we were just about going into the playoffs so this was about two weeks ago now and what I thought was going to be an easy win turn out to be rather a challenge and I think we’re most that challenged end of happening is was because of people not showing up when the game started we only had four players one we needed 5 and the other team had 10 about halfway through the second quarter the fifth person showed up however by that point I think the game was kind of over yep I was getting frustrated I think with how the way I was playing and some of the ways that my team was playing I did get that that get the better me some moments but I think we still played basketball no by this coming week this is the last time we’re gonna be playing basketball this semester I’m looking forward to it I have one of my better friends he’s coming to join us and some of my players they said their friends might be interested so this time we might actually have over 8 players which is going to be huge at the ends of tomorrow’s game i’m gonna be doing a quick 5 minute meeting just to kind of see where everyone’s at assessing whether or not they wanna continue again for the next semester and kinda just thank everyone for playing
Volleyball: For this entry again I will also be using a speech to text volleyball’s been a bit hit or miss in the last couple of weeks on one hand I’m very happy and grateful to be playing volleyball on the other hand I do not like playing with my team I think overall they’re quite bitter and negative at what point they were complaining about sportsmanship points which is how we are ranked and when I asked one of my friends who’s A referee he said that the reason why we have such low sportsmanship points is because of my captain and a couple of other players to which in hindsight I can see why I would like to be able to play volleyball again next semester I do enjoy The sport however I think I’m going to be playing with a different team why don’t we have one more game maybe two this coming week we’ll see how those go and hopefully we can win and make it to the end other than that I’m going to have to see my captain to which I told her that I would unlikely be playing for them again next semester so we’ll see how that interaction plays out
So playoffs are starting this week I’m looking forward to it coming this Tuesday we’re gonna be looking at a double header meaning that we have our first game at 7:00 o’clock if we win that game then we’ll play again at 8:00 o’clock the team that we play at 7 was the team that we ended up beating by 30 points just about a month ago I think if we keep the same game plan going into that week going to tomorrow I think we have a good real good chance of winning for our second game I think it’s just a guaranteed loss and considering they are going to be the number one seed in this in this bracket I don’t know I think I gotta go into this as from a leadership point of view as a leader point of view just one game at a time I think I got to approach this with my team saying hey we’re gonna play this first make sure we get water make sure you get snacks but we’re playing this we’re telling this game first and we’re gonna focus about the on the next point on the next goal throughout the first game and we gonna come our way with this win that being said I feel confident going into our first game but I can’t let that confidence turn into arrogance and then laziness I’m also looking into potentially coaching speaking with one of my colleagues in the PDP program she was mentioning how she used to coach but no longer anymore and I asked her like hey how do you actually get your foot through the door was that like I want to do it and she referred me to her 1 friend at Lansdowne I would love and cherish the opportunity to actually be able to coach and give back to the community I had tremendous coaches volunteer coaches throughout my athletic career and I would love to be able to get back
Volleyball:
Going into volleyball this week I think playoffs also start on that front however that being said we are very confused about how we actually get ranked or tiered in this system there is a new emphasis on what is called sportsmanship points which wasn’t ever elaborated to us nor do we actually understand what it means all that we know is that we are somehow bottom of our tier when it comes to these points there is zero transparency when it comes to this we don’t know why what the criterias are we have never fought or argued or whatever I thought we were being very sportsmanlike maybe we cheered a bit too hard when we got some points I don’t know that being said I think we’re all just trying to keep a good morale and a good attitude going into this week I personally am still learning i’m getting better when it comes to positioning and that was made evident last week when I believe I actually costed my team to win because I was out of position and they were expecting me to be able to fill that those gaps when I in fact wasn’t there to to cover it
I’m gonna be using a speech to text for this blog entry has kind of introduced it this week for our reflection piece and what I’m finding is that it’s actually a lot easier to be able to just speak my ideas and having to just write them out especially in a inquiry part because I feel like when I type stuff out I filter everything that I’m trying to say whereas when I’m speaking it kind of comes out more naturally and I’m able to kind of say everything that kind of comes to mind not just what I think is most important
Basketball: This was an awesome week for basketball usually going into all the other weeks we’ve usually had some downs kind of the week before either that people maybe weren’t cooperating or talking or communicating rather basically just not meshing well on the court this week was potentially one of our best games yet this year we had a few absences one person was out for an anniversary the other person messed up their knee the other person was away I think on co-op so we were down a couple of people I think going into the game we actually only had four thankfully someone our 5th person showed up from their lab about five minutes late but you know we’ll take it this was a neck and neck game back and forth we were within one point within six points really the entire duration and being the captain I had to be able to find a way to motivate this team I had to find a way to promote and encourage and just get a good behavior going and leading by example I my other big man was out again for the co-op I played I think thirty-six thirty-seven minutes out of the 40 I was exhausted I was sprinting up and down the court I was matched up against the 300 pound unit on the other team that being said this game turned out to come down to the like the La Last shot we were down one point with 20 seconds left we got a play going our point guard cut to the corner drew the defender from the top of the key passed the tour or little guy this man has not hit a shot the entire semester but in that moments I could see it he knew he was ready check that ball shot it from the top of the top of the key all Nets we were so ecstatic and got to be honest I was not expecting anything out of him because again he had not hit a single shot all semester but it all came down to this one shot and he made it work all of us were so hyped in being able to get this man feeling good and getting the rest of us hyped up for this win it was a big moment
Volleyball: For volleyball it was an interesting week the last couple of entries I believe that I have been mentioning how a guy on the on our team has been causing some issues particularly when it comes down to him saying that he would rather play all the time and us lose than him having to sub and us win turns out after last week he actually decided just to drop himself from the team entirely which is what I told the captain she should do he said he would do it and I told her just let him follow through with what he said we had two games come Thursday our first game was it wasn’t a nail biter we lost the first set by a couple of points brought it back to size still be in the 2nd and ended up winning in overtime despite going about 10 minutes over our given time frame to actually do this this overtime because our two other sets just took forever to do as it was such neck and neck was such long rallies I’m so confused when it comes to rotations particularly like on the 5 1 rotation being a power sometimes I just don’t know where I’m supposed to be my teammates all they all seem to know where I should be and they tell me I wish I’m incredibly thankful for but you know I’m still learning i’m still trying to not mess up as much but no I got some my goal this week was to jump more for the longest time I just never jumped because I never could quite get the timing down we jumped and boy did we make it work surprisingly as well I did not miss a single serve this week which was crucial for my team being able to to succeed for the second game was more or less the same I think we just took that momentum and just dominated dominic’s a strong word we won by About 10 or 7 points again I think we were just feeling ourselves from you know getting rid of the drama and from a personal point of view I think I’m at my goals I think I jumped more I think I am slowly starting to figure out the rotations and I’m happy to hear it and I’m happy to see it work out
Basketball: I am writing this a week after the game took place. This was quite the learning moment. This was the first week that we had a full 8 people at the game, usually we only had 6. We were looking forward to the game because we thought we wouldnt get tired as quickly and would be able to out pace the other team who only had 5 people. We were wrong. Going into the half, we were tied with the other team. We had decent tempo, but lost numerous possessions by sloppy turnovers. In the second half, we didnt score for the first 7 minutes which sent us behind. We repeatedly made bad passes, took bad shots and didnt make the extra pass. I found myself getting frustrated as we kept giving up points and it boiled into me yelling at some people on my team to pull it together. I never am the person to raise my voice in this way but I had had enough. a handful of people decided to play “hero ball” and the numerous missed layups sent me over. i felt bad about it after the game and apologized thinking I should be better as the team captain. That being said, we should and could have been better. Going into next week, we will emphasize moving the ball and playing as a team.
Volleyball: This was an interesting week. I’m still very much learning how to play within a system, where to go and how to better position myself, We won and lost a game, roughly reflecting how the semester is going for us. What made this week interesting is that a person on my team talked himself off the team. Two weeks ago, he complained about have to sub, something we all have to do. last week, he complained about soft criticism and being told/encouraged to step up. He said that if we dont change to his terms, he’ll leave. I told my captain, who asked me what to do, that he should just lie in the bed he made, or follow through with the words he said. She agreed and he left. I think this is for the best as this guy was often the negativity and stated that he would rather we lose than to have us win if it meant getting his way. We’ll see how this goes moving forward.
basketball: We ended up winning by 30 points this week. My team is coming together. We are figuring out how to act and move as a team. My teammate Mason went off this week bullying and dominating in the paint. Going into this coming week, we face another 1-3 team. It should be a solid game since we’re both at similar levels. I still believe that my team will pull ahead.
Volleyball: We lost the first game by quite a bit. We had a rough start, tried to come back, but coudnt quite make it. The second we ended up winning by 1 point in overtime. We were feelinng good about ourselves. later that night, I got a text from my captain that someone one the team was being toxic and a overall pain. They were saying how they werent happy with their role and wanted a major change. They stated that they would rather play all the time and lose than sub and win. I found this a bit ridiculous. I told her to drop it since it was 1am at this time. I havent heard back since then, so i assume the other person dropped it. Lets hope that nothing back happens this week.
It was a good game for us. We ended up losing, but we played a lot better than previous weeks. We tried the 1-3-1 offence with limited success. we were even with the other team for the first half roughly, but lost the 3rd quarter. We were down 20 into the 4th but brought it back to 9 points at the end of the game. I personally believe we lost to the ref. They gave the other team 8 free throw attempts, and gave us none. Those extra opportunities gave them the point advantage. As to why we had no free throws, couldnt tell you. I tried to keep a positive attitude as the captain, as my mood sets the mood for the rest of the team. My team didnt seem upset at the lost, but took it as a learning opportunity which I appreciated. We came up with a plan for next time and see hope things go.
Volleyball:
It was a rough week for volleyball. We lost both our games this week. I tried libero, with limited success. I definitely prefer power after playing libero. I found myself getting frustrated with the quality of our play. my team kept hitting the ball out of bounds. If we could just keep the ball in, we could have at least given ourselves a a chance. I didnt play well either. I made several placement error that led to points for the other team. We tried to keep a positive attitude throughout, but the miss plays made it challenging . We’ll bounce back next week.
Basketball: We lost last week, and I find myself surprised that I am not upset at the loss. I took that game as a learning experience. We sucked on transition defense. We had trouble finding the open person. That being said, we also only had 6 people show up, so we were running on tired legs.
This week, we are still running low on people because the game is running late. We have enough, but its going to be another hard game. I find the admin part of being captain challenging. I find myself searching and recruiting to alleviate the pressure on my team. We have a new girl coming in this week, and next week we have two more guys joining us. hopefully this will be enough for the semester.
Volleyball: WE WON!! I was super excited for the win this week. Our captain was out receiving surgery so none of us knew each other nor did we know if we would work out as a team. That being said, we did well. I did struggle a bit to learn and adapt to the 5-1 rotation we were running. I found myself in the incorrect position and bumping into people. My teammates were super supportive and helped me with placements. This week, our captain is back. She said she might play depending on how she feels. Hopefully she recover’s well so that we can secure our second victory.
As we find ourselves halfway through week three of the semester, we find ourselves in week 1 of university intramurals. This semester, I find myself captain of a 5v5 basketball team on Tuesdays and a member of a high tier volleyball team on Thursdays. Both these teams offer their own challenges and aspects that I will be documenting, or blogging throughout the semester. I intend to use this platform to document my thoughts on how things are going, my own development within these sports and address challenges and issues as they come.
Basketball: This is the start of the season. I’ve played organised ball before, however this being my first time captain of a team. I opted not to rejoin the team I was part of last year due to issues and disagreements with some other players on that team. We wont dive into that as its no longer relevant. Over the past month, I’ve asked, called, searched, and recruited what I think is the best team I could find, well, the only team I could get really. Half the team consists of my friends from varsity swimming, and the other half are “random” people from the intramural portal. Being able to play with my friends is going to be fun, however some of them don’t really play basketball. So it’s going to be interesting to see how they play and adapt to organized play tonight. The other consists of people I invited over the intramural portal. I made good effort into doing a quick google search into them to assess their abilities and set my own expectations ahead of time. What it came down to is, “if they signed up, I assume they can play”. I’m nervous to see how we all play together, since for many this is the first time I will formally meet them.
Volleyball: This time around, I am formally registered for a team. Last year, I just showed up and hoped the refs let me play. My captain is my coworker from summer camps. She has assembled a team of formal volleyball players and personally, I’m scared to disappoint. I have good knowledge of the sport, my sister played power throughout her adolescence and coaches as an adult. I am fortunate enough to also be playing power. I know what the position entails, what expected of me and where I should be. What I am nervous about are the rotations. I’m am used to a simple roundabout style where everyone plays everything. This time, we are playing a 5-1 rotation. 5 hitters, 1 setter. I’ve spent many evenings researching this rotation and studying how I should play this as a power. That being said, I look forward to some high jumps and some hard spikes.
