Westerville North Volleyball
950 County Line Road
Westerville, OH 43081
Blog
Day 2 Sunday July 26th 12:08am: Today was our first full day. We started the day by going to the beach at around seven. To sum it up in three words: sweat, tears, and heaving. Then we took a nice little break and we finally met up with Caitie. She flew in today from Columbus because she was in Florida for softball nationals. Coach Stern led our pool workout at the Sports Center complex. Stephanie learned how to swim... in 5ft water. My team won all of the relay races except 1 to the coaches and Alex boy. People here are sooo nice. We walk everywhere so we always wave and say hi to everyone who passes by. The hartley girls stopped by the house to talk to us about what the OBX experience means to them and what we should expect. The team made pasta with grilled chicken. Christine, Brittany, and I trimmed the chicken while coach grilled it. After dinner we met up with the Hartley girls and set up 2 sand courts. We looked up to the Hartley girls to help us get through the workout. They pushed us to get better. The session was really difficult because of the strong wind. We finished the day at the beach learning a lot about who our teammates are, we opened up. We just finished our video session, tonight was commercials! It inspired us to remember times when we turned our failure into success. Tomorrow we have to leave the house by 6 so I need to get some slumber.
Good night from OBX!
Succeed from failure
Look me in the eyes
Day 3 Monday July 27th 11:20pm: This morning our alarm clocks finally worked successfully to get us up at 5:30. Christine ran our beach workout which consists of drills she does at Mt. Union. It was so hard but we got through it as a team, worked together, and did better then yesterday. At the end of the session we were extremely sandy so we got in the ocean for the first time. It was exciting to see Jordan's reaction being in the ocean for the first time. She bent over to rinse her legs off and all of the sudden this big wave crashes into her and when she stood up she was soaking wet.
After a much needed nap we made B.L.T. wraps with real bacon. Eating real bacon is a big deal for me because my family eats organic. This was only possible because Mrs. Frazier accidentally bought the wrong bacon. After lunch we went to the community center to do about 45 minutes of cardio and lifted free weights for another 40 minutes. After our 2nd session we made a delicious tray of lasagna. We then put on our bathing suits and coach stern led us in a pool workout focusing on our upper body. We finished the session with a game of team handball in the pool. My team was up 5-4 at halftime when a lady came in and had to close the pool because the roof was metal and a big storm was coming. She said "the clouds are as black as the ace of spades."
To finish the day we had to stay indoor due to the storms so the coaches set up a Foosball and wii bowling tournament. People were getting really competitive and a few worked up a sweat (alex boy's hands). Stephanie and Natalie's team "Stephalie" bowled againts Coach and Alex's team "Dibbs" long story in the bowling tournament championship. Stepalie won and earned themselves an extra 10 minutes of phone time tomorrow! For the Fooseball tournament it was Coach and Alex's team against Jordan and Brittany "Jordany". Coach and Alex won 10-8. Good job everybody! Storms are coming again tomorrow so the coaches are getting us up early to get as many workouts in as we can before the storms come.
Signing off from OBX
A Reed
Gooood Night
Day 4 Tuesday July 28th 12:58am: Last night we listened to Jimmy V. and in an inspirational speech he said in order to have a full day and to live a full life you must laugh, think, and cry everyday. Today we definitely had ourselves a full day. We started a drill near the end of the first beach session ( a controlled pepper) and we had to reach a goal coach set for us. It took us a while to complete, but we finally did it as a team! In the drill we overcame so much frustration, and we learned how much we can accomplish together as a team. We quickly found out that thinking was key to finishing our goal.
When we were eating breaking Brittany got to hear a voicemail from her mom and she started to get a little teary eyed because she realized how much she missed her. That made us all think, anddd about one minute later all of us started crying a little. According to Jimmy V. our day was almost complete.
For our after noon session we went to a community pool area, and there we played some more beach volleyball. Probably the funniest part of the week was when i set Jordan up to hit and as she was taking her approach she tripped over the volleyball court line and fell right on her face. Everyone laughed for a good five minutes straight. Our day was officially complete. After our beach workout we quickly jumped right in the freezing cold ocean. it was a good afternoon.
For dinner we brought money and went to a few shops and drove around Corolla for about an hour looking for the perfect restaurant. We ate at Bonefish Seaside Grill, which was delicious, and everyone tried new foods. We made sure we took plenty of pictures because we were all looking so cute. Tomorrow morning is with Hartly so we all need our rest.
Goodnight
Alex Reed
Day 5 Wednesday July 29th: Our goal for today was "to have a solid day," meaning all three sessions would be intense and everyone will give their all. We had a strong start this morning. The Hartley team came over at six to have a morning beach workout, and let me tell you it was not easy. Coach Justin lead the workout and it was all agility. Our legs are sooo sore.
Once we came home, Mrs. Frasier had an amazing breakfast all ready for us to eat. Then we grabbed our bathing suits and headed to the pool for a workout session. Caitie and I learned quickly that we aren't the best of swimmers, especially at the breaststroke and butterfly. After the intense workout we played another competitive game of handball.
Around three today the weather started to get kind of bad. Because of the rain the coaches surprised us with another Wii bowling and foosball tournament. Mrs. Frasier made us a mean taco salad then we went back to work at the beach when the weather cleared up.The last session of the day was a challenge for us. We were trying hard but it was just hard for us to have a successful game. Once we got home we had a much needed deep conversation about what all was going on, how everyone felt, and who is stepping up as leaders. I think our talk will help us get through these last two days together as a team!
Goodnight, A. Reed
Day 6 Thursday July 30th: Accomplishing goals is a hard thing for our team to do sometimes. We are great at setting them, but when it comes to actually reaching for the goal things don't always work out. The coaches and the team had set a goal for the trip, to have three complete and strong workouts in one day. Today we finally completed our goal! The morning session started around six, like usual, and at the beach we really pushed each other. The best part of the morning was when we did our warm up (mile run), and Natalie points to some dolphins in the ocean swimming. All of us girls started yelling, cheering, and sprinting. For some reason we gained a ton of energy.
We came home after the beach and had such a great feeling about the session, and starting the day off right. We ate an amazing breakfast, put our bathing suits on and hustled to the recreation center. There we were two for two which made our goal almost complete. We did some major lifting, and we had a workout in the pool focusing on our arms. We came back again with an amazing attitude about where we were so far in the day.
In the afternoon we drove for about thirty minutes to play putt-putt, and let me tell you it was hot. Everyone went to play and we were divided into three teams. Brittany, Bri, Kayla, Natalie, and Jordan were all on the team that won the competition. After the results where gathered, we realized they played on the beginners course. We laughed so hard!
Tonight we had our tournament with Hartley, and it was also such a great session. It was so obvious that we all have improved and grown as a team. Hartley has the theme this year of "unfinished business" because they have been to the state final 4 the past 2 seasons but haven't won the title. Their goal this year is to take care of that. We tried to figure out what our theme would be. We shared our goals with Hartley about building our program and taking and succeeding at the small steps. They suggested "our 1st step is our longest stride" we loved it! During the Doubles tournament, Jordan and I could finally start a rally, which was very good for us. Every night we have a meeting in the family room and tonight's talk really forced people to open up, and we learned a lot about each other. To finish the talk all of the girls went outside with a full glass of water and a candle in it. We sat in a circle and we said something we admired about the person sitting beside us. Each time someone shared what they admired, we would light their candle. It was neat seeing what everyone thought about each other. Caitie also told us about her volleyball journey. It made me so happy that she shared that with us. To finish the blog, today we learned that pushing through challenges to reach goals clearly pays off in the end.
Goooodniiiiiiight, Alex Reed
Day 7 Friday July 31th 12:20am: Holy Crap, what a day! We got to sleep in this morning which was a plus. But when we got up we knew what was ahead. The drive to the dunes was probably the longest drive of my life. When we got there everyone in my car agreed we were the most terrified we have ever been. Our faces were priceless. We were at the sand dunes for two hour and the whole time we worked together as a team. All together we ran up the dunes 50 times. for all of us that was the greatest feeling in the world when we were done because we knew we accomplished something great.
We went to the pool after lunch and the coaches let us lead the last workout. Even though we were so tired, we still wanted to end the week right and we continued to work hard. After the pool we planned on going crabbing, we were all so excited! But when we were done eating dinner, things started to get dark outside and it started to lighting. So instead we made puppy chow and watched movies. I think we are all ready to come home, it was a great experience but we are very tired. To sum the week up, "it was the worst best thing we have ever done together."
OK time to go to bed, see everyone tomorrow!
Goodnight, Alex Reed
Day 8 Saturday August 1st 4:52pm: Well we are on our way home right now about 40 minutes away from Columbus, and we just stopped at Dairy Queen. I feel like we’ve stopped about twenty times, and only two of them were necessary (coach forgot his Wendy’s cup). Usually car rides home are shorter, but it has been so long because we are all so anxious to get home. This trip has been a great experience for everyone, and we all got a lot out of it. My goal for this trip was to have no regrets, and to make sure nobody else did too. I’m totally confident I reached that goal because I have never seen this teamwork so hard. At first it seemed like finishing this week would be impossible but we learned that doing things as a team and pushing each other allows us to do what ever we set our minds too. I just want to say thank you soooo much to the parents and the volleyball boosters for making this whole trip possible. Also a special thanks to Mrs. Frasier and Christine, we defiantly could not have done this with out you. And thank you coaches for all of your support and being there for us through this whole trip.
See everyone in a little bit!
Alex Reed
950 County Line Road
Westerville, OH 43081
