Irini Shines in Volleyball

 

So there she was, on day one of try outs. 50+ girls were trying our and her daddy, the co-coach, was looking out over the sea of girls trying out wondering what things would look like. Irini would go on to impress enough to make the team (she did make it last year, after all) and move onto the season with another 13 girls. As the season moved on, and the pieces were slowly put into place, it seemed like she'd be a critical piece to their work. The team, as one might suspect, had their ups and downs but lots of potential and Irini worked, and worked some more. 

By the time the end-of-season tournament came around, in Delhi (her first time to India) it was apparent that she was a pretty important piece in the big puzzle called ASD volleyball. She was a setter (one of two) and slowly began to do a bit of hitting as well (helped, a bit, by the system we were playing). In India the team did a great job, playing as we had hoped they would. We had rotations in every position to make sure that every girl got breaks to be ready for the final day - day 3 - when the playoffs would matter most (from a competitive standpoint). 

The night before, as daddy and his co-coach Stefanie, made their way to the hotels rooms of the girls for curfew, he spoke to his girl about "tomorrow" being the last time he would probably ever coach her. He began to cry in the middle of a small corridor on the third floor of a hotel in central Delhi. Irini walked up to hug him and together they stayed that way for a short while, being observed by her roommate (and one of her best friends) Nadia and Stefanie who, watching, were both fighting tears of their own. 

By the next morning the stage was set for a day filled with passion, and stress and overcoming. Irini played her heart out and did the little things that indicate incremental change - a dive here, a communication there, a set pushed outside a bit harder than before, a hit in a critical moment. 

The tournament ended with our girls winning first place (undefeated and proud as can be). But for daddy there were two moments (in the videos below) - his personal highlight reel of his daughter growing up - that showed him that she's ready to move on to a higher level. One was a dig that he had been asking her to do for years (a dive without worrying about the floor) and the other was a hit at the net. Both came at very crucial moments of the semi-final (with the hit being the next-to-last point, as it turned out) and both were done with focus and without hesitation. 

Daddy will miss his girl when she moves "up" (hopefully) next year, but boy is he proud of how far she's come and how amazing she is. Love, glykoula. Love!