Picture the stereotypical “sports game” scene in any movie, with fast paced camera work, sweaty athletes running around with a ball and everyone yelling out instructions to each other. When watching the BC volleyball team play or practice, it can be noticed that these girls don’t just talk to each other. They listen to each other, too.
Even without knowledge of volleyball at all, their teamwork is obvious in the way they call out to each other and listen to each other, the way one girl will see the ball coming and quickly call out to another girl to pass it to her so she can play it over the net; the way that every time the team scores a point all of the girls walk into a small circle to literally pat each other on the back before the next rally.
The volleyball team is wrapping up their three-month season, coming out of practicing for three hours every night and having games one to two times a week. Their score before the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges tournament on the Nov. 22-24 weekend is 27 wins to five losses.
For prospective athletes, Culliton says that they “don’t really do tryouts, we recruit year round and we build the team from the year up. People will email asking if they can try out; and sometimes we accept that, but sometimes we have too many girls—sometimes we already have 13, 14, even 15 girls. Anybody can email me if they want, but they might not get to try out.”
To those wanting to get involved without joining the team, Culliton recommends coming to their weekly games. She finds the attendance at the games lacking and sees it as “something we’d like to improve.” To find out more about upcoming games when the season starts up again in August, the information is on the BC website as well as the bulletin board in the gym.
No matter what you do, make sure to support the team, because one thing should be obvious to anyone, regardless of volleyball knowledge: this is a team that deserves support.