Coming back after a month of absence took a toll on our volleyball team and affected their performance.

Teachers started a strike for their rights on November 21, and students only got back after the Christmas break. For the cadet volleyball team having no practices for a whole month was hard. ” We all love our sport and not being able to do it makes me really angry,” told Éléana, a player on the volleyball team.

Apparently, getting back on track was not as easy as it looks like. After staying home lying down and doing mostly nothing, getting back to the gym was like a slap in the face. “We have less cardio and I feel like not everyone is at their 100 percent,” told Éléana. Many players felt like they’d lost strength and skills because of this big break.

According to Éléana, the first practice was to get back at it. The more they practiced the more they regained their skills. Despite the effort, the team takes it less seriously and there is more laughing and doing nothing than actually playing. “When you try to be serious, and others are not, in the end, it influences you because you can’t concentrate,” she said.

They are already a lot lower in the ranking of RSEQ compared to last year, maybe is it because they aren’t the same team. The key to playing well in a volleyball team is to be like a family and that makes everyone play better.

The cadet volleyball team recently started learning a new thing called the penetrating passer, before the strike, some thought it was hard, and others learned it easily. That makes some players anxious for the coming tournament on the 3rd of February because they didn’t have enough time to practice it. “I am scared to get mixed up and make us lose points during the tournament” affirmed Éléana. The team does not look confident about this event because of this new technique. They are still hoping to win but confidence is low.