The Junior Varsity playing a home game early in the 2022-2023 Volleyball season. photo by Shana Saint-Phard
The 2022 volleyball season has ended and now the Spartens congratulate our volleyball teams for their well played season.
The TJ volleyball season began in late August once again at Thomas Jefferson High School. Being one of the most participated sports at TJ, Spartans from every grade tried out for the teams, whose seasons span from the beginning of the school year and has officially ended in October. At TJ, there are four volleyball teams: varsity, junior varsity (JV), sophomore, and freshman. The season ended last week and it shaped up to be eventful for the Spartan girls.
The 2022 season went far more smoothly than past seasons. The last two years were difficult for all sports teams, as many games and practice times were postponed or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Denver Public Schools was able to reopen its campuses for the 2021-2022 school year, there was a mask mandate in place that sports teams needed to work around. Now that the mandate has ended, sophomore volleyball player Carlie Quinney expressed the JV team’s relief. “The team is thrilled to not have to wear a mask this year… It definitely improves our game, we can communicate better and play better without the shortness of breath.”
The pandemic did not affect the performance of the volleyball teams, however. Last season was played remarkably well by the varsity team, who won 18 of their 25 games; the team stood fifth overall in the 5A league. The JV season did not go as well as they hoped. Quinney said, “the [JV] team’s goals for this season is just to improve as a team and get to know each other.” She expanded, “I think as a team we will improve by working together and communicating.” A vital part of strengthening as a team is improving individually, and Quinney has set goals for herself to better her serves and hits. Marriam Dabbas, junior at TJ, elaborates on how she thinks this season will be different, “… we’ve matured a lot and played better as a team this year.” To surpass their performance from last year, the team believes they must also work on having pride in their school, learning to have fun even with defeats, and working on skills all players need to enhance.
From early on in the season, Dabbas said, “I think we’re gonna do really well and play really hard and go out with a bang.” Which ended up being true, as they won their last game against East High School; and now at the end of the season the JV team has won eight and lost eleven of their league games, which is an improvement for the team. The season has ended but the team will still continue to grow and succeed.
