The Taste of a Repeated Story

The Finals

The match was to played at Arue. The place was okay field-wise but rather small in terms of seats for the public. As predicted, the place was crowded and we had people sitting on the ground just behind the chair referee and on the other sides behind the handball cages. The organization also failed to provide a decent score board and replaced it with a micro which volume couldn’t cover the noise of the crowd...

I’d like to remind anyone who’s reading this and who’s a little bit knowledgeable about how things go in France that such conditions are not acceptable there. No one is allowed to be on the same ground level as the players and even the smallest clubs have some little score boards when you manually turn the sheets in order to mark the score...

[rant] We can spend millions of Francs to put up some stupid motocross X-games but we can’t just pay 5000F for some manual score boards ?? [/rant]

The presentation of the teams was kinda messed up since we started to warm up outside the gymnasium and had to come back in, cross the field and hide ourselves in the lockers room... Anyway we came in and after a minute of silence I don’t even know what it was dedicated to, the match could start...

I heard the coach announce the list of starting players and I wasn’t in. I was kinda disappointed, but oh well, I’ve already played against Mehiti 2 days ago and had nothing more to prove...

The match started as always with a first set which was very disputed but we managed to take the lead in the money time and ended it quickly 25-20. Supposedly, Mehiti had some setter back from Pro-A (the highest level in France) but honestly, he didn’t meet the expectations... I have seen setters who play at Pro-A level and that guy was just hundreds of miles away...

We proceeded smoothly to the second set and Mehiti just gave in : 25-13. They made a lot of service errors and didn’t seem to have the physical resources to get past of block (a lot of points were won here).

The third set started a smoothly as the second and we took and early lead 8-3 and never looked back : 16-7 at the second mandatory timeout. The coach then announced he’ll let all the substitute go in and I got up with my fellow comrades to walk in the field.

On the first point I had to watch out for their wingman and performed a victorious block which was only the continuity of our last match. Since then, their setter gave all the attack ball in his back, like he was avoiding me... lol

We quickly ended the set and the match 25-16 with some marvelous spikes from Rafio in a pipe combo (back row) and Vanaa (center). The match lasted only one hour and after the first set it was just all too easy. Thus, it stings to not have been able to shine more...oh well, I can’t complain about gaining a back to back title while doing almost nothing, or can I ?

Retirement

With this last victory, I’m officially putting an end to my volleyball career. I didn’t really got fed up with my position as a setter and I’m sure there is still some room for me to progress. It’s also not a problem of persons since I’ve been playing with people who started volleyball at the same age.

This is more of a lack of challenges decision. I’ve mastered the center position as could my France Champion title testify and earned two titles as setter (one of which as the main setter of the team since there was no other setter then).

As you could have told by reading my articles, there’s some lack of "professionalism" in the way the local federation deals with its stuff. Schedules are only 2 weeks long, no score boards, referees who sometimes are just not doing it right (judging a ball "portée" rather than "doublée") are just some of the huge list of examples that come to mind.

This season, our supremacy got only contested once when we lost vs Venus 3-2... I’m confident I could try to stay in and set larger goals but what larger goals ? I guess I can always play another season to accumulate more titles but what gives ? It’s not like there was a tremendously large field of competition in our 11 teams championship...

I think I’d be able to value more time off from volleyball and use it for more relaxation and more time working for the STACK for example. Three training sessions plus one match a week are too much time "wasted" over some sport IMO, especially if at our level which is far from the pros’.

I’ve reached the top in France and in Tahiti, and I guess since I haven’t been in the starting line up that often during the most important matches it’s like they don’t really need me.... I’ve taken one for the team this whole year by shutting up and now it’s time to take one for myself and let it go.

I’ve been playing since I was 11 years old (over 15 years of play) so it’s kinda sad to quit like that but hey, life goes on...

Anyways, thanks for witnessing the dying moments of my career, I hope I’ve been able to somewhat entertain you or even inspire you...