Sports Club in Sports Room! on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Ben Pierce

July 01, 2016 3:14 PM

Sports Club in Sports Room! by Ben Pierce

It had taken longer than he would have liked - partly because of the Pecari Quidditch team's frequent practices and partly because he kept realizing he had homework that was due yesterday and couldn't be put off any longer (Time management? Not one of Ben's greatest skills) so it was practically midterm before he finally got around to handling the official stuff of Creating A Club. He had wrangled in Coach Grase as their advisor (because, seriously, who else but a professional coach would be better to advise a *sports* club?) and filed the paperwork with his Head of House, but by then it was hardly worth starting up with just one week left before everyone left for winter break, so at that point he just put up fliers that Sports Club would be starting next term and to bring back your favorite sporting gear when you returned from midterm.

Now that it was January, Ben put up new fliers advising that the Sports Club would be starting up that Saturday in the MARS Sports room at 1 pm and to expect to play volleyball. He had also included a brief description of what volleyball was so any sports-inclined wizard-raised folks who were unfamiliar with the game would know what to expect.

Between him, Gabe, and Gabe's cousin (who was a Real Volleyball Player^TM), they had gotten a good gym full of volleyball courts set up in the MARS sports room, as well as a bin with plenty of the standard white volleyballs. Ben was hoping for enough people to show that they could have a couple games going, but as long as they could have two decent sized teams, he was going to count the club's first meeting a success.

"Hey everyone!" Ben greeted when the clock on the gym wall said it was five minutes past the announced starting time and it looked like the flow of late arrivals had ceased. "Welcome to the sports club! I'm Ben, and this is Gabe, and we're your co-hosts." The second year wasn't really used to public speaking so his words came out a little rushed in his nervous excitement. "We're going to try to meet every week and play a different sport each time. Volleyball is a good fallback because it doesn't really need a certain number of players, so we figured we'd start with that, and in later meetings we can try to pick sports we've got the right numbers for, so mostly we'll just be deciding that day what we're playing. If that doesn't work out, we'll figure something out to keep it more organized, but we'll try it this way first. We expect we will mostly be playing non-magical sports, since Sonora already does organized Quidditch, but if we ever get enough people and interest for Quadpot, that is definitely on the list of sports to try.

"So that's our plan right now, and we're all here to play volleyball, so let's get to that. Let's split into teams. Go around the circle counting off 1, 2. Ones are one team, put your hands up, you've got Arianna leading you, she played on her house team at her last school, so she really knows what she's doing. Twos, you're the other team, and you've got me and Gabe leading you."

The count off commenced, and they divided into teams for the first example game. If there were just too many people playing, they'd split again once everyone got the idea of how to play.

"Simplified rules, somebody serves from behind the back line, hits the ball over the net. If it hits the ground outside the court boundaries, the other team gets to serve. If it hits the ground inside the lines, the server's team gets a point. It's the job of the non serving team to prevent that from happening by hitting it back over the net. Same deal, if the ball hits the ground, if it's out, serving team gets a point, if it's in, the other team gets to serve. So your team only scores when you were the team that served, otherwise you're just trying to get the serve back. If you do score, you serve again. Any questions or clarifications?" He gave time for Arianna to sort out any confusions he may have introduced then continued, "It'll make more sense once we start playing. Should we try it then? Everybody spread out. This is an overhand serve."

Ben stood behind the back line, off to the right side, threw the volleyball straight up, then whacked it over the net into fair play on the Ones team side.

Ooc: So the ball is in the air. Post Quidditch style, so just assume the ball is coming at you whenever it is you post, and you can pick your team by whichever one's turn it is to have a player go. Any questions, catch me on chatzy or post them to the ooc.

Subthreads:

Gettin' sporty by Sammy Meeks

1 Ben Pierce Sports Club in Sports Room! 339 Ben Pierce 1 5

Sammy Meeks

July 01, 2016 5:27 PM

Gettin' sporty by Sammy Meeks

It was a truth universally acknowledged, that a Sammy in possession of free time, must be in want of a new club.

Fortunately for her, Sonora was never without new clubs. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have a lot of free time. Semi-fortu-unfortunately for her, she kept joining the clubs anyway. She was a member now of four clubs, plus Quidditch, plus a fairly active social life with a great group of friends (even if they seemed to be down a member this year; Sammy tried not to think about it too much). Plus homework. That was a thing sometimes, too. Admittedly, she didn’t always do it, but whatever. The point was, she was a pretty busy little thing.

Still, how could she resist Ben’s new club? Like, it was specifically and exclusively about sports. That was her thing! And, well, Ben was just a baby second year, and he would be simply crushed if nobody showed up to his new endeavour, and as his teammate and friend, the brunette felt obligated to be there for him. (Also she really, really liked sports. Was that not established?)

Sammy was extra excited as she bounded off to MARS because she didn’t have to go alone; she had managed to convince Jax to join her! Well, okay, maybe “convinced” was a bit of a deception phrase. In fact, there was a distinct possibility that she may or may not have been physically forcing him into attendance. But whatever. He wasn’t resisting that hard. It was going to be great!

“I wonder what we’ll play,” she babbled as they walked. “I mean you know baseball’s my favorite, but I’m pretty good at football, too. And I like basketball. Never been too big on Soccer, though. Too much running.” At that moment, they arrived at their destination, and she swung the door open merrily, semi-maybe-pushing Jax on inside. “BEN!” Sammy shouted cheerfully. “HI!”

Today they were playing volleyball. Sammy knew how to play--gym classes had been kind to her, plus she’d tried intramural levels of just about every sport--although it wasn’t one she had continued with for very long. Volleyball players wore these tight spandex shirts and tiny little shorts, and the girls on the teams were always the type that looked at her funny and didn’t talk very nicely to or about her. They were the pretty girls who even at ten were starting to figure out makeup and boys, and now they laughed at her when she came home in the summers and over midterm. So for several reasons, volleyball had not been her specialty.

Still, she felt she would be an asset to the team she was placed upon, even if it was just for the day. She was a “One!”, as she called out eagerly as the counting went around. But to her complete and utter dismay, by keeping Jax close to her, she had ensured he would be on the two team! Oh no!

She gave his hand a quick supportive squeeze. “It’ll be fun, I promise,” she said before taking her side of the court. With that, the Pecari did her best to just focus on the game, as she hoped Jax would do. He’d see: sports of all kinds were a ton of fun, playing with or even against your friends.

Sammy’s brown eyes locked on the white ball sailing their way as Ben served from the other side. It was coming near her, so she got beneath it and, arms held tight together, sent it upward. “Bump!” she said aloud, preparing for hopefully a nice Set to be concluded by a wicked Spike.

OOC: Godmodding of Jax allowed by his author.

12 Sammy Meeks Gettin' sporty 310 Sammy Meeks 0 5

Jax Donovan

July 01, 2016 9:29 PM

Getting kidnapped. (Group 2) by Jax Donovan

Jax was not all that excited about having to go to the Sports Club. He had nothing against the two guys running it or anything like that, but he just wasn’t all that into sports. Unless it was boxing, of course. But Sammy pestered him and caught him when he was walking through the corridors and all out kidnapped him by dragging him to the club. He probably could have easily broken out of her grasp and gotten away, but she was so excited for it that he didn’t have the heart to disappoint her and ruin her mood.

He walked silently with her and listened to her talk about a bunch of sports that he had only heard of in passing while living in Seattle. He knew absolutely nothing about any of them. The only Muggle sport that Jax knew of was catch and that was because Sammy had him playing that with her.

He grimaced when Sammy shouted her greeting right by his ear, slightly embarrassed because anyone in the room would be looking at them now because of her greeting. Jax slipped away from the prying eyes of those in the room. He really had no idea why he was here and the longer he listened to the one kid talk, he was even more convinced that this was a mistake. Jax didn’t play sports. Jax didn’t like people. He didn’t care for sports. He didn’t like people. He certainly wasn’t a team player. And most importantly, he didn’t like people.

Jax almost walked out when he found himself on the opposing team from Sammy. She dragged him here and then stuck him on a different team? He’d get her back for that. He tried to listen to what Ben was explaining for what it was that they would be doing for the meeting, but he didn’t really get it. They just hit it over the net? Why was that fun? Couldn’t they just play catch? He knew how to do that. Hell, he’d even prefer it if he could simply sit out and just watch everyone else play. But he had already given a number so he was already stuck on a team of people that he did not care to work with.

He’s brooding body was planted toward the back of the designated area. He was tall and built bigger due to his training, so back seemed like the obvious choice (he was unsure if strategically it would be better for him to be placed elsewhere). He wasn’t going to do much moving, he had already decided that. If the ball came directly at him, he’d raise his hand to stop it, but otherwise, he would make no effort. He felt that this was his best bet to be kicked out and never asked to return ever again.

6 Jax Donovan Getting kidnapped. (Group 2) 296 Jax Donovan 0 5

Arianna Valenti, Team 1

July 02, 2016 1:08 PM

Taking the lead by Arianna Valenti, Team 1

When Gabriel had asked her to attend the club he was starting with Ben Pierce, Arianna had said yes, because Gabriel was family. She wasn’t sure if Sports Club was going to be a long-term commitment for her, because between that and Quidditch, she was starting to look like quite the jock. Of course, Arianna was making a point to show up at least once to all clubs this year. Perhaps her classmates would think she was just highly involved.

The first year didn’t plan on sustaining this forever - her parents would be furious if her grades were affected - but they had also made it clear that it was time to start investing in extracurriculars, as well. If she was just in middle school, this would not have mattered, because potential future colleges didn’t care about middle school activities. But things were different at Sonora, where first years and seventh years played on the same teams and joined the same clubs. And if there was one thing that Arianna and her parents agreed on, it was that she needed a killer high school resume to get into college. So she was giving most of the clubs this year a shot - except Library monitoring, because who wanted to spend more time than necessary at a Library? - with the intention of culling down that list to three or four activities in second year.

So she was here, in her navy volleyball shorts, pink tank top, and black sneakers with the pink accents, just like she would be back home. Her hair was in the Hobart Middle School volleyball team standard updo, a French braid that ended in a ponytail at the nape at her neck, with a blue ribbon tied around the ponytail. It was just like game day back home, except instead of the fashion-forward volleyball crew, she was in a room full of pre-teen and teenage wizards. It was times like these that she missed her friends, their sarcasm and humor. While she had met some people that were tolerable at Sonora, they were mostly boys from Quidditch, or boys who she was paired with in classes. And while some of them were pretty cute, she did wish she could have a close group of girl friends again.

She expected Sports Club to be another boy-filled activity. Actually, she wasn’t sure what to expect, with her cousin being one of the people in charge. But she had to admit, between the signs and the setup, Gabriel and Ben had done a good job organizing things. She had arrived a bit early, happy to share her opinions, naturally, but Ben had seemed pretty organized. It had to be Ben who was the organized one, because Gabriel Valenti could not even organize his backpack.

Stretching as the other students arrived, she was curious to see who of the student body would be interested in a non-magical sports club. It would be completely embarrassing for Gabriel and Ben if nobody showed up. This is why she was happy to be here as more of an advisor, than anything. Arianna did not lead things that failed.

Ben seemed to be calling things to order, so she popped back up to join the group, standing at her cousin’s side. If she didn’t think the older boy was kind of cute, she might have noticed how Ben seemed to ramble on. She certainly would not have been caught off guard when he said her name, announcing that she would be leading one of the teams. Dark eyebrows raised slightly, but she tried to play it cool, like this was all part of the plan. Had Ben and Gabriel mentioned this before? She couldn’t remember. She had mostly been pleased at the idea that they needed her help, and hadn’t initially focused on specifics. Arianna did like that Ben told everyone that she knew what he was doing, although it was silly to think that her old school had houses. The Hobart School was non-magical, and fairly small. And of course, none of the students actually lived there.

It was very ambitious of Ben and Gabriel to be going straight into a game on their first day. Arianna had thought they would start out with a couple of drills, or something. When Ben gave her the opportunity to give her input, naturally she took it.

“You’re going to want to start out like this - feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart, knees bent, weight shifted a little bit forward,” she demonstrated getting into a basic volleyball stance as she gave instructions, cool and calm as she enjoyed the spotlight, “That will help you get ready to get towards the ball. And you’ll shuffle, like this,” she demonstrated going forward, backward, left and right without her feet ever crossing over each other, “So you don’t trip.” It would be completely embarrassing for someone if they got their feet all caught up trying to go to the ball.

She sized up her team as they took opposite sides of the court, noticing that one of the girls was an older girl she didn’t really know, but had seen at a lot of clubs. She must be ambitious, too. Perhaps this experiment wouldn’t turn into a total shipwreck, then.

“Let’s do this!” she exclaimed to her team, her natural competitiveness coming out even in this situation. Arianna did not necessarily care how much each individual enjoyed today’s activity, but she did not do things to fail them.

Ben served the ball, and to Arianna’s surprise, Girl in Many Clubs seemed to know what she was doing. Of course she did, she would probably never walk into any situation without knowing what was going on. It was what Arianna aspired to be like.

Generally, Arianna liked to be a setter. She enjoyed the control over the game tempo, and the swift tactical evaluations it required. This would be slightly more difficult, since she didn’t know her team or their respective athletic abilities very well, but she appreciated the challenge. Falling into her preferred position, she got under the ball, arms raised above her head, hands hovering just above her forehead before setting the volleyball.

"Set!" she exclaimed, figuring it was a teachable moment as her cupped hands made contact and pushed the ball upwards. Following through with her arms, she was happy to see that the ball was high, in the center of the court not too far from the net. She thought it should be easy for the next person to get it over the net and back to Ben and Gabriel’s team, even if they were a total newbie.

“Nice,” she nodded approvingly to the Girl in Many Clubs. It was nice to know she wasn’t stuck with a completely incompetent team.

0 Arianna Valenti, Team 1 Taking the lead 343 Arianna Valenti, Team 1 0 5