Last year, I played on a club volleyball team. My father was the coach - and a very good one at that. I’ve been playing with some of the same girls for two years now. Last year, we had no problems on our team. Everyone was friends with everyone else; it didn’t matter if we went to different schools and were in different grades.

But this year, it was different. We lost a few players from last year, so we had to fill the spots. My dad had to take 10 girls when last year, we only had 8. He told the parents from the beginning that it will be hard to make sure everyone gets fair playing time - something that he like to do, but most coaches don’t. They agreed that they understood.

One of my friends on the team was the assistant coach’s daughter. She was one of the best players on the team, so she got the position to play all the way around and not come out of the game. Well, my position was the setter so I didn’t come out of the game either.
Our team couldn’t pass very well, so I would have to run all over the court to get the second ball like I was supposed to.

One night when my father was out of town, the parents decided that they were going to have a meeting. They discussed that it wasn’t fair that I got to play all the way around because I was the coach’s daughter - they didn’t explain that I practiced for eight or more hours a week, while their daughters goofed off for four. I wasn’t represented in the meeting, so I had no say in the matter.

The next tournament, my father was still out of town. The assistant coach decided that she was going to let this girl who wasn’t supposed to be on the team set. She made me play back row - a position that I had never played before and I’ve been playing for eight years. She lied straight to my face when I asked her if it was because of the parents. She was one of the many two-faced people I would have to encounter.

Another was the team mom. She was nice to me in the beginning of the year, but extremely rude at the end. She wouldn’t even look at me. And when my father got fed up when loosing, he put me in to set, she got so mad. She didn’t want me to set because she said I was too short. I may be short, but I’m fast and I give an effort.

Well, she was the owner of the club and had my father fired after that. So, I quit. I didn’t get to play in the national tournament because of stupid drama and two-faced people. My father and I went to the tournament to watch them play and the few friends that I had on the team raced over to me. As we were watching the game, I realized that I deserve so much better than to sit around and deal with drama from adults when I have all of that at school.

I felt bad because two of my best friends were on the team and I wasn't out there with them. But I was happy that I went and showed, even the adults, that I wasn't going to let them get to me.