San Diego Here We Come

Tuesday night at nine o’clock my parents say their final goodbyes and I take my first step to San Diego. Our varsity volleyball team was invited to the Best of the West volleyball tournament. This is one of the most prestige tournaments on the west coast. It’s made up of the 32 best teams from the entire western region.
This tournament is such a big deal to Punahou because this is the first time ever that Punahou has been invited to a mainland tournament and this is also the first time that any team has been allowed during their certain season. The coaches and athletic department have been planning this trip for a year and have scheduled so many fundraisers and events for us to make money at. Tom Holdin and Kevin Conway joined us in San Diego which gave us an idea of important this was to Punahou and its goal in branching out throughout the mainland.
Last year I was cut from the varsity along with all of the members of my JV1 team. This year was a different story though. I made the team and seven of my teammates from last year also made it. Joining me on the team are, Taylor Crabb, Kaiwi Crabb, Maddison Mckibbin, Erik Shoji, Jared Altenhof, Jacob Brovelli, Henry Cassiday, Jarrett Chang, Toby Ishizuka, Jeremy Kaimikaua, Ben Lam, Marcus Miyabara, Damian Pherigo, Josh Taylor and Philip White. Most of the people on this team are new to the varsity including our coach Rick Tune. Last year he was the assistant coach to Peter Balding who is now assisting coaching for him. Along with Coach Peter is Stewart Chong.
On our first day in California we went to DISNEYLAND!!! I went to Disneyland once before but I was too young to remember anything and I treated this like a first time experience. Once we entered Disneyland the term “happiest place on earth” could be seen. Even though we went on a Wednesday we were surrounded by smiles and more smiles from everyone young or old entering the park. We raced around picking which rides to ride and what other things we could do. We ended up riding, Indian Jones, Buzz Lightyear, Thunder Rail Road and Space Mountain TWICE! We also watched the 3D version of, “Honey I Shrunk the Kids.” All of the smells of the sweets cooking, the sounds of people of all ages screaming and enjoying themselves help make this a day to remember.
Friday was the day that we have all been waiting for. Sure Disneyland was great but this was the reason why we skipped half a week of school and endured some grueling practices. We came into this tournament testing our skills but also our determination and character. Our determination was tested because during the warm up for our first game our opponent’s height averaged at least 6 feet and the tallest player on our team was 6’4’’. We were definitely lacking in size but we soon found out that we had more intensity and skills. At the end of the first day of pool play we ended first in our pool and had handily beaten some of the better Californian teams. On the second day other known as the, “Gold Round” we faced some adversity. Our best player went down with a really bad flu and 102 degree fever and another of our good players sprained his ankle in the second game. We ended up getting fifth in the tournament but more importantly we grew as a team and learned how to handle adversity. Our teammate Phil put it the best, “we have handled the bumps in the road and still came ended the journey together as one.”
This trip was one of the best ones I have ever gone on because I have learned so many new things about myself and my friends. I learned that I can handle myself in tight situations and battle competitively even though I am an underdog. I have learned that I can, “handle the bumps.”