Photo Credits: Maya
The Observer met with Maya Flores, captain of the Columtreal Volleyball team to discuss the series of matches that were coming up which Maya hoped would put her team back on the silverware. We met at the under construction annex to the Hathian Museum & Galleries, which is close to the University.
Observer: “So Maya, ready for a pre season chat, ready to tell us all about what’s in store now. Ready to represent CU sports? Our readers liked our last article with you”
Maya: “Thanks for doing this, it is really great that the Observer gives us room to showcase how important this is for the University. Representing, that is what it is all about. I think… I’m as ready as I will be with things coming for us fast!”
Maya seemed pretty hyper, buzzing. With matches this weekend or thereabouts, it was clearly going to be all systems firing very soon and she certainly had that pre-match buzz… hopefully not jitters.
Observer: “We’re more than happy to put the team in the paper, you’re the only prize winning team we’ve got in Columtreal, or at least have a chance with as far as I can tell…Ok, we need more detail on the what, who, where and all that jazz… what are you fighting for, who have you on the team and what else…. oh sponsorship and hype….”
“We are totally up for the challenge!”
Team Captain Maya
Maya: “Sure… So I guess I best start with a historic tour of the team to bridge why it is so important this coming weekend? I think the first thing for the readers to know is, this time we are headed for much more major tournament; the indoor volleyball league is much bigger than the summer tournament we participated in. It has a lot of specifics, the beach volleyball is a team of two, the indoor team travels with a team of thirteen players, with six in the field at one time. Much different game, much more tactics, much more coordination.”
She was in her element now, talking the sport, eyes lighting up presumably with a view on how the Columtreal team would progress. She was animated, alive and relatable, hopefully attributes that stay both on court and in coaching her team.
Maya: “Just to set things in perspective, Women’s volleyball on the level we are going has been established only in 2002 and ever since then it became a major University sport; there are currently over sixteen thousand volleyball players in this country, in the league, and that is a lot of competition. The great news is that Columtreal has not been entirely unsuccessful since the foundation of the league, scoring titles in 2005 and 2016. Sadly, after 2016, Football and Cheerleading took centre stage for the school and the volleyball team dropped from the 1st division to the 3rd division where we currently are now.”
Observer: “So what about this weekend then? The history is great, ‘Go Looters’ and all that, but how will that work in practice?”
Maya: “So this coming weekend… We plan to change it, the game we are up to now can push us back to the second division; that is something that will change a lot of things, because that is where the semi-professional deal starts and with that comes a stipend for players and money for team equipment improvements – like the new jerseys. Providing we succeed, and we will!”
Observer: “Anyway, ok, 2005 and 2016, that’s quite a long gap to bring home the silver, what else motivates you and your players, and now you have a target, you’re passionate and excited… but what have you had to DO to get ready? How are you prepping?”
Maya: “Okay, so just so those unfamiliar know. There are six players on the court, and seven players on the bench. The six are in these positions, the setter, two outside hitters, in our case two opposite hitters, and the middle blocker. By the rules, the players can only change within their position from the bench, except for the 13th player, the Libero, who can be substituted for anyone. They have special rules, as they pay for this privilege by being forbidden from attacking and are our defensive specialists.”
The rules of volleyball can be easily found on Google, but Maya summed some up here for us.
Maya: “And you are right 2005 and 2016 is a bit of a gap, but if we take into account there is 320 teams in USA, that’s actually quite a stunning success. Most teams do not have a single year to account as a victory; CU has actually a strong Volleyball tradition we aim to fully restore! So although we are in the bottom division of the three currently if we win this Saturday and if we make it to the finals in Division 2, we’ll be fighting for the Division 1 next season!”
We prompted her on what winning mean, what got them going:
Maya: “A stipend definitely helps. A lot of the girls on the team are actually working jobs on the side, time they could spend training. The stipend helps us to get to another level. More focus, more training time, better equipment. All around a good thing. Of course, for a professional career, it is not even as much about winning, but about a set of skills making the player viable for the national team: The ability to push through the clutch moments, the team work, the cool, but also personality. In practice, a player from a losing team can be picked due to those qualities when fighting against the odds, but… winning definitely wins getting attention, yes. By the way, this weekend is the last weekend we play in old uniforms. Everyone on the team is excited to go professional style rather than being mascots if we can get though this match!”
Observer: “I guess that’s where some sponsorship comes in, so, who have you got? We’re obviously delighted to sponsor you and we hope the professional style doesn’t come with a Titty Twister logo! Also, yes, tell us more about the preparations, sounds like a lot of pressure…”
Maya: “Let me just cover our preparations a bit, it’s important to cover who is in the team and what we’ve been doing “So generally our preparations started with the summer tournament and since then we have been in a full swing. The team has some now known names: Rachel Wesson, who is exceptional athlete with endless drive and passion, Samantha Smith, excellent empathic co-player and unofficial team medic, and we added some semi-new names on the roster, Erica Bishop and Monica Savant alternating for the Libero role, both selfless girls ready to dive after hardest balls, also we have our Texas reinforcements Laura de Floquet at the middle blocker position, position that we were so desperately needed to cover, and she can run a mix great blocks and heavy hitting spikes. There’s of course more names and I can say a lot of good about every and each of them, they all live for the game. If someone finds a weakness in their game? Others join in and put some extra time to fix that.”
“Our drive into the season? Honestly, it’s love, and to a large degree, it is our life right now.”
Team Captain Maya
Maya: “So currently we have support of Bleu Wag Bistro and Music club Aurora, from the Columtreal partners. We also have Hathian partners in Gein Burger and of course Hathian Observer for giving us media platform and Hathian Museum for providing us the space to actually run the interviews. I am hoping we can as well find a sponsor in Laveau as the Columtreal team is holding unified colours of the three towns, Columtreal, Hathian and Laveau together. Oh and I should also mention Noah Rose from Holy Moly Donuts in Hathian, she’s always been a great supporter. Go there and buy a donut!”
We were running out of time, so we asked Maya if she had any last words before her big match…
Maya: “Well, last but not least, absolutely huge thanks to Juniper Park, our assistant coach juggling large part of our paperwork and logistics. No team can live without these invisible but absolutely crucial people. You rock!”
Competition
As mentioned in our last article, we have a limited edition piece of clothing worn by Rachel Wesson. Rachel (pictured in our article about her Youtube paranormal show) has kindly donated a highly coveted piece of her extensive lingerie collection to the Observer in support of her team. If you follow this link and donate $5 to the CU team for their match preparations, equipment and more you can be in with a chance to win an intimate piece of Rachel’s life, a beautiful lace trimmed thong. Donate, leave your name and e-mail ((OOC can IM Daiyu Tang in world to confirm done)) and a winner will be drawn at random after the next match for the CU team.
