For many, many years I played volleyball as a member of Coed Volleyball Nova Scotia. I cherished those years. I met my wife playing in that league as well as many life long friends. We had a blast. It was always a fun time, even when the competition got heated. I liked the competition. I like to win as much as the next guy but more than that I love a great game. One where everyone has a chance to win and you came away, win or lose, feeling like you gave it your best. More than likely you played against some of your friends which was a fantastic bonus.
Of course all good things must come to an end. As the years pasted, most of us, as we aged, got injured or tired or had family obligations to take care of. The last year that I played in the monthly tournaments was a tough one for me. And I apologize to my then team mates as I say this, but my team sucked. We did not gel as a team and more often than not, we beat ourselves. But worse than that, I felt the tournaments were not being run fairly for the division I played in. Let me explain...
Ten teams registered to play each month. Usually the same ten teams but sometimes new teams would show up. That was cool. Someone new to play against. The monthly tournament was run by two court reps from the CVNS Executive. I had been a member of that executive in the past for over 15 years. I knew how to run a tournament but I had long since moved on and felt that it was time to let others do the work. The understanding was that each court rep, who also played on a team, would each take a side of the gym. Each side would have five teams who would play each other once and the top three teams would move on to the play offs. Here was my issue. The team I played on was one of the weakest teams. Our captain, a lovely woman, was also one of the court reps. The other court rep always did the line up. He would decide who would play who. That year, after about three months I noticed a pattern. The court rep would set it up so that my team was always on his side of the gym. We were a guaranteed win for him. He wanted to make sure his team made the playoffs. This went on for the full year. Not once that year was there a court rep on both sides of the gym. The last tournament of the year I had decided I had enough and complained to him. He basically looked at me like ..."so what!" Sadly I got no support and ended up looking like I was a big baby. I left the gym that day and never returned to tournament volleyball.
It drives me when people use a position of power to advance their cause at the expense of others. I see it everyday as I am sure you do. Even when it pertains to something a silly as a pick up volleyball game. I should just enjoy it. I got exercise. I got out of the house. What am I complaining about. Still, I can't help myself ... it just is not fair.
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