If you’re a student at Silver Creek High School, you should be familiar with the F wing gym. The big doors, the yellowy-wooden floors that squeak with a change of direction. The hot and humid area with bleachers pushed up against the wall.

Many students rejoice the moment they finish their gym classes and don’t have to enter the gym again. But, for 55 volleyball playing girls this is their favorite part of the day. Instead of squeaky floors, they see something that is perfect to dive on. With the volleyballs out and the net up, the whole energy of the gym changes.

But, what really is the experience of playing volleyball at the school? What are the highs and lows like, and what makes someone want to invest on average 20+ hours a week into this sport? With the members investing an average of 20+ hours a week there are

Silver Creek volleyball is a fall sport at Silver Creek and starts hosting open gyms in the summer, with the actual season starting right before the school year. It ends at the end of October. This is a sport built off of teamwork and community but can also cause difficulties with school with the sheer amount of time it takes up. Even with the large time commitment, these student athletes still stay dedicated to volleyball.

Presley Baginski, a Sophomore at Creek, said that their favorite part about playing for Creek was, “The relationships with everyone,” Baginski has been playing for Silver Creek volleyball for two years and is currently on the junior varsity team.

Nia Pedrett, a Sophomore and C team player says that her favorite part of playing volleyball is,“I feel very much in a community,”

Volleyball is a sport based off of teamwork, with the game being played with six people on the court. Most plays consist of a serve, then a pass, a set, and a hit. If you can pull this off then a point for your team usually follows. Although, Silver Creek Volleyball isn’t just a team on the court, but off the court too.

“Team bonding brings a lot of memories.” Pedrett says, talking about her favorite memories in volleyball. Some of these team bonding activities are having a team dinner or just going to a park and hanging out.

Volleyball has affected these girls’ average school day, with a practice or a game every day after school for the first couple of months. This number can tally up to 20+ hours a week. With their school day being stretched at least a couple of hours every day, how do these student athletes fair?

Mallory Gahn, a junior at Silver Creek and varsity player, talked about her struggles with volleyball, “Volleyball makes it difficult to fit in time for schoolwork,”

Some might suspect her to talk about an on the court issue but instead, much like both Gahn, both Baginski and Pedrett also had schoolwork first on their list of struggles. One thing the coaches can’t stress enough is how we are student athletes. We are first students and then athletes. This is very important to keep in mind as school always has to come first. Keeping up this balance proves to be difficult with the time commitment that volleyball takes.

“You need to learn how to manage your time correctly. It is important to focus on your grades and not just volleyball, but definitely have fun with it.” Pedrett helps explain.

Keeping up with schoolwork is a struggle, these student athletes have been able to keep up their grades and stay on the court. Silver Creek requires its athletes to have no unexcused absences and not be failing any of their classes in order to play, they reinforce the student part of student athlete.

A word of advice from Sophomore Banskini to incoming freshmen was, “Be nice and don’t start drama, just be nice,”

While there has been drama throughout the years, Baginski explained that the best way to combat it is just be nice and spread kindness. As said previously, there is such a tight knit community in volleyball and it always helps to just be kind.

Through all of their struggles one thing remained consistent, if Pedrett, Baginski, or Gahn got the chance to start over and pick whether to play volleyball for Silver Creek or not, they all said yes. Even through the highs and lows that volleyball has caused, they would still pick volleyball again given the chance. This demonstrates that no matter the workload, the time it takes, or drama, they would still choose volleyball time and time again, the closely knit community is like no other.