“Seeing that your name’s not on the list is heartbreaking. It’s life changing. It makes you start thinking, ‘My life is over. I’m not good enough’,” says junior Vienna Auerweck, describing the feeling of not making the volleyball team.
“[Getting cut] is not fun,” she says. “You put so much hard work in, hours of practice, and all of that can go away in a split second just because your name isn’t there. It’s awful.”
Fortunately for her, Auerweck has escaped this “life-changing” ordeal for the past two years, making varsity last year as a sophomore and this year as a junior. But many of her friends have not been as fortunate.
“Having friends and peers not make the team when you do causes drama. High school girls are hormonal as it is, and trying out against each other is tough,” Auerweck says. “Sometimes it can feel like you can’t be as close of friends [with] something like one person making the team and the other not.”
“For a little while [after they put up the list], it can be pretty tense,” says senior varsity member Elizabeth McSheery. “If you have a friend who didn’t make the team and you did, you can feel a little guilty, but as time goes on you both get used to it—especially when [being a girls varsity volleyball player] becomes who you are.”
According to junior Ayah Hamdan, the phenomenon McSheery describes is precisely what makes being cut from the team so difficult.
“Most people have been playing volleyball since sixth grade—it’s part of their life. It’s part of who they are. That’s why it’s such an intense sport, and why getting cut can be so [devastating].”
Hamdan knows the feeling of getting cut all too well—“I didn’t make the team this year,” she says, “But I’m working out with the team—it’s kind of a ‘team manager’ deal.”
Hamdan is somewhat unique in that fact—she is the only girl who didn’t make Aragon’s varsity team that is continuing to work out with them.
“A lot of people start to think ‘Oh, I didn’t make the team, I’m not good enough, volleyball isn’t what I should be doing,’” say Auerweck.
“Some people go on to other sports, but for a lot of them it ends there,” agrees Hamdan. “I’m going to have to wait and see if I try out again next year. I need to build a relationship with the coach, and then [when the time comes] decide if I want to.”
If Hamdan does try out and make the team, she’d be joining as a senior. While seniors traditionally make up the “strength” of the team, this year’s distribution is a noticeably lopsided, with the team being made up of five seniors and seven juniors.
“Literally half the team has [graduated],” says Auerweck. “More than a huge part has left.”
Seven members of Aragon’s varsity team graduated last year. One former player, Steffi Miller, has gone on to play volleyball with a full scholarship for California State University, Northridge.
“They taught me everything I know,” says Auerweck of the graduated seniors. “It’s going to be really hard to fill their shoes—they’ve left a really huge [legacy] for us to fulfill. They were really the leaders of the team. But Aragon’s team has a really cool process where each graduating leader kind of breeds a new leader on the team.”
Two team members who appear to be in a great position to rise to positions of leadership in the coming years are sophomore Miranda Taylor and freshman Anna Joshi.
One might think that a freshman or sophomore making the team instead of an upperclassman could possibly breed resentment, but, as Hamdan explains, “There’s really no hard feelings; what it really is is admiration. You think to yourself ‘Wow, they really deserve this.’”
Even though many members of the varsity team are returning after multiple years of being on it, the transition into leadership is by no means instantaneous.
“We don’t really feel like leaders yet, we’re still getting used to our senior status,” says McSheery. “It doesn’t feel like [last years seniors] are gone yet; you keep expecting them to show up. There were a lot of strong players—it’s weird not having them here.”
Even though a core group of players has graduated, Aragon’s varsity girls are confident in their ability to rebuild the strength of last year’s team.
“Experienced seniors will be the leaders of the team,” says McSheery. “We’ve got the potential to be a strong team, but the dynamic [of last year] hasn’t developed yet. We’re not quite up to last year’s standard yet.”
The other members of the team seem to share McSheery’s tentative optimism. “I don’t know if we’ll be as good as last year,” says Auerweck. “But I hope we’ll be better.”
But it is not the team’s record that makes the cut so upsetting if one does not make it or so elating if one does make it: it is the allure of varsity-level play itself.
“Being on varsity is a lifetime experience. It’s like nothing I’ve experienced before, and it’s like nothing I’ll experience again. Something makes it different—something makes it special,” concludes Auerweck.
The Dons will face Mills High School on Tuesday, September 18 at 5 p.m. at Peninsula High School.
