Volleyball trip to El Salvador

The school’s volleyball team, both girls and boys, went to El Salvador on November of 2008 to compete against 2 schools. The schools were The Ricaldone School and the Liceo del Salvador. This was not an official tournament however the players were hardly preparing since the beginning of the school year. They had been practicing for 2 hours, 3 days a week and were also having games to prepare for the tournament. It began from a Friday to Saturday. On Friday they had 2 games and on Saturday 4 games. The teams competing against the EIS team were very competitive. The boys’ team was the national team of El Salvador and it had won 2nd place in Central America.
About 13 girls and 13 boys went to this trip and teams, both boys and girls, played 6 games in total of 3 sets each. On the first they, the EIS school teams had 2 games and both in an outside courtyard, which the teams were not used to because in their school they only play in the Cafetorium which is an inside playing field. Because the players had had a long trip from Honduras to El Salvador they were very tired and sleepy so both games they both lost both games they had on Friday. They had what they called the “Dramamine” effect, which made them very sleepy and not conscious of what was happening. The first girls’ game was lost 2 sets to 1 and the other 2 sets to 0. The first set of the first game was lost 25 to 19, the second set the EIS won 25 to 22, and the final decisive set was lost 15 to 11. The second game started very quickly and the EIS lost both sets 25 to 17. Girls were very tired and sleepy because of the Dramamine pill so the coach did not grounded them for losing 2 games.
Boys both two games on Friday were lost. Boys did a very bad job playing against the El Salvador National team. The EIS boys’ team made about 10 points each set in both 2 games. They were also very tired and had the famous “Dramamine” effect.
On Saturday the players had to wake up at 6 in the morning because they had 2 games one at 8 and the other at 11 o’clock. Saturday was a very heavy day for the players, however they survived it. The girls had 4 games in which they lost 1 and won 3, 2 sets to 0. The boys also had 4 games in which they lost 3 and won 1. The boys were very sad, but at least they won experience and learned to work together as a team.
Hopefully in other tournaments this year the school will do better. Good luck for the EIS volleyball team.
-Gaby Jimenez