The Ace - Chapter 119

Their team grouped around what would be their ‘coach’, essentially a senior student who actually knew about the sport, and had volunteered in exchange for points awarded by the teacher. He was meant to be help they could use at no cost, essentially set so that if there was a team where none of the players actually knew about volleyball, they would still have a shot at at least having some type of formation.

Of course, if there was a team that had three good players, they would most likely dominate the competition, which was where the luck element came into play. Of course, if you had practised as told, and paid attention in class, you would still have reached a basic level, where you could do something, and at least participate. At the end of the day, however, these were for bonus points, and you would not be penalised, so no one complained, out of fear of being simply forbidden from participating.

Their coach was a tall girl with a short bob cut of blond hair, Ace knew her, she was one of the two aces of the school female Volleyball team, one who had already been drafted to play professionally, she was also drafted in the USA Olympic team, a huge achievement for her.

“Ok, my name’s Lisa, and in twenty minutes, I have to explain what I can. You were all notified beforehand, so the rules should be clear right?”, she asked, and they all nodded, “Good, that makes my job a lot easier, now, you are all the best of the best when it comes to sports, so you should at least have some natural talent. This is how we will do it: you, tall guy, you will be our main blocker, and will play middle blocker, you have to be in the front row, and block as much as you can, while hitting if necessary, when you rotate to the back row, you will be swapped by the libero, who will be you”, she said, pointing at Amy, “They told me you have fast reflexes right?”

Amy grinned, “Like a cat.”,Lisa laughed, “Good. Now, we need some outside hitters, and a setter. I have seen recordings of your training, and while it was not much, I know exactly who will be our setter.”, she said, while motioning with her head at Ace. “You are ok at setting, at least when it comes to a basic level, but your spatial awareness is in fact top tier, it seems like you have eyes at the back of your head, which is good – of course.”

With this, their team was decided, Igor, a gargantuan Eastern European, who came from a family that had some deep connections to gangs all over Eastern Europe and Russia. He was a prime example of a Colossus, he was fourteen, but stood at over 190 centimetres, and was all muscle. He was also part of the Fight Club, and had a higher rating than even Ace, even if it was because he fought like mad. He would be a serious defender. Then, there was Spike and Mike, twins, who would be the outside hitters. Ace would play setter, and Amy libero. Finally, they had an opposite hitter, who was another girl, who was tall and slender.

From what Ace knew, her name was Mel, and she was a dancer, which meant she had an extremely good hand to eye coordination and body control. She was also quite strong.

The fact that they played mixed volleyball, was a clear indication of their lack of skill, but this was not a grading of skill, but of talent as a whole. Therefore, it made sense for them to be mixed, since some girls were actually stronger than some of the boys.

***

They had practised for about half an hour, when they were called to the main gymnasium, where games would be happening. They went in as a group, and moved once they were called to their first game.

There were six different teams, and they would play them all.

***

‘Well, this won’t be an easy one.’, Ace thought, ‘These guys know how to actually play.’

The first team they would be facing was a team that actually had four players, who were part of the team, and knew how to play. They most likely had tactics, and they had the basics covered, there was a libero, setter, middle blocker and a spiker. This meant that on their own, they would most likely be able to dominate everyone.

Ace grouped his team together, and told them: “Ok guys, this is not going to be easy, all of these guys know how to play properly, at least four of them do. This is what we will do, we will play easy. Don’t stretch yourselves thin, and waste stamina. There is no way we are going to win. Focus on trying what we practised. If we can get something to work against these guys, we can get it to work on everyone else. And above all, don’t feel down, they have been playing for a long time. Got it?”, Ace finished his speech by congratulating his team for his hard work during training.

All the while, Lisa was simply watching, interested in how he would handle having to deal with a serious contender. ‘”Interesting, he mitigated the damage, but at the same time, also risked the morale. They will now expect to lose this one, they are all elites at one sport or another, so they understand that no matter the talent, experience still matters. Whoever, they will now expect to win the rest of these, since he implied that the rest of the teams would not be an issue, I wonder, what will happen if they lose again?’

The whole game was an assassination of the sport, they missed balls, dropped them, or simply did not hit in the first place. The only ones that were doing a good job were Ace and Igor, the latter had gotten the hang of jumping in time, able to read his opponents due to his background in fighting. Once he jumped in time, he would block anything and everything, not a single member of the team was strong enough to make him have to even reflect, by the end of the game, his skin was not even red.

Ace, on the other hand, excelled by the fact that he could actually play the game. He only knew basic movements, but they were all executed to perfection. His sets were basic, and nothing to fancy. But they always seemed to be perfectly targeted, even if the spiker did not hit the ball. Lisa noticed it, and wondered why it was. It seemed as if he had practised thousands of hours on the same basic movements but had not even seen anything else. He had an extremely solid foundation – the most solid he had ever seen, but that was it, there was no real variation or spice to the game.

Of course, against a normal opponent in these games, it would work extremely well, since Ace would be able to out skill them. However, against these more experienced players, they had caught on to the fact that he only knew basic moves, and so simply prepared for them. They messed up once in a while – which was the source of most of their points, that, and Igor’s blocks, but they could still hit more than miss, and at the end of the day, Igor was on half the time, and Ace was only one person.

They lost the first game, but were still in high spirits. They had already been warned this could happen, but by the end of the game, once they had gotten more into the groove, they were clearly doing a lot better. The brothers were hitting some spikes, and the girls were effective at their jobs, Amy a stable anchor, and Mel ‘dancing’ around the court, acting as a last resort for Ace if needed. Surprisingly, she was probably the third-best player, simply because of her jumps. She was able to leap across half the court, and her vertical jump was also insane, which put her above the rest of the players. If she could begin to hit the ball, it would seem like a meteor raining down from the sky.

With smiles on their faces, and being still in tip-top shape – if a little bit more warmed up, they strode into the court, ready for their second game…