
‘My goals are to get into and attend a good college,” says Lydia Plahn of Lowell High School. “I am very excited to be volunteering with The Herald and helping my community.’
By LYDIA PLAHN/The Herald — In the beginning of the high school volleyball season, my team was not allowed any fans in the gym to watch while we played. It was hard to not just let these games feel like a scrimmage without spectators filling up the seats.
During down time in the games, it was silent. Without the usual rustling of programs and chatter from a crowd, our new larger gym felt even more colossal and empty.
Eventually as our county moved down from extreme risk to moderate risk to low risk, we were slowly allowed more fans back into our gym. Our last home game on Tuesday had a whole crowd of noisy fans which made the game feel like something we hadn’t seen in a while: normal.
On Thursday, my volleyball team and I traveled to Oakland where fans were not allowed in the gym. With the large bleachers empty of students and parents, I feared that the gym would be near silent and cheering would be at a minimum.
I was pleasantly surprised when after every play, there was loud and excited cheering from the varsity team on the court and the JV team in the bleachers. Every time someone on our team got a great hit or served an ace, we all cheered louder than we usually do.
I don’t know if this was us overcompensating for being without our usual boisterous crowd or if we just had a lot of energy, but without fans at our game we were definitely louder than usual.
While having no fans for part of this season was definitely a setback, it taught our team that we can control our own energy and be our own cheerleaders.
Lydia Plahn, a sophomore at Lowell High School, writes about her experiences while participating as a member of the volleyball, softball and basketball teams.