Cass Morris Career 12C

1. One of the first things I remember loving is volleyball, since I was 4 years old and my
sister spiked a ball right at my head. I come from a large family with 3 older sisters and
because of that I was a very family-oriented child. My older sister, Cassidy, is about 8
years older than me and her and I have gotten along every since we were little girls. This
is us.
2. She was a volleyball player. And every day when I was younger, she would train for
hours on end, working to be the best player she could be. One of our favourite activities
to do together was called “peppering.” This is when two players pass the ball back and
forth trying to get a consecutive bump, set, spike.
3. I became obsessed with it and all it has to offer. I played every of every day that I could,
starting on the 5th grade school team. For years after that I continued playing on the
school team and it really became my only personality trait as a young and annoying pre-
teen.
4. Starting in 7th grade, I joined my first ever club team, the Comox Valley Strikers. And it
completely changed my life. Volleyball is a sport for everyone, with room for each and
every individual. Though to play the full game you need a proper net and lots of other
equipment, as long as you have a ball, this sport is accessible for everyone.
5. My absolute favourite thing about this sport is that you don’t have to necessarily be super
athletic to be able to do the basic functions of the game, which is what really drew me to
it in the first place. One of the other things I loved about the game was that there was
room for everyone to be their own individual while still being part of a larger unit.
6. On that first club team, we did a bonding exercise where we all wrote down things about
the other players that we appreciated. One of my teammates had described me as, “the
glue of the team,” and that is something that I will simply never forget. The ability to be
the leader that I had always aspired to be was life changing.
7. Unfortunately, I moved a lot when I was younger and moved from Vancouver Island,
where I was living then, to Langley, where I have lived since. Though this move brought
about many great things, one that scared me most was what I was going to do about being
on a team, since I had already been told I had a position on my old one when the next
season came around.
8. In Langley, the teams were better because there were more people and that meant more
competition trying out for each team. I still remember walking into tryouts with my hands
sweating and realizing that I had forgotten my kneepads. I begged my parents to go and
get them for me, but they said they couldn’t because they were on their way to an
appointment.
9. I thought this was going to be a dealbreaker but as if by miracle, I came home with
bruises the size of golf balls on my knees and told my parents that I had made the team. I
was so excited to be team captain on yet another team. Little did I know that was
something that I was going to struggle with for years to come.
10. Since that optimistic little grade 8 me, I have been captain a handful of times on a few
teams, but on multiple I had to face the fact that I can be great and still not get that title,
and that does not mean that I am bad. It does not mean that I deserve to be there any less
than anybody else, and it gave me something to work for.
11. At first, I was devastated, and that, in combination with having a really harsh coach,
started to ruin the sport for me. I was skipping practice, telling my mom that I was sick,
and more, all so that I didn’t have to go. In my grade 10 school season, my team went
undefeated in league play and ended up with the 5th place title at provincials.
12. Fast forward a couple years due to covid, and I’m back playing the sport I used to love
with the same girls, all because it’s my senior year and I don’t want it to be something I
miss out on. Many of you know Mr. Moore, or Craig as I like to call him, and one
important thing about him is that, he absolutely brought back my love for volleyball.
13. I started to regret not training harder in previous years, and not putting in more work
throughout all the years that I had off. One thing about Craig is that he was all about
lifting our players up, and making sure that our team always felt our best, so that we
could perform our best.
14. The same 9 girls that I had played with in grade 9 had transformed with me into a well-
functioning team that enjoyed spending time with one another. We went undefeated in
league play again, winning Eastern Valleys, and earning the title of 7th place at
provincials, all after facing our own struggles.
15. The thing that made it so special is that, although we were all broken with torn rotator
cuffs, burst elbow sacs, back issues, a missing player and more, it finally felt like we
were all whole because we had done it together. One of the most important things that I
have learned from Craig is to not take anything for granted.
16. We went through so many ups and downs together, winning as a team, losing as a team,
fighting and causing drama through our younger years to laughing about how ridiculous
it was in our older years. But we had done it all together, and it had ended on such a high
that nobody seemed to care what we had gone through before.
17. Craig told us a story when we were losing our qualifying game to keep going for gold at
provincials. He said, “You know what I told Ghobrial when we started developing our
program? I said give me 5 years to make provincials and give me 10 years to win. You
guys are my fifth year, this is the first Langley school team I have coached to do as
amazing as you guys have.”
18. He told us that he ran difficult drills and warmups with us because we could handle it, he
told us that we had created an impact. Because of the team that we had put together and
the things that we had done together, we had created a program, one that other students
wanted to come to Mountain for.
19. On the banner hanging high in the big gym is signed all our names and jersey numbers.
We learned what it meant to love what you have. Because we all went through the same
things. Injuries, breakups, falling out with friends, school issues, family issues. Every
single one of us went through those things. But we went through those things together.
20. A sport as simple as volleyball has created such a lasting impact on me because of the
people I have met, experiences I have had, and opportunities it has opened. I am now a
coach and a ref. I have learned so many things, and I am learning more from my team
every day. But one of the most important things that I have learned is that I will never
take things for granted again.