{"id":43971,"date":"2023-05-11T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=43971"},"modified":"2023-05-11T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T10:00:00","slug":"positivity-communication-key-in-second-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/05\/11\/positivity-communication-key-in-second-half\/","title":{"rendered":"Positivity, communication key in second half"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell <\/b>
\n Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 Wins and losses are the measuring sticks by which sports teams are judged at the high school level. Beyond that it\u2019s the established rules of the road in the world of sports. But when results don\u2019t always lean in the hoped-for direction, there needs to be willingness to piece together the formula that can unite and hopefully right the ship.<\/p>\n

The 2023 Wachusett Regional High boys\u2019 varsity volleyball team is in such a conundrum, being winless at the halfway point of the season. Is there enough margin to allow a second-half surge? Who knows? But look for this bunch of Muntaineers to bring it, and bring it hard, for the remainder of the 2023 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough season so far. Our record is not reflective of how we\u2019ve been playing and our skill level,\u201d said junior co-captain RJ Dixon. \u201cWe\u2019re a great bunch of guys. We just need some things to go our way and stay upbeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focus a lot on positivity. There\u2019s a lot of negativity sometimes when things go bad, but we have to get past mistakes and cheer each other up. We have to stay strong, stay smart and play well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re putting the effort in at practice,\u201d said senior co-captain Cayson Branconier. \u201cEveryone\u2019s trying hard. When it comes down to it, sometimes it doesn\u2019t click like we\u2019ve been working on in practice, and there are lapses where we just don\u2019t play together as a team. We make mistakes, but they come and go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs games go on, we all get in our own heads sometimes, and it\u2019s hard to fight that. I\u2019m hungry to win all the time, so I\u2019m here and ready,\u201d added senior Zachary Allen, middle hitter.<\/p>\n

Head coach Peter Cranson summed up the team\u2019s situation: \u201cEven in a year where we\u2019re not performing the way that we want to or that we hope to, we just try and stay positive. We play better when we\u2019re having fun. We play better when we have each other\u2019s backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been some struggles at times, but I think they\u2019ve made us stronger to work through those issues. To work as a team, we need to work past that and pull all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

One aspect of the game that could use a bit more consistency is communications. Players must know exactly where their courtmates are in order to be successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs setter, I have to know where everyone is,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m the waiter. They place their order, but we\u2019ve got to talk more, have good energy and have loud voices that will win us games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times when we really communicate and you can tell, because everyone\u2019s really loud,\u201d said Branconier. \u201cIt\u2019s a great atmosphere, but then there are times when we shut down. It\u2019s hard to get out of these slumps, but we have to find a good rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n

One aspect among team atmosphere is the development of friendships that grow along the way. Keeping things light off the court but intense on the hardwood is meaningful, say players and coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of close friendships on the team,\u201d said Dixon. \u201cI\u2019ll be friends with a lot of these guys for life. We have a lot of laughs. It\u2019s great to be on this team, even if we\u2019re not winning a lot of games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, they do have a lot of fun. During practices, it\u2019s not hard to coach,\u201d Cranson said. \u201cThey want to do well. They listen during practices. They\u2019re very coachable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the Wachusett 2023 Wachusett Regional High boys\u2019 varsity volleyball team are seniors Cayson Branconier, Justin Ho, Zachary Allen, Jonathan Taylor, Kaelen Linke; juniors Charlie Gorsky, Mac Laramee, Ben Lefferts, RJ Dixon, Alexander Baez and Noah Chapman-Rigney; and sophomore Soren Haddock. Team captains are Branconier and Dixon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 Wins and losses are the measuring sticks by which sports teams are judged at the high school level. Beyond that it\u2019s the established rules of the road in the world of sports. But when results don\u2019t always lean in the hoped-for direction, there needs to be willingness to piece together the formula that can unite and hopefully right the ship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}