Saved – Nael Ottman

When I attended Rachel Carson High School, near Conley Island in the year 2021, the first semester of 10th grade was really boring. As Spring was drawing near on March 2nd I saw a poster next to my English class that said “volleyball tryouts”. The poster piqued my interest and with certainty, I knew I had to give it my all. The tryout was in 2 weeks and I was really confident in my skills because I would play pick-up with randoms in my neighborhood park. 2 weeks later it was finally the day for tryouts. We were supposed to be in the gym by 4:00 PM. When I arrived, I knew nobody. I saw really tall kids, one was 6’2 and another was 6’1. At the time I was 5’9 but that didn’t stop me from wanting to play volleyball. There goes the gym teacher, Mr. Calise, telling all the students to line up.

He said, “Alright guys, today we’ll be testing your receiving, spiking, and blocking”. I was confused about why he wasn’t also testing setting but I just let it slide. I had my Way of Wade shoes on, Jordan shorts, and an underamour shirt. I felt amazing that day and did really spectacular. I started talking to this kid named Michael, he was wearing a red jersey with the number 32 on the back and had Lemelo basketball shoes. They had recently just been released so I knew what shoes they were in instinct. We started talking because we noticed our skills were similar. After the tryouts ended we went to McDonald’s as a reward for our hard work and great performance. On that day Wednesday, I knew I made a friend. We were told to come back next week same time to see the results. When we made it, Mr. Calise told people who had made it on the roster. “Good job Mohammed, Marc, Michael, Jackson, Luka, Luchi, Nael, Caleb, and Alex, you made it on the team,” said Mr. Calise. We both looked at each other with satisfaction and high-fived. Ever since the poster was up, I’ve been looking forward to school and seeing my new friend.