The Bronx Science’s Girls’ Varsity Volleyball team is ready to start the season strong- and perhaps started a little stronger than they anticipated. Whether it was due to the excitement of a new season or to an unfortunate mistake, pushing hard from the jump has had both positive and negative impacts, the latter being that a few of the team’s members seem to have sustained a few sports-related injuries. What made these injuries so devastating was not their severity, but rather their timing; they had occurred before even the first game of the season.

“Everyone’s been hurt; Nancy fell and hurt her ankle, Esther hurt her wrist, I think Anya hurt her ankle too, and Amanda’s recovering from surgery.”

Among the injured players include Kateryna Slinchenkova ’18, who pulled her abdominal muscle during practice. However, Slinchenkova wore an elastic abdominal support during the first few practices and persevered, having no intention of giving any less than her best effort. “Katy’s been playing absolutely amazing this year,” says Girls’ Varsity Volleyball Coach Daniel Skilins, “She has to be one of our best servers; she’s leading the team to victory with it.” This seems to be a shared attitude among the players. For example, take Kendal Chapman ’18, who sustained several injuries from playing both volleyball and softball year round. She continues to practice to the best of her abilities, even occasionally leading the team in drills. “Everyone’s been hurt; Nancy fell and hurt her ankle, Esther hurt her wrist, I think Anya hurt her ankle too, and Amanda’s recovering from surgery,” recalled Chapman. Even Sugin Li ’18, who is recovering from shin splints [medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS)] regularly attends practice, withdrawing on Mondays for physical therapy. Yet the girls refuse to back down, moving forward in their training with the type of determination that far exceeds the limitations any injury.

With the season only just beginning, it’s important to keep a positive attitude for the future of the team. Staying positive is hardly an issue, as the girls are confident they can take on the season full force, especially with their recent winning streak. “Kendal’s been injured, but she has to be one of the top three setters in the city,” noted coach Daniel Skilins. “I’m impressed, really. I should have made her a coach. Every one of the girls contribute; they’ve been absolutely astounding. We knew that we had to face adversity after losing around eight seniors last year, but we have a strong core of freshmen players whom I consider to be phenomenal.” The multiple minor injuries sustained by the players were unexpected, but the team is pushing forward nonetheless, excited for the victories to come. “We’ve never had this many injuries at the beginning of the year,” recounts Skilins. “From my college experiences, you’re going to have about two major injuries a year; in high school volleyball, you usually don’t.”