And so he sat here again. Alex Sam was used to spending his time of club activities on the sidelines. Having proven himself to be quite unreliable of a player he was swiftly delegated to the role of a benchwarmer after the first few weeks of training. How unfair, right? At first one might have blamed his coach for the seemingly unfair treatment of their trainee. After all it was the teachers responsibility to make something out of their students.
Well... That line might have worked in high school, but Alex was no longer some child amongst others, no. This was his very first year in college and most of the other guys on the team were already experienced players who went through basic training during their time in school. To be blunt, on a scale from 0 - 100 Alex was a 0, while most of his team could be scored at a 50 or higher. With the first tournament already around the corner there was simply no time to polish any eventual rough diamonds, that much his coach was aware of. The only option for him was to do the work outside of official training hours and grind his way towards becoming a fully-fledged member of the squad. And to be honest, that probably wasn't on his mind. Between all the work for classes and the lack of passion for the sport itself Alex simply lacked any motivation to do so.
Why did he join then in the first place? Well, good question, to which the answer were two words; Natalie Williams.
That's right, said coach who benched him indefinitely!
Ms. Williams was the sole reason he reached out to the club in the first place, mesmerized by her since the first time he laid eyes on the woman. It was during his first week of college that he came across her in one of the many hallways of the building, at first passing her without another thought, but over the span of the day realizing that he was thinking back to the moment more than once, her pretty face burned into his memories.
It took some time until he saw her again. For a moment he even believed she may have been just some relative of one of the students here, the chances of seeing her again close to none, but just as he was about to give up on his new found infatuation with the woman he spotted her again. There she was again, walking down the corridors of the campus, this time with a sports bag around her shoulder. Just the clue he needed.
After that second encounter it didn't take long to track down the club she belonged to and to his luck he was right assuming that she wasn't a student herself, having judged her age at around late twenties to early thirties, even though she could have easily passed as younger than that.
And that's the story of how Alex ended up on the sidelines. An unexperienced player with no real interest in going pro, unless you'd count him fantasizing over the prospect of being Ms. Williams star player, along with the attention he'd receive from her.
It wasn't all too embarrassing to spend the hours on the bench though. Thankfully there was another guy who also joined the team with false expectations. Ben Bowers. A lanky guy with brown eyes behind glasses and a buzzcut of dark hair. Turns out he was the nerdy guy in his high school years and tried to escape that reputation when joining college, therefore reaching out to the volleyball team. Not tall enough for the basketball team and not vascular enough to try his luck with football this sport was a natural fit for the boy. Sadly he too had to learn about the difference in skill level between himself and the core members of the team, afterwards joining Alex in the rank of subs, though compared to Alex he still spend some time trying to improve outside of training hours.
Though not all was bad for him either, having found a close friend in Alex whom he'd get along with great due to similar interests outside of training. Both as nerdy as they come had hours of conversation to be had and spent their time during play practice just as effectively as the other players, just in different ways.
"The animation was really good during the last few episodes, I really hope they'll keep things up. I could even see this becoming one of my all-time favorites if that's the case." Ben was nerding out about some new show they released this season, but realized that his friend wasn't really listening anymore. "Alex?", he now shifted towards the dazed boy next to him. "Are you listening?
Well... That line might have worked in high school, but Alex was no longer some child amongst others, no. This was his very first year in college and most of the other guys on the team were already experienced players who went through basic training during their time in school. To be blunt, on a scale from 0 - 100 Alex was a 0, while most of his team could be scored at a 50 or higher. With the first tournament already around the corner there was simply no time to polish any eventual rough diamonds, that much his coach was aware of. The only option for him was to do the work outside of official training hours and grind his way towards becoming a fully-fledged member of the squad. And to be honest, that probably wasn't on his mind. Between all the work for classes and the lack of passion for the sport itself Alex simply lacked any motivation to do so.
Why did he join then in the first place? Well, good question, to which the answer were two words; Natalie Williams.
That's right, said coach who benched him indefinitely!
Ms. Williams was the sole reason he reached out to the club in the first place, mesmerized by her since the first time he laid eyes on the woman. It was during his first week of college that he came across her in one of the many hallways of the building, at first passing her without another thought, but over the span of the day realizing that he was thinking back to the moment more than once, her pretty face burned into his memories.
It took some time until he saw her again. For a moment he even believed she may have been just some relative of one of the students here, the chances of seeing her again close to none, but just as he was about to give up on his new found infatuation with the woman he spotted her again. There she was again, walking down the corridors of the campus, this time with a sports bag around her shoulder. Just the clue he needed.
After that second encounter it didn't take long to track down the club she belonged to and to his luck he was right assuming that she wasn't a student herself, having judged her age at around late twenties to early thirties, even though she could have easily passed as younger than that.
And that's the story of how Alex ended up on the sidelines. An unexperienced player with no real interest in going pro, unless you'd count him fantasizing over the prospect of being Ms. Williams star player, along with the attention he'd receive from her.
It wasn't all too embarrassing to spend the hours on the bench though. Thankfully there was another guy who also joined the team with false expectations. Ben Bowers. A lanky guy with brown eyes behind glasses and a buzzcut of dark hair. Turns out he was the nerdy guy in his high school years and tried to escape that reputation when joining college, therefore reaching out to the volleyball team. Not tall enough for the basketball team and not vascular enough to try his luck with football this sport was a natural fit for the boy. Sadly he too had to learn about the difference in skill level between himself and the core members of the team, afterwards joining Alex in the rank of subs, though compared to Alex he still spend some time trying to improve outside of training hours.
Though not all was bad for him either, having found a close friend in Alex whom he'd get along with great due to similar interests outside of training. Both as nerdy as they come had hours of conversation to be had and spent their time during play practice just as effectively as the other players, just in different ways.
"The animation was really good during the last few episodes, I really hope they'll keep things up. I could even see this becoming one of my all-time favorites if that's the case." Ben was nerding out about some new show they released this season, but realized that his friend wasn't really listening anymore. "Alex?", he now shifted towards the dazed boy next to him. "Are you listening?