Volleyball, Meeting the Mayor and other Miscellaneous Events on Maui

Volleyball, Meeting the Mayor and Other Miscellaneous Events on Maui
By Vanessa Tuepker

During the first quarter at school I have had the opportunity to do some amazing things. I wanted to shares some of my favorites with you and I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I did the real live action of it.
The first most notable thing I have done is join and help found Kihei Charter High School’s first ever volleyball team. We have had our share of difficulties with finding a coach and bringing down some egos but we’ve managed and are now starting to work as a team. We have the perfect coach and have just recently gotten our permanent starting positions. Guess what, I made first string! I was very happy because this means I will be starting every game. At our last tournament I always started as well but this time is different. We’ve actually been preparing and stuff. We did well last time, but I think we will do excellent in the future. I am number ten and my position is outside hitter, or the spiker. This means that during a play, you are only allowed three hits on each side, and so the ideal is to bump it to your setter, they set it and then your spiker, me, spikes it back over the net and they have to try and dig it back up. Both of our coaches believe that I have amazing potential as a spiker. I have been working really hard and the other day I had some amazing spikes. (If you don’t know the spiker is the one on the side of the court who runs up to the net and jumps and then hits the ball straight at the ground over the net.) I also thought you might want to know the results from our last game although I have probably told you already. But they are: we won 3 out of 5 games. We beat two teams: Molokai and Maui Preparatory Academy, we beat Maui Prep twice. We were the only team to beat Molokai and they are the best in our county if not state. We almost beat Lahainaluna; they were giants and amazing spikers and we only lost by two points. Maui High stomped us though but that was only because we didn’t have a break in between games like they did and we had to play four games in a row without stopping. We were so tired. Our next game is this Saturday at Seabury Hall. I am really looking forward to this game because we seem to be so prepared. Before we got our great new coaches we played Seabury and we beat them once and they beat us once and so I hope we do even better now that we’ve had time to train and stuff. Anyway, wish me luck!
Another notable event was my initiation into Kihei Charter High School’s first Key Club. In fact I am one of the few who is starting it and am running for president. We have about fifteen people joining and almost half of them are running for office. However, it doesn’t sound like anyone is running for president besides me. I hope so because I really want to be president. Kui was sitting next to me at the meeting and when they handed out the papers she leaned across the table and whispered to me “Vanessa, you run for president and I’ll run for vice president and then we’ll get Tammy to run for treasurer.” So we all did and after the meeting I stayed behind to talk to the people helping us found the club and talked to them for a while. I think they were very impressed by this because I was the only one to do so. Of course that is what I wanted to accomplish in doing this so I was happy. The entire group also got invited to go to another meeting for all of the clubs and Kui and I decided to go. We were the only teens there and everyone was very impressed with us because our club wasn’t even officially started yet. They were joking that we would redo all of south Kihei but Kui and I knew that wasn’t too far from the truth! They also hinted that they were looking at the new president and vice president of Kihei’s Key Club as well as possible new council members. Kui and I were so happy we had gone! We also got to meet the mayor and had our picture taken with him. Overall we are off to a great start with the Key Club.
Okay, I know this is probably too early for a lot of you but I was also wondering what you all were doing for Halloween, specifically the crew of the Mari-Hal-O-Jen? What is Marianna going to be this year? Alex and I have the best idea ever! We are going to be gangsters from the 20’s with the pinstripe suits, Tommy guns and fedora hats. Justin has also agreed to do it with us and so it will be Alex and I in skirts (maybe) and Justin in the middle in his suit. How cool is that!? I think Veronica has decided to be a flapper and where her green dress. Anyway, I really want to know what you all are doing so let me know.