Chemistry, team chemistry

How can you tell when a team has chemistry? The answer is, they just do.

You can see it, by their body language, the way they interact with each other, slap high fives, joke around, and even stretch.

On the other hand, you can also tell when a team doesn't, by those same elements.

Currently, we have four teams, comprised of players who go to different schools, and I'd say the team chemistry is somewhere in between the two state above. Not as good as it could be, but then again, not as bad as it could be either.

Now how to improve?

Last year, I feel like I was spoiled by the teams we had.

For the first time, students from DeMarillac participated in athletics at St. Mary's and they pretty much fit in from day one.

Most notably, I remember being at a volleyball practice at Chinese Playground (Willie Woo Woo Wong to your young pplz..) with the then 8th grade girls, and watched them mingle and mesh with the four girls from DeMarillac. You would've never guessed that these girls didn't even know each other 10 days ago.

It seemed like they were friends since they were born.

For the guys, I remember the two boys on the basketball team who played with the Red Team, and how they joked around with each other, and poked fun at each other as if they were in the same class.

And that's what it's all about in the end, the friendships and relationships that you make, and the experiences you go through in athletics. Winning is the cherry on top to the friends that you make.

But why do I bring up team chemistry right now? That is because I feel that it is lacking currently in our teams.

Little things like words of encouragement to the boy or girl that you don't know very well that doesn't go to your school goes a long way.

Teaching or showing someone who you are just trying to get to know, how to do something right, something subtle is the first step.

Last season, when I watched our teams, you couldn't tell who went to which school. But this year, whether it's people being shy or scared, you could see the difference. A group huddles here to stretch, while the other huddle over here.

It shouldn't be this way.

When you play on a sports team, one of the hardest things a coach or manager to do is to juggle the personalities. The same can be said for players as we do tend to forget that everybody playing is actually a human being.

If personalities fit well with each other, and everybody on the team is everybody else's best friend, guess what, it's going to be a lot easier to go out there and play relaxed. After all, it's a lot easier making a mistake with a friend of yours next to you than someone you don't know so well.

Right now, we are still very early in the season as the boys and girls on the teams have known each other really for just a few weeks, and even in the few weeks, it's limited time during practice and games.

I hope this post will raise some awareness to coaches and players, and show them that we need to encourage more team camaraderie and togetherness.

Sports at this level is not just about sports, but helping you develop socially, how to make friends and interact, meeting people you don't know and building a relationship, working with them.

St. Mary's is a very small school, and making the jump from a class of 15-20 to a class of a few hundred is going to be very intimidating for some. What better way to start making new friends than here playing sports?

Hopefully by the end of the season, if not earlier, everybody on every team can be each other's BFFL (best friend for life).