Sports In La Hoya

I’ve had a very busy couple of weeks. A group of American volunteers have been visiting La Hoya and running sports camps for the village’s youth: basketball for boys and volleyball for the girls. (I’ve developed the bad habit of referring to them as “The Americans”, not because they’re more American than others but because that’s what all the Dominicans here call them.) The volunteers didn’t speak Spanish, so all the COPA volunteers have been working as translators to help them run their camps.  I spent a Friday and Sunday working with Suraya, the woman who was running the girl’s volleyball camp.

I’ve also started practicing with the woman’s volleyball team, after their coach and one of the school’s PE teachers invited me to play. On Sunday, we all went to the nearby town of Cabral to play against Fundacion and Cabral

Practice was an interesting experience. Our warm-up lap is simply two loops around the central park in the middle of the village, with whoever’s outside watching. Not a lot happens in La Hoya, so volleyball practice tends to attract a small crowd of children and even adults who sit outside and watch. We warm up a little, do a few stretches and a couple drills, all in a semi-organised fashion while the team shout cat-calls and insults at Ares, the man who is nominally our coach, although whose control over the “team” of about 24 women seems tenuous at best. Then we’re split into four rough teams and play a rotating game, with the winner staying on and the losing team going off.  I say “rough teams” because women come and go as they pass babies around or lose interest. Play is regularly suspended as men, children, dogs, bicycles and babies wonder across the court, which is little more than a badly laid square of concrete in the parque. Everyone is inconsistent skill-wise. Most women are pretty good but don’t try particularly hard. I can see why, because while jumping high might get you the point, if you fall wrong on the concrete you could break your ankle and an injury like that could be life-threatening and very expensive here. Few women have had anything like consistent coaching. The games are regularly interrupted by someone who’s not on the team randomly joining play. The sides of the court aren’t equal in size and electrical wires hang over one end, making aiming your serve extra difficult. There are no painted lines, making disputes over in and out particularly fervent.

For younger girls, finding a ball to play with is a constant struggle. I often see girls attempting to play volleyball with semi-flat basketballs, an experience I find traumatising on my wrists.

There’s one basketball court in town, called “la cancha”, a big grass field called “el play” and the central parque near the town’s largest colmado. The women’s volleyball practice is held in the central parque, basically a flat area of concrete vaguely in the centre of the village. Practice “starts” at 4 and “finishes” at 6, but these numbers are lies made up by Dominicans to trick foreigners, as are all times in this country.  Practice actually starts at 4:30 or 5 and usually doesn’t finish until 7, although different women play throughout practice, as different people show up, are called away to look after babies or simply wander off. Our practice on Wednesday was paused momentarily when a 7^th grader stole our volleyball and Ares was needed to go chasing after him. Although Ares referees our games, we occasionally have to pause when his phone rings or a friend of his drives by. To serve from one side of the “court” you have to step off the parque and into the street, keeping a wary eye out for motorbikes, children on bicycles and dogs.

People play sports in whatever clothes they think might work, which can be anything from a dress and flip-flops to neon green leggings and a tank top. Most women play in hairnets, although some play in curlers or head clothes. Most seem to just play in their normal day clothes and although Ares expressively forbids wearing sandals to practice, he’s mostly ignored.

Even with all these difficulties and problems, sports are really a passion here. There’s also a men’s softball team and baseball team here in La Hoya and a men’s basketball team. Boys spend their spare time playing basketball, girls volleyball and both genders basterdized versions of baseball, called “pelota” (literally translating as “ball”) here in the south.

I’m really looking forward to playing more with the woman’s volleyball team. Although practice is not nearly as demanding as I remember practice being at ISA, it comes with its own share of dangers!