Hey Everybody!

My Name is Jordan and I’m an Outside Hitter for the Youth National Team. So far our trip in Turkey has been amazing, full of exciting experiences that opened our eyes to not only new styles of play but also different cultures. Today was no exception!

We started our day with the mindset that we had to beat Egypt to secure a 3-0 performance in our last match of pool play. We were already guaranteed a first-place finish in our pool but if we learned anything while playing at the World Championship it was that the highest respect you can pay any opponent- regardless of skill- is playing your best game against them. Being the competitive players that we all are- we planned to bring it!

We ended up winning the match 3-0 but Egypt brought their A-game and like all other teams we have played so far, they were relentless in their fire and intensity on the court and their fight- regardless of the score they were chugging away and staying in the match. To give you an idea, the score of the third game was 30-28!!! I respect them greatly for their attitudes on the court!

After the match, our coaches gave us the treat of being able to watch a later match in the other gym between China and Turkey. The circumstances of this match were awesome!!

-Both teams were undefeated, and already guaranteed a spot in the final four.

-Turkey was the home team and the crowd was INSANE!!!

-China had beaten us in the first round of pool play 3-1… (Which makes our team innately want them to do as well as possible so that we can say we lost to the eventual champions!)

Now I honestly don’t know how to begin describing the atmosphere in the gym. Imagine hundreds of Turkish flags waving in the air, two massive drums leading cheers that are so loud they make you almost want to wear ear plugs (Heath actually did :P), and thousands of Turkish citizens that are crazy about volleyball and carry a immense pride for their country that we were all shell shocked by. When the Turkish national anthem started playing, I actually got shivers- I felt like the whole country of Turkey was singing along… the respect that Turkish people carry for their country is amazing, breathtaking, and eye-opening!

Once the match started, we were in heaven… great volleyball and a breath-taking gym atmosphere; it doesn’t get much better than that! The actual match was amazing, both teams fought a hard match and it was great to see some awesome volleyball. On rare occasions do we as Americans get to see international volleyball at such a high level and I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity! I have to say that I have a new idol- #1 from Turkey! She is an Outside Hitter who has a court attitude and presence that rivals the best that I have seen at this Youth level. Paulina and I were captivated by her play and I’m hoping that I get to watch her again! Both teams had many individuals that were amazing players but what stood out to us more than anything else was the comradery and the ‘we rather than I’ attitude that both teams possessed.

I had an experience, in that respect, that I will never forget- and I think all of us really learned from:

In both game one and game two, the top player on the Chinese team had a rough start, so the coach subbed her out. In about the middle of the second game, that player started to cry and walked back to the sub box. Now the captain on the team was also in the sub box--- she was NOT a starter! That’s right, the captain RARELY steps foot on the court! When the crying player walked into the sub box, the captain pulled her aside and started to give her “The Talk”. I wish you all could have seen it--- the captain ate that girl up… she gave her absolutely no sympathy and she was relentless; it didn’t matter how much she cried, the captain didn’t stop until she was sure that her star player had her head on straight and was ready to step back on the court. Now get this- game three, the teams switch sides, the crying player gets back on the floor and she burns it up!!! The idea of roleplaying really came across to me at that moment. The captain of the Chinese team is definitely one of the best teammates I have ever seen. The fate of the team is what matters to her- NOT her individual performance. She completely understands and respects her role on the team. If not for her conversation with her star Outside Hitter, they may not have won that match. She played her role incredibly and did so without even stepping on the court. It was inspiring!

We left the match right as the third game was stolen by China, who was down 24-19 and came back to win 26-24! The fight that these teams possess once again blew me away! We all celebrated as we left because we were hoping for China to win!

An important piece to this equation that I have left out, is that Turkey provides each country with a host or a guide that accompanies the team everywhere they go. Our guides name is Sarcan, and over the past 10 days we have all grown to be very close to him. I described earlier the intense pride that Turkish citizens have for their country and the following events couldn’t show it any better:

Previously Sarcan had told us that if Turkey was to play America, he would cheer for America… this act of respect and friendship was HUGE, the idea that he would support us- even after just having met us- instead of his home country was incredible! We all realized the respect that he had for us and we were growing to really treasure our relationship with him. Unfortunately, tonight we really disrespected him.

During the China/ Turkey match, we all cheered for China. They had beaten us previously so our culture has taught us to support them so that we can say that we lost to the team that ended up doing very well- an idea that probably seems very logical to everyone reading this. Now you have to remember that Sarcan was with us spectating the match and he obviously wanted his home country, Turkey, to win. Furthermore, he was expecting us to be rooting for Turkey. He had enough respect for us to say that he would cheer for the US instead of his home country if we were to play each other, but we didn’t even have the cultural awareness to see what it would mean to Sarcan when we didn’t support his country. After the match, our host was distraught and we learned after that he was deeply saddened by the fact that we didn’t have the same respect for him that he had for us.

Our whole team was beside ourselves and our eyes were opened immensely by the pride that the Turkish people have for their country and the lack of cultural awareness that we all possessed. He didn’t see it as one team playing another- he saw it as his country playing another country. When we didn’t support his country, we were taking a stab at his heart. The fact that we didn’t show respect to the cultures surrounding us made us all painfully aware of our selfish behavior and we all learned a HUGE lesson because of it. More than anything, I think we all learned how important it is to recognize and respect the differences between our own culture and the cultures surrounding us.

I believe that in that moment, we all represented the ‘ugly Americans’ that other countries sometimes stereotype us foreigners as. It was unfortunate that we had to promote this view of Americans before we were able to see how true that image can be. Regardless, I’m very happy that we had this experience because I’m sure that in our future international experiences, we will all be much more culturally aware!

Overall, today was an amazinnnggg day; somewhat sad and dis-heartening but at the same time, very eye-opening. Our entire trip has been filled with days similar to today! I’m sure that we will return to the U.S. as better volleyball players and better people. Tomorrow we have an off day but the day after that we play Mexico! Let’s get um!!!!!!

GO USA!!!!!

Until next time J

Jordan Burgess