Side Out

There are two Breakers Athletes that train in the evening hours for immortality. They seek this lofty form of remembrance by claiming a chunk of their opponents' hippocampus, a portion of the limbic system that can retain frightful experiences in order to better avoid predators. Like the alphas of a group of Velociraptors, Rachel and Nicole lead their squad with graceful strength and quickness that is only matched by their decisive orders and accompanied steely-eyed delivery.

The tenacious duo and their team, Net Assets, compete in the game formally known as Mintonette. Both versions of Volleyball, and 1980's beach fashion, were created just six years after and ten miles away from where another major team sport was founded at an adjacent YMCA. Shockingly, the Pro Beach Basketball Association (PBBA), lasted only two seasons and is currently only practiced in coastal Newfoundland.

Since its inception, the game of Volleyball, has demanded the necessary athletic blend of speed, agility and speed endurance; the skills and abilities needed to achieve, maintain and also explosively change high movement velocities. The speedy movements that are functional for volleyball are a manifestation of an athletes' strength and believe me, these two do not miss a weighted stair session or double dumbbell circuit. The multi-directional and complex deceleration and re-acceleration drills done on medicine-ball days don't hurt either in developing their athletic potential or the specific metabolic conditioning required for a full match.

Nicole and Rachel, Kerri and Misty, Carli and Karsta, these names invoke images of athletes that ritually put in hard training so they can earn joyous victory and place a specter of themselves inside the medial temporal lobe of the Vanquished.