For two months, band freshman Jamie Lynch played on the Dreyfoos girls volleyball team, practicing four days a week and competing in numerous games and matches. After the season ended, Lynch continued to participate in volleyball for another eight months with her travel volleyball league, Palm Beach Juniors.

Lynch has been playing with Palm Beach Juniors for three years. As a freshman, she has just begun to learn the ropes of participating in a competitive high school sport. This year, however, Lynch has learned to balance her school volleyball and her travel volleyball, which has proved to be very demanding.

“I have a tournament every other weekend, usually in Miami, Orlando or Ft. Lauderdale,” Lynch said. “They’re two days and at the most eight hours. The first day is pool play, which [is where] you’re in a pool of four teams and you play each team in your pool. That determines what bracket you will be in for the next day.”

Two to three times a week, Lynch practices at Lake Worth Christian High School and Atlantic Christian Academy.

“Coaches try and get you into shape so when you have all day tournaments you can last the whole day and not run out of energy,” Lynch said. “We do a lot of conditioning.”

At the end of every season in the Palm Beach Junior league, coaches hold a banquet where they present players on the team with awards they earned during the season. During her time with Palm Beach Juniors, Lynch has won two awards, both in leadership and performance as an outside hitter.

“The level of play in club [travel volleyball] is a lot higher than at school,” Lynch said. “I like travel [volleyball] because it’s a lot smaller teams and it’s kind of fun to be with a different group of people then the school team.”