On the evening of July 7, the "Village VA" in Wenchang, Hainan will usher in a new round of competition, and fans and villagers will rush to the scene to watch the game.
As a matter of fact, volleyball is a national sport for Wenchang people. Every night, villages gather together to kill the ball, and people from 80 to several years old gather on the sidelines to watch. On the basis of a large-scale mass, "Hainan Volleyball Watching Wenchang" is famous.
On the evening of June 30th this year, the "99 Cup" Hainan (Wenchang) Township Volleyball League was officially opened in 2023. There are 52 games in this competition, with 17 local township teams and 3 teams from other cities and counties participating.
The contestants are all "grassroots players" in various towns and villages, so this competition is also called "Village VA" by the public. Among the players, some have made a name for themselves in Wenchang, and everyone knows them, just like local "star players". Fu Xiangming from Dongjiao Town participated in the first national nine-a-side volleyball competition on behalf of Hainan Province, and Fu Yongjin University from Longlou Town won the first place in the country when playing volleyball.
Fu Shu of Huiwen Town is 61 years old. He has played volleyball all his life and was once the main setter of Huiwen Team. Unable to bounce in his old age, he retired to the position of coach. In his memory, Wenchang volleyball has been playing hot since the 1960s. My parents pulled a rope between two coconut trees and used the coconut as a ball.
"Volleyball is my whole youth." Fu Yongzhen said. For many Wenchang people, volleyball is a sport that melts in the blood of bones and accompanies them all their lives.
The following is their self-report:
Volleyball scene. Figure/provided by respondents
[1] Fu Yongjin, Longlou Town
I am now a volleyball coach in Haikou. This year, people in the town called me back to participate in the "Village VA", and I said no problem. Come from Haikou when there is a game, and you won’t feel bitter. How can sports be afraid of suffering?
In primary school, there were many events for us to choose from in physical education class. I chose volleyball at once and have been playing volleyball ever since.
Sometimes I play at school, sometimes I draw a line in the sand and start playing. We don’t have regular teammates either. When the time comes, everyone will spontaneously gather and play freely. Children, students, adults, the elderly, from a few years old to more than 60 years old. Everyone’s occupations are also varied, including catching fish, touching shrimp and selling vegetables. Everyone really loves volleyball and can play all night, even until one or two in the morning.
I later went to Wenchang Middle School, joined the school volleyball team and won the third place in the country. The university is also playing volleyball and won the first place in the country. I’m good at hitting people out of bounds, which is all accumulated over the years. Volleyball has occupied my whole youth.
After graduation, I wanted to do something for my hometown volleyball career, and then I came back to become a volleyball coach.
The conditions of volleyball now are much better than before. In the past, we used to have a concrete floor, but now it is a plastic floor. Although the conditions are better, I feel that children’s enthusiasm for volleyball is not as high as I was when I was a child, which may also be related to the more developed mobile phones and networks and the more things that everyone contacts. So when I lead the team, I will control the time when they go out to play, and at the same time strengthen all aspects of training.
When teaching, I will be very happy to meet students with good talents. Those with good talents should be trained hard, and those with bad talents should be strengthened.
I am very proud to learn that Wenchang will hold the "Village VA" this year. Last week, our competition in Longlou Town was full and the atmosphere was hot. I’ve been to this before.Between town and townThe game, but the attention is not as high as this time. Looking at so many spectators at the scene, to be honest, our mood must be higher.
When we are on the field, we definitely want to win. Everyone wants to win. At present, our goal is to reach the top four first.
Players in our town range from 15 to 40. As long as you are from this town, you can participate as long as you can play ball, and you won’t get an age card. It has really achieved national sports. I sincerely hope that "Village VA" can be held every year.
Wenchang is the hometown of volleyball, and our skills are excellent. The local government also supports volleyball very much. I hope to take this opportunity to let more people see Wenchang volleyball, and I hope that volleyball will become more popular.
On June 30th, Longlou Town played against Changsa Town. Figure/source network
[2] Dongjiao Town xu feng
Our team in the eastern suburbs has always been the best in Wenchang. People like to play volleyball more than other places, and many people play all night. The phrase "Wenchang volleyball looks at the eastern suburbs" was spread in the 1990s.
I am 43 years old. I work in Chunguang Coconut Factory. I will come out to play in the afternoon and evening when I have nothing to do. I don’t need to organize a game. I will play as many people as I want. When there are less than a dozen people, when there are many, there are one or two hundred people, all of whom gather on the sidelines and wait for the rotation.
Playing ball was taught by myself when I was a child. How can anyone teach me? Watch those adults play, and we will play next to them. I used to play every day, and I played for four or five hours every day. If I played too much, I became "famous" when my skills went up.
I received the notice of the game a month ago. In recent years, I have played in Wenchang competitions, big and small, and we often win the first prize in the eastern suburbs. People from other teams basically know me. My style of playing ball is fierce, my spike and strength are great, and I am easy to remember.
Our eastern suburbs are older as a whole, all of them are old players, and the youngest is in their twenties and thirties. You don’t have to practice before the game. You have been practicing for 30 years before the game. What are you practicing now? Just go up and call.
[3] Fu Fanghuan in Tanniu Town
In my impression, the volleyball atmosphere here is particularly strong, and almost every village has a volleyball court. We are a red land here, and pulling a net directly on the ground is the venue, where adults play volleyball every day. Influenced by my predecessors, I started playing volleyball when I was around 9 years old. I played with my peers or my brother who was a few years older than me.
Now it’s often after 7 pm to play volleyball here. It’s cool. When I was a child, the conditions of playing ball were not as good as now. There were no lights in the open field, so I played in the afternoon. It’s hot in Hainan during the day, but everyone is very enthusiastic, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s hot or not. We children often pick up some unwanted nets replaced by adults, find a place to pull them, draw a line on the ground with our feet and start playing.
The school also supports us to play volleyball, and almost every class will buy one or two volleyball.
I have good jumping ability and explosive power, and I am a setter in the team. We haven’t studied volleyball specially, but I will watch and imitate the players who play well by myself. But I am not tall. When I was in middle school, I especially envied them for being tall and playing volleyball well, and being able to participate in school competitions.
I studied in a foreign university. The volleyball culture there is not as strong as Wenchang. We couldn’t get together a volleyball class, so I learned football. After graduation, I went back to work in Wenchang and played badminton, but I always liked volleyball. Usually, on holidays, a volleyball match will be organized in the village and town, and we all participate.
In March this year, I heard about the "Village VA". Our town attaches great importance to this matter, and when I was asked to attend, I immediately agreed.
I think this event is really well done. First of all, he chose the weekend night, and many people have time to attend and watch it. In addition, the weekly games are held in one place, so fans can watch them all at once, and there is no need to go to one place in a game. Some fans really watch every game. Finally, many booths were set up at the competition site to show their specialties to various towns, which I think played a very good publicity effect.
I went to the opening ceremony last week, and I was very excited. The slogan of our Tanniu town is: I love volleyball, we are the best!
We will play in Tanniu town next week. Our players are of different ages, both older and younger than me. We are looking forward to it, but we will not predict the ranking. If you want to win, others want to win, right? We will try our best to play every game well. If you are good enough, you will win if you play well. As the saying goes, "Friendship comes first, competition comes second". Of course, we still have some goals, for example, now we are playing the game with the goal of qualifying for the group.
[4] Fu Shu of Huiwen Town
I am 61 years old and I am the volleyball coach of Huiwen Team.
I started playing when I was very young. My father played on the court and I played beside the court. At the earliest time, there was no volleyball and net. Everyone pulled a thread between two coconut trees, which was the net, and used coconut as a ball to play. They used to play as a team and they would "fight sheep". Which team won the first place and got a goat.
When I was a child, I squatted by the court and watched it. Later, I went to school. There was volleyball in the school and I began to learn to play serious volleyball. I especially liked it. In 1983, I have been playing volleyball since I came back from school. During the day, I was a farmer, raising fish and shrimp, and at night I went to play ball. I have been playing volleyball all my life.
In the past, I was the main setter of the Huiwen team and participated in many competitions in the city on behalf of the Huiwen team. Now that I am too old to jump, I retired as a coach for eleven years.
Now that the internet is developed, I don’t like playing mobile phone and watching TV at home. I go to the stadium every night, and volleyball is my main entertainment. A few years ago, many people of our age were still playing on the court. In the past two years, they are too old to jump, so they just cushion the ball and upload it, so they can’t play in big games.
Recently, in the "Jiujiu Cup", every night around 8 o’clock, people in our town will play on the village courts. Children from a few years old to people in their eighties are all watching the ball on the sidelines, which is very lively. When they come, they can feel the atmosphere.
We have had quite a lot of volleyball matches in Wenchang. In previous matches, we won the second place in the city. This is a relatively big event. My goal is to make it to the quarter-finals at least and to "fight hard". This week, we will play at home. For this game, we also selected some good players from the town, and the players are in a particularly good state now.
Nine-faction journalist Wang Yiran Wen Yanli
Editor Wu Di
[Breaking the news] Please contact the reporter WeChat: linghaojizhe
[Source: Jiupai News]
