ESTELLA HASSRICK
Madison, WI
emhassrick@gmail.com
https://teamestella.com/
I’ve been ski jumping for over a decade now, and have been part of a team every step of the way. From starting out with a crew of juniors at Blackhawk Ski Club, traveling the Midwest every weekend with the same families, being warmly welcomed in Steamboat, to now being a part of the national team, I have never been alone in the ski jumping community.
Of course, when you are with the same teammates for weeks on end, and maybe sharing a hotel room for way too long, there are certainly disagreements and annoyances. In the grand scheme of things, however, we’re a weirdly connected unit, relying on each other to navigate the complex nature of the sport. With that, there’s one thing that I would not have predicted to be the object that bonds together these various teams I’ve been a part of. That would be a volleyball.
I can’t remember when I started traveling with a volleyball, but it was at least four or five years ago now. Volleyball has been a common practice for warmups, fun summer afternoons, juggling it like a soccer ball, passing time during delayed competitions…the list goes on. I can picture a volleyball-related memory from 99% of the trips, competitions, and camps that I have been a part of. There always seems to be a volleyball lying around somewhere, and when there isn’t, its absence is almost always noted.
Oftentimes, we end up going on rescue missions to retrieve my volleyball from random rooftops and high-up places where it got stuck. I have watched my old and now-retired volleyballs: get punted so hard it exploded at 2020 Fly Camp, get flattened by a coach bus in Whistler at my first Junior Worlds, and have a slow leak that constantly had to be reinflated. It was a tragic loss each time, since we didn’t usually have a replacement (except at that Fly Camp, thanks to Trevor Edlund).
Those little moments of setting the perfect ball for your teammate to spike, vying to get each other out in warmup circles, getting smacked in the face time and time again, they all add up. In a way, it’s been our go-to form of team bonding. So, for all of our talented young, up-and-coming ski jumpers in the US, I highly recommend stuffing a volleyball in your ski bag because it will most definitely be worth the extra weight.
You can also Venmo this year! To donate, find us at @usaskijumping
Or send a check to:
USA Ski Jumping
PO Box 982331
Park City, UT 84098
