In 2010, this sport is 115 years old, there are more than 46 million Americans who play this sport, and there are 8oo million people who play this sport worldwide. What kind of amazing sport could keep so many people interested you ask? Not only my favorite sport, but also 800 million people worldwide love this sport as well. The game we play is volleyball. Whether you are playing on the beach with your pals or playing on a court with hundreds of people watching you, it’s great either way.
The game of volleyball originated in the United States, in 1895, when William G. Morgan, an instructor at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Massachusetts, decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball to create a new fun-filled game. He originally designed this game for his classes of businessmen thinking that it would demand less physical contact than basketball. Whenever he first created volleyball, he called it mintonette. He used the net in the middle of the court similarly to tennis, the only difference being that he raised it 6 feet 6 inches above the ground, which was just above the average man’s heighth. During a demonstration game, someone said to Morgan that the players seemed to be volleying the ball back and forth to each other. This is where the name “volleyball” came into play. The first game of volleyball was played on July 7, 1896 at Springfield College.
