Photo by Gelu Iancu on Unsplash
“Sorry, I’m late guys,” Sarah said as she hustled through the afternoon heat to where the rest of her friends waited beside the oversize statues of Wilt Chamberlain, famous for playing basketball and volleyball, and Jim Thorpe who played everything as well as being descended from the Sac and Fox Nation. “Henry was late picking up the babies again.”
Richard shook his head. “Next time, just bring the kids. That bastard needs to learn to respect you and your time.”
“Yeah, we can tag team the kids,” John assured her. “They are under five so they get in free.”
“Thanks guys, but, one, he didn’t respect me before the divorce, so that isn’t going to change. And, two,” Sarah continued, “I want time off from being a parent now that the nursing stage is done. The next five days is just me and he can discover time management when the daycare slaps him with the fines of showing up late for pickup.”
“Those ain’t no joke,” Alex said as she started walking toward the stadiums entrance when the lines were streaming in, getting them all moving. “My bosses are learning I am not going to pay the $25 per half hour late charge just to get a measly $15 in time and a half.”
“Ugh, Janice and me have been discussing her going back to work full-time instead of us tag-teaming the childcare, but I had totally forgotten the late charges. We are going to need to discuss it some more.” Richard jogged up the stairs, bypassing the slow movement of people on the ramps. Their tickets weren’t exactly nosebleed tier, but the fourth rank of seats were just under them strategically chosen to be near an air conditioning vent. “She really wants to get back into the workforce now that we are done having our children.”
“Have you thought about letting her be fulltime and taking over as the primary caregiver?” John asked. “Me and Vanda have ended up much better off now that she is full-time and I’ve been able to score work-from-home. Only one car, no need for suits since her nursing job provides the uniforms. Gas prices don’t matter. I’ve lost weight and gained muscle mass since I’m not eating out and can actually use all that gym equipment in the casino next door. Our bills are like half of what they were.”
“Row 35,” Alex said as they arrived at the green-west section as she did every time, like their season tickets could change location. Reaching their row, they nodded to the other Firebird fans in their section under the Nevada Casino Association dome. As they crossed legs, she read the big screen, “Oh, they did lacrosse yesterday. Drat.”
“You just like seeing Pumehana hip-checking the guys on the field,” John accused.
“They fall over so nicely with their high center of gravity, but she likely won’t be in the eighteen for today if they did lacrosse yesterday.”
Richard stayed at the edge waiting for everyone to sit. “Two popcorns, one boiled peanuts, and celery with dip for the diet guy. Maribel, Patrick,” he asked the two people we just all crawled over, “do you want anything?”
Maribel lifted her cheese dip and pretzels, indicating they were good.
“Hey, down to two fifty.” John answered. “And yes. I already venmo’ed you the money and Hasty should get us our beers after the coin flip.”
Richard made his way to the nearby food station while the rest of us settled in to see what rosters had been chosen for today’s Air Ball game. Each Air Ball team had 24 members, but only 18 were allow to be fielded per game day. And since you didn’t know which of the three types of air ball games were going to be played until the coin flip, the coach choices could make or break the day. Twenty-four members, four coaches, and just twenty additional support staff like medical made teams lean and carefully chosen for maximum versatility.
Except for the Jim Thorpe Firebirds. The Casino Association went for a different draw other than winning. Each person, including the support staff, had to be First Nation to the Americas or born in Nevada. The team usually ended up at the middle of the standings each year, but damn were their fans a loyal bunch.
With lacrosse already played, today’s coin flip would be for either Volleyball or Baseball. Walker, the head coach for the Firebirds, likely won the flip yesterday. She knew the hometown team loved seeing lacrosse played, with its links to First Nations, so that is the perfect Sunday choice. Most other teams liked to play lacrosse last since that had more injuries and having Thursday to Saturday travel gave them time to recover.
“Looks like Walker is betting on a Baseball choice,” Sarah said after seeing the faces flashing on the big marquee. “But the Manitoba Grackles are set up for Volleyball. Oh, that isn’t going to go well for the Firebirds with the Grackles get the flip.”
“Nah, it should be fine.” Alex disputed. “Looks like the Grackles dipped heavy into the male side of the team yesterday. Walker is too predictable. I think that is their entire female group. Yep ten women plus eight guys for them.”
Rules required at least one third of each team be male and one third female, including in the coach and support staff. The final third could be any gender and the Firebirds tried to fill that with as many two-souls as they could find interested in professional sports. The rules also required the gender split for the daily eighteen choice, but if someone wasn’t picked for the first day, they would have to be play the other two days. No one was allowed to sit out more than one of the three days of an Air Ball tournament, meaning six players did a grueling three days of gameplay. Medical leave added more complications to the chessgame of who should play when since teams are not allowed to modify their team after the official season begins. Right now, with just two more weeks left in the regular season, the Firebirds were down three players. Notah, their tallest guy and an incredible spiker for the volleyball game, but couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn in baseball; he was on a three-week rest from a concussion during lacrosse. “Taffyhouse” covered first base, did the back line in volleyball, and wing in lacrosse; she came down officially pregnant midseason, though everyone had known since May, and they finally pulled her from the lineup last week when her belly ballooned during her eighth month. Colorado didn’t even finish their first game; the hamstring tear benched them for the season. The debate is if the Fireballs make playoffs whether Colorado should be allowed on the field. Six months of regular season matched the doctor’s orders. In the end, it is up to Colorado. A retear likely would cripple them for life.
Teams arrived on the field about the time Richard returned with the snacks. The support staff of both teams stood by the materials to adjust the field to be baseball or three courts of volleyball. The two mascots gestured insults across the field to brag about which one could set up their portion of the field faster. In the middle gathered the referees and the coaches.
The guests always got to choose which they wanted, heads or tails. The Grackle coach called Heads and got his wish. “Volleyball.”
“Yes,” Richard hissed.
Of the four friends, he loved volleyball the most, having played center, front row in both high school and college. He hadn’t a lick of skill at baseball, so joining a professional Air Ball team hadn’t been in the cards.
While the support group rush out with the nets and lining materials, the coaches broke up their eighteens into three groups of six. Volleyball was the least forgiving of all the Air Ball options because all eighteen of the roster played. If anyone got even minorly injured, there were no substitutes available. Three groups would play best of three. Group one would start and go until a timeout was called and then immediately group two would start and so on until all three groups had one of the teams win two games.
If one team won all three games, then the tournament would end there. Otherwise, the coaches would need to separate the eighteen down into two teams of six, with their remaining six most exhausted, injured, or worst players sitting out the final battle. The two new groups would face off and each play best three out of five. Then whichever team had the most wins of the five tournaments would win the Air Ball game. The second set of volleyball faceoffs were absolutely grueling for the players.
The Grackles set up the groups as a set of male spikers and then two teams of poppers. Walker balanced all three teams with spikes and pops. The big choice for her was lining up Billy “Deliverance” Elk against the spikers with Marisa “Postal” Page as the server, and it worked as the spikers try to send Postal’s serves back to sender only to have Deliverance set things up to make sure the ball stayed in the box. Things flashed through group one with the Firebirds clearly winning through strategy, even through the Grackles should have overpowered them.
Group two paced each other with some exchanging taking the maximum five contacts before returning over the net. The rallies last long and everybody’s hair was soaked to the ends before the first round was finished.
Group three was made of the leftover of both teams and some ways was the most amusing to watch. This was why people love the Air Ball league, good athletes, but not in their physically best sport, trying their best. Mistakes were made – balls sent to high, spiked to the someone able to immediately return it, angles going wrong. It was beautiful chaos. These were the baseball specialists – the pitchers, the catchers, the homerun kings and queens, the short stop, asked to keep a huge bouncing ball in the air. To bounce around in small squares instead of run in long lines.
At the end of the first sets, the Grackle spikers won two of the three they played, the Firebirds took the strategy in just two games and got to rest, and the leftovers had two of their games go into overtime and ended with the Grackles taking the two overtimes and the Firebirds winning the middle game decisively.
Now the coaches redistributed the eighteen down to two teams of six with two substitutes for the next set of best three out of five. If the Grackles won either of those set, they won overall. The Firebirds would have to win.
The fans had fifteen minutes before things restarted.
“I’m going to go to the bathroom.” Alex stood.
“Right behind you.” Sarah said joining her.
Richard looked at John. “Rock paper scissors to see who stays.”
“Nah, I didn’t finish my beer. You go,” John said.
(Words 1859; first published 3/22/2026)
