Chew ‘Em Up Lions

The Gerlach high school challenges DPW to volleyball

The Gerlach Lady Lions

This is a small town, and it would be impossible for the locals to ignore all these DPW kids roaming around with strange haircuts and black clothes. In truth, I think we provide them a little entertainment, you know?

A week or two ago, it was announced at our morning meeting that the Gerlach High volleyball team – the girls’ volleyball team – had challenged us to a tournament.

Needless to say, we took the challenge as seriously as we possibly could. We planned extensively: what are we going to wear? Who has zombie makeup? What cars should we drive into the high school parking lot in order to create as much disruption as possible?

However, all that planning might have distracted us from practicing volleyball.

That’s why, one week ago, the Lady Lions wiped the floor with our asses. Granted, we don’t have a net or a coach, and some of our players don’t have shoes; however, DPW’s team was mostly male and almost all over 25. You’d think we would have beat them through physical prowess alone. And besides, we were motivated. Our team really tried to play as well as possible…

Still, it was a sad defeat. Gluttons for punishment that DPWers are, we decided to set up a rematch for this afternoon. Jalapena kept the effort organized: every day during this past week, our team spent their lunch break practicing for the Big Game. They stood in a big circle on the playa and yelled, “mine! mine!” when the ball came their way; whenever it happened to bounce into a truckbed, everyone cried, “GOOOOOAL!” Oh yes, the game was on.

Long story short. Click here for video of the DPW Monkeys practicing their moves outside Gerlach High.

Once again, those girls creamed us – but this time it was definitely not as easy. Shoes or no shoes, DPW pulled out a few good moves, and we were even leading for a few points in the first game. We lost three out of three, but we were totally expecting that.

We happily presented the girls with a trophy: a huge chunk of jasper from the petrified forest. And then we all went to Joe’s, where the coach bought us a sympathy round. All’s well that ends well, right?

About the author: The Hun

The Hun

The Hun, also known as J.H. Fearless, has been blogging for Burning Man (and many other outlets) since 2005, which is also the year she joined the BRC DPW on a whim that turned out to be a ten-year commitment. Since then she's won some awards for blogging, built her own creative business, and produced some of the Burning Blog's most popular stories and series. She co-created a grant-funded art piece, "Refoliation," in 2007, and stood next to it watching the Man burn on Monday night during a full lunar eclipse. She considers that, in many ways, to have been the symbolic end of Burning Man that was. The Hun lives in Reno with DPW Shade King, Quiet Earp. You may address her as "The Hun" or "Hun". If you call her "Honey" she reserves the right to cut you.