frenemies

tonight i have a volleyball match against the university of tulsa and it made me think about the term "frenemies."  playing volleyball, or any sport for that matter, you meet a lot people and make a lot of friends, whether it is the people you are playing with or the people you are playing against.  i have been playing sports since the second grade so you can imagine how many people i have met and how many friends i have made over the years.  on tulsa's volleyball team alone, i played club and high school volleyball with and against three of the girls on the team, as they are also from oklahoma (mugshots above).  what i find interesting about the friendships one often makes through playing sports is the friends you make that are your competition.  off the court you could be the best of friends and get along very well, but on the court, these are the people that i find i am most competitive with.  it's almost like i know who they are as a person, whether it be good or bad, and that somehow motivates me to want to play better so i can outplay them.  i guess it's just due to my long history of sports, but for some reason when there is a familiar face on the other side of the net i get even more competitive than usual.  frenemies is the best and only term i can think of for this situation.  i'm friends with all three of these girls until the stats come out for the weekend and then that competitive spirit comes out.  although i've made many friends through sports, they often remain competitors, first and foremost.