This girls volleyball team is chasing another winning season — without a gym

Last fall, the varsity girls volleyball team at Aqsa School in Bridgeview, Illinois, made it to the Illinois High School Association regionals, but lost. This year, the team is heading into the playoffs, hoping to go all the way, but it continues to face one big hurdle: It still doesn’t have a gym.

In fact, the nonprofit Islamic school has been without a proper gymnasium for physical education classes or after-school sports since it was built in 1986.

Volleyball coach Jeanine Askar, an alum of Aqsa School, started coaching last year. The season was successful despite the lack of resources, but the team didn’t use it as an excuse.

“Whatever we had to do, we did to get by. We would go outside; we’d go to parks when weather permitted,” she said. “And if it wasn’t, we’d practice in