VOLLEYBALL

So somehow in my 5+ years of writing this blog, I have failed to write about something that is a MAJOR part of my life: coaching volleyball.  I think it's high time I did it.

I LOVE volleyball.  But possibly even more than I love the game, I love coaching volleyball.  It takes a lot of my time--I figured that between practices, travel, coaching clinics and meetings, summer camps, open gyms, little kid camps and spring leagues, and other off-season work, I spend about 500 hours a year at this job.  Good thing I love it!!  I just finished my 9th consecutive year of coaching volleyball--one year as a 7th grade coach, one year as a freshman coach, and now 7 years as the assistant coach at Mountain View High School.  I assist my sister-in-law, Angela, who is an INCREDIBLE coach.  In her 10 years of being a head coach, she has been voted conference coach of the year 6 times.  She knows what she is doing, and I love helping her do it.  Also, for the past two years, we have been able to have Randi and Julie on our staff.  I didn't know them at all before coaching with them, and I have loved working with them.  They are great!

Although Angela and I have been at this for a long time, the team is different every year.  This is what keeps it fresh, fun, and challenging.  We have coached some great teams, but I want to focus this post on our team this year.  This is probably my most favorite team I have ever coached.  I absolutely ADORE the girls we had this year.  I've never known a group of kids who are so incredibly coachable.  They always put team before self, they consistently came to practice ready to compete, and they would do anything we asked of them.  Last year, we had a very young team with only two seniors and a bunch of girls that quite frankly, weren't ready for varsity quite yet.  They took their lumps, and we didn't win many games.  I often worried that they would become too discouraged and quit working hard.  They never did.  And the off-season commitment from these girls was incredible.  We had never seen so much commitment to open gyms, camps, and off-season workouts as we had this past year.  Not only did they show up, but they came every day with a great desire to change and improve.

 Finally, this fall they were able to experience SUCCESS.  We ended up winning our conference and then winning our regional tournament.  I feel like this team experienced a magic few teams ever get to experience.  Every single player was able to sustain her peak performance at the same time for the entire tournament.  After having coached for awhile, and watching sports for my entire life, I recognize this as a rare thing.  We only dropped one set in three matches at Regionals.  Incredible.

We made it to state after not qualifying for the past three years.  Although state tournament didn't go the way our girls had hoped, and they were absolutely devastated, I feel that this team truly accomplished something great this year.  The turnaround that they had in one year is amazing, and it is because of their work and dedication to their goals.  I am extremely proud of this team and, although sad about the way it ended, I will always remember the magic we experienced at regional tournament.

Something else that makes this team so special to me, is that our juniors this year were our little incoming 5th graders at summer camp the first year that Angela was the head coach here at MV.  I camped them that week and they were so fun and cute, and I got to see them fall in love with volleyball.  I told Angela that this class is going to be special.  Little did I know that I would feel this way about so many of our little girls at camp that are now coming up through our program.  It's so fun to see them grow into amazing young ladies and great volleyball players.  The moms decorated our bus for regional tournament, and this quote was hung in the front.  I thought it was absolutely perfect for this team.

Now it's time for a break from volleyball, but I will be cheering these girls on in their other sports, and will be ready and excited to get back to work when it is time. GO BUFFS!!!