For the middle school team, it’s Family Night on the baseline introduction ceremony, and for the two older teams, it’s Besties Night 🌙.
To define Besties, that is for the players to invite people that are part of their lives to join them on the court. See, for the first few matches, I have been dictating who stands with them ( Moms, Dads, grandparents, and siblings), but tonight they get to choose !
It can be someone from one of the first four categories or just their Best Friend(s). The energy in our introduction process all three times sets the tone in regard to the positive energy in the building !
I will not utter a single word to disrespect our guests tonight because that is not what this is about, not even a little. The reason why is those little girls / young ladies all belong to someone as well. Their parents work for a living, just like ours do and they drove down, bought a ticket 🎟 to watch their pride and joy play volleyball 🏐.
Please notice the excitement that I add every time one of our players scores a point but also notice that nothing is said when we get a point because of an error made by a Bobcat.
Again, my absolute favorite part of working with Cundy Edwards is she holds a prayer circle 🔵 and invites the other team to join in because it is the Christian ✝️ thing to do. It’s my job to both Amp up or kiddos and protect theirs.
I will add one more thought process on the subject. The young lady who just hit the ball into the net is well aware that she made a mistake and let her team down. Do we really need to taunt her by shouting or chanting, ” There’s a net there”?????
Using a different approach, here I will select Mr Painter ( Heidi’s Dad ) as my example. I’m not sure that over the past four years, we have exchanged 100 words, but we have made eye contact, and I believe that he is appreciative of my efforts to add joy to his little girls game day experience. It’s a mutual respect thing that goes unspoken, and I value that a great deal.
The next step to that is this: What would any parent in the gym tonight come home from work and find their little girl crying 😢. Coach Edwards tells me that Mr Painter is a farmer out near me, which means he understands what it is to put in a hard day of work.
When you find out that the emotional well-being of the pride and joy of your life is crying because she got an answer wrong in class and the teacher led a chant of, ” You’re the Dumb Kid, You’re the Dumb Kid. And then the others joined in…..
Yes, it is exactly that. Bullying is bullying and it’s NEVER cute or okay. It’s just not.
Here in a few hours, I will get dressed 👗 and head over to The Hill to host three volleyball matches and I will do EVERYTHING within my power 💪 to make the night as enjoyable as possible for everyone who walks through the gym door 🚪. At the end of the night, I hope I have said, ” How ’bout them Lady Cavaliers ” three times. But if not, I will still feel good for trying hard to put an umbrella of protection over as many current and future Lady Cavaliers + Bobcats as possible !
I’m already excited about the number of fans that might be there at 4:30 !!!
