Volleyball fun

This year I coached the middle school volleyball team. It was a challenge for me at first deciding if I was good enough to be a coach, wondering what I would do at practice, praying for patience to deal with the girls and hoping that I could successfully hide my fear of these pre-teen girls!

I have 17 girls on my team. They are a good group of girls and at the risk of sounding sentimental, I look at these kids and see all the possibilities for their futures. Even from the first few days I could pick out the kids that have unstable and even sometimes unsafe homes. My heart goes out to them. I feel so blessed to have had the childhood I had. I barely know these girls and I find myself wanting to give these girls some positive influence that they'll remember!

They've worked hard and we've had a lot of fun. They won their first 3 matches, then we tragically lost our 4th match to a really good team. There were many tears even before the game was over. It was good to lose because I could tell they were getting cocky. I was a little too happy that we lost. I was so excited I was up all night thinking about all the drills we could run to practice the skills we were lacking the day before. It was great! We lost a few more matches after that one, but it was wasn't so devastating for them. Less tears, but at least they didn't give up. They also starting working harder at practice. When we won our last two matches, I could tell the win was much sweeter to them! We have two matches left next week, then we will be done for the year.

I feel like I am constantly after the girls about something or another, but I haven't scared any away yet. They keep asking if I am going to coach their basketball team, or if I can coach their volleyball team next year. So I guess I haven't been too hard on them.

Its been a great learning experience for me. I've had to deal with various issues including:

• one bloody nose (1st game)


• 2 girls with pulled groin muscles


• 1 girl with back/shoulder issues


• 1 girl that seems to have an ailment worth crying about during every practice


• 1 girl that thinks people are always talking bad about them (same girl as #4 above)


• girls skipping practice and writing fake notes from their parents


• girls lying to me and to their parents


• girls with menstral cramps


• name calling/backstabbing


• giving equal playing time even if they aren't as good, aren't as committed... etc.


• boys hanging out in the gym during our practice after telling them to leave at least 5 times in one afternoon


• girls skipping games


• girls being physically abused by family members


• teaching that they win and lose as a team


• teaching personal responsibility instead of blaming someone else


• teaching them to support team members even when they don't feel like it


• teaching mental toughness


• teaching work ethic


• teaching respect for authority/coaches


• parents that force their kids to play


• parents that think I am too easy on the girls


• parents that feel sorry for me having to coach these girls!

This season has been a short 10 weeeks, but I feel as though the only coaching issue I haven't dealt with is "how come my daughter isn't getting more playing time?" I have to give each one equal playing time unless they have missed practice before the game. Then its pretty much up to my discretion of how much they play. The parents either don't care or they understand the equal playing time rule, so they don't bug me about it. My theory for the B team is that if they are excused by their parents from practice then I'll let them play in the game. I was talking with the amazing Coach Phil Neill and he said "but you need to add one thing to that rule... if they are your best player, you let them play, if they aren't, then you bench them!" I love it!

A few weeks ago I made volleyballs for the girls. It didn't take as long as I expected and they turned out really cute. Thank goodness for my mother's embroidery sewing machine!