I am a firm believer every kid needs a sport as a way to stay active.
We’ve been through a laundry list of them with Hadley and though a few have stuck, most have gone to the wayside. She definitely excels in individual sports and I had almost given up team sports altogether until I recently got called as the volleyball coach of our young women at church.
I was thrilled to connect with my former passion. Once upon a time, I lived and breathed volleyball in high school. In 12th grade, I was our school MVP and even landed in the Calgary Herald’s Hall of Fame with my picture in the newspaper. I went on to TA some classes in college and played in adult leagues in Salt Lake City.
I figured I could relive my glory years, brush up on my skills and impart my great wisdom upon these girls. Until after our first practice where my long-dormant plantar fasciitis flared up so badly after that I could barely walk for two days.
Glory days, over.
But I was most excited about bringing Hadley to volleyball practice with me to see if she took to it. And taken to it she has. In fact, I was pretty shocked just how good she was from the get-go so enrolled her in our some community volleyball classes with a couple of her church friends. I figured they’d just have weekly practices and be done with it.
But noooooooo. I was dismayed when I found out they also had weekly tournaments–not just one game but several back-to-back, taking up most of our Saturday mornings.
Because we’re not busy enough with Bode’s soccer games and my volleyball.
I’m all for getting in as much playing time as you can during the season but if you know volleyball, you know that it takes a good while to build your skill set, hence the reason why most programs don’t start until around fifth grade. And games really shouldn’t be in the formula until you have a firm foundation.
She had her first games a couple of weeks ago. I had a good chuckle when she emerged from her room wearing her sparkly sequined leggings (nothing like making a statement on Day 1).
The games were predictably painful but fun. Someone would get up to serve. Either 1) They’d miss or 2) Get it over and the other team would not be able to bump it back.
Out of the seven games they played, there were only a couple of rallies. Hadley’s team only won once and Bode couldn’t keep his eyes off the game.
On his DS, that is. Can’t blame the kid. It was a long morning.
But I was proud of how well Hadley did. At this age, they let the girls serve a lot closer to the net. You’d think that would help most of them get it over but nooooo. Hadley was the most consistent server in the group and out of probably 20 serves, she only missed one.
I’d say that’s the start of a promising future in volleyball.
I’ll be the one limping behind her.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 