Presidents Day Classic

Some days I wonder who this person is, my 14-year-old daughter.

I always thought we were very alike, but I think I was wrong. True, we are similar in many ways. Between the two of us, there are never any awkward silences at our house. And who else would be my Dr. Who and Castle watching buddy? But while I enjoyed music and dance at her age, she is a lot more athletic than I ever was. And she has the never-quit mind of an athlete to match. Her determination astounds me.

Mandy’s volleyball team played at the Qwest Center this weekend in the President’s Day Classic. And they lost. Actually, they lost a lot.

Her team played traveling teams from Kansas City, Denver, Iowa City, and other cities in the Mid-West. It was an incredible assembly of girls in spandex shorts and ponytails. It was every teenage boy’s dream. There were 90-some volleyball courts setup in the Qwest Center and I heard there were more than 400 teams at the tournament in total. I think there were around 40 teams just in her 14-year age bracket. The sound of screaming girls and squeaking shoes was deafening. Volleyballs were flying everywhere. And the number of towering Amazon girls was dizzying. I can’t imagine where they buy jeans.

The first day of the tournament, the girls played three games and lost all of their sets. Of course, they were way out-matched. But the girls played hard and looked better after each game they played. Mandy played awesome Saturday and had some great hits and blocks. And her serving was awesome -- she only missed one. The girls came out of the day upbeat, ready to take on the next day.

The second day, the girls played three teams with which they were more equally matched. But somehow our team lost all three games. After they lost the first set of the first game, several players just quit trying. But Mandy didn’t quit. Every time they took the court, Mandy came out screaming and jumping and trying to pump the girls up. One of the moms said Mandy was the team cheerleader, trying to keep everyone upbeat. She was still screaming for the ball to make her hits and was still making spot serves. But even with a great cheerleader like Mandy, it wasn’t enough to win.

After the team lost the first set of the third game, most of the girls on the team were in tears, the fans had stopped cheering, and the coaches had quit talking. The girls walked out on the court very somber for their last set of the day.

Then out of nowhere, Mandy jumps up in the air and starts screaming. One second she was stone faced, and the next she was a screaming lunatic. She screams at the top of her lungs and goes around the circle to each girl on the team, high fiving them, and then jumps up and down waving her arms in the air to pump up the crowd. Not only did she have the team laughing and her coaches busting a gut, the entire crowd was laughing, as well as the other team and the officials.

Of course her team lost the last set. And then they came back Monday and lost one last game. It was not a good day. In fact, it was a pretty dismal weekend altogether.

So if it was me, I would throw in the towel. I would be ready to call volleyball quits and chalk up the whole experience as a lesson learned. If it doesn’t go just right, I would rather not do it at all.

But not Mandy. I asked her if she was done with it – volleyball and her team. She said no. She said she loves volleyball. She still loves to play and she isn’t ready to give up.

She is clearly her father’s daughter. Good looking, good natured and just plain goofy.

I guess I can learn something from a 14-year-old. Just because you lose, doesn’t mean you are beaten. If you give up entirely, then you are truly the loser.

It’s a good thing Mandy bounces back so well. We’ve got another tournament this Friday and Saturday. We will have to switch gears for this one: it’s a school basketball tournament for grades 4 through 8. Both Mandy and Joe will play on the team together and Rick will assistant coach. Both Mandy and Joe will have to play almost all game, every game because we only have nine players that are out for basketball. And they are all sixth grade and younger, except for Mandy.

We will be evenly matched by a few teams. We will actually be able to beat one or two teams, unless they show up with unexpected help. And there are one or two teams comprised of mostly seventh and eighth graders that we will have to play who have about double the number of players we have. We are in the B pool, so we won’t have to play the big Omaha schools with all eighth graders. At least we have that going for us.

Anyways, we aren’t expecting to win or even come in second. But we will go out and have some fun. Joe will come down with some decent rebounds and hopefully try to shoot a few more baskets. Big Red (Mandy’s new court nickname) will try to own the lane and hack the crap out of anybody who tries to dribble up the middle. It should be highly entertaining if the kids don’t run out of gas before their last game (which of course is against the biggest B team).

So here we go again. I’m hoping Big Red doesn’t foul out and that Joe doesn’t puke after any of his games. And if anyone starts jumping up and down and screaming like a lunatic, this time I’ll have my camera ready and packed. And I think I’ll throw in a puke bag, just in case. With the way our luck is going, it can’t hurt to come prepared.

Postscript:

I wrote this blog a day or so ago, but have to add that things are looking up. The girls had a practice Wednesday night with the other Magic Gold team, team Umi. Mandy had a fantastic night. The director of the club said that Mandy and the middle hitter for the other team were the best passers on both teams. Middle hitters are generally bad at passing, because they don’t generally get low to get under the ball. (Bummer the two of them come out and are replaced by liberos when they play back row.) And Mandy is one of the fastest players on her team. Evidently that is also rare for a middle hitter. She was congratulated Wednesday night at practice for finishing her laps ahead of more than half of her team. And tonight (Thursday) at practice, she beat everyone on her team when they ran lines. She even streaked ahead of the fast little libero. The director and a coach from another team came over and gave her a high five for running so fast. So, hard work is paying off and her confidence is returning. Watch out in Hastings next weekend. I have a feeling Big Red will return jumping and screaming. She’s ready to go at it again. Better bring the ear plugs.