Kill the Coach with Kindness
I walked into the UCCS gym two nights ago for the women's volleyball game (which had already started) and I saw someone on the back row waving and smiling at me! It was my former high school volleyball coach at Coronado High School from my freshman and sophmore year. She was SO, so, so excited to see me! Like REALLY excited to see me! She gave me the biggest hug. She LOVES me! haha! The neat thing about it is that EVERYONE that is ANYONE in the volleyball world knows her!
Her name is Joan Powell. She coached volleyball at Coronado High School for 32 years. I was there for the last 2 years before she retired. She was one of the most successful coaches in the history of Colorado interscholastic sports. She is a USA Division I Volleyball national official and has been for over 20 years. She always officates the NCAA semi-final and final matches and I love to watch her on television. AAAANND she was team manager for the USA Women's Olympic Volleyball team in the Beijing Olympics. She is the President of the USA Volleyball Board of Directors.
And SHE was excited to see ME??!! The tall, awkward freshman who showed up for tryouts one day who had never played volleyball before?!!
Yeah, I did work hard once I made the freshman team....hard enough (summer camps, trips to the church gym with my Dad) that when I showed up for tryouts before my sophomore year, she saw me playing and pointed at me and said " YOU!!! OVER THERE!!!" and pointed to where the varsity players were hitting. I was a starter on the varsity team that year. So I did improve, no doubt, but I know it wasn't my skill she loved. Our high school took in kids from across the city from all kinds of different backgrounds. I remember the night of the awards banquet feeling so awkward when she made a big deal giving me the award for the" highest GPA"...which was nice but, yeah, i would rather have been MVP. But I think the real reason she loved me so much was because that I wasn't a MEAN girl haha! And there were plenty of those! She liked my naive, mormon-girl innocence. I didn't stay naive long with all the locker room talk! THAT was an education! Who needed sex ed classes when you have the locker room?
Yeah, I did work hard once I made the freshman team....hard enough (summer camps, trips to the church gym with my Dad) that when I showed up for tryouts before my sophomore year, she saw me playing and pointed at me and said " YOU!!! OVER THERE!!!" and pointed to where the varsity players were hitting. I was a starter on the varsity team that year. So I did improve, no doubt, but I know it wasn't my skill she loved. Our high school took in kids from across the city from all kinds of different backgrounds. I remember the night of the awards banquet feeling so awkward when she made a big deal giving me the award for the" highest GPA"...which was nice but, yeah, i would rather have been MVP. But I think the real reason she loved me so much was because that I wasn't a MEAN girl haha! And there were plenty of those! She liked my naive, mormon-girl innocence. I didn't stay naive long with all the locker room talk! THAT was an education! Who needed sex ed classes when you have the locker room?
I learned so much from Coach Powell. She worked me hard and she had incredible faith in my ability as a middle blocker and as a team player.
Whatever the reason i am a "stand-out" in Coach Powell's book, I feel honored! Tuesday night I was a VIP for a VIP...can't get much better than that!
