Volleyball Nationals – Calgary

The blog has been SO quiet! For those who follow my Instagram account will know already that I spent 10 days this month in Calgary!! It was a whirlwind of activity after activity and although it was a blast, I am glad to be home and slowed down a bit….for now anyways! A few people have asked why I was in Calgary, and it was for two reasons! The first reason was Calgary was the host city for the 2015 Volleyball Canada Nationals!!

Some of you may know already, but Marco and I first met 11 years ago while playing Volleyball at the University of the Fraser Valley. Since graduating, both of us have been wanting to get into coaching and back into Volleyball again somehow.

Last year we reached out and coached a U-13 girls team in Chilliwack and had SO MUCH FUN. We moved to Abbotsford last Fall and we hoped to help out with a team in some aspect again this year. Marco went to the first meeting for the club with some warnings from me…..”don’t commit to anything yet”, “remember how much work it was?”, “make sure they know we have two kids and can’t take on a team just us.”

Marco walked in the door a good 3 hours later grinning. “We got the U-18 girls team!” haha my reaction was “WHAT?!” Apparently the “don’t commit to anything until we get a chance to talk it over first” comment hadn’t lasted! Not going to lie, I was NERVOUS! What the heck were we going to do with a U-18 team! Also not gonna lie again, that age group intimidated me a bit! I originally went to College to be an elementary school teacher for the sole reason that highschool kids intimidated me! Marco’s enthusiasm quickly spread and I immediately called one of my best friends, and fellow UFV alumni (and highschool teacher!) to ask her to assistant coach with us! She was in!! It was a go!

Tryouts were INTENSE for us! We all got clipboards, the girls had numbers written on their legs corresponding with their names on our boards, and we got to walk around and make notes. The parents watching up in the bleachers didn’t make it any less overwhelming! Once we relaxed into it though, it was so fun getting to watch these girls play and choose the ones we wanted to make up our team!

We had SUCH a fun season. Not only were these girls amazing players, but they are some of the BEST girls I have ever met! They taught me so much over the course of the season. Mostly all the cool words and phrases….bae, on fleek, sauce me that water….I definitely felt every single one of my 30 years some practices, especially when I got to practice with them and didn’t recover quite as quick as I had in college!! They also discovered a few weeks into the season, what I do for work and that I write a blog!! A few of them came to practice saying they had spent hours reading it the night before…followed by “when will we get to be on your blog?!” (So this is for you guys!!)

We ended our season off with a trip to Calgary for Nationals! It was a big trip to wrap our heads around! Two of the girls had never been on a plane, and Marco and I were trading in our two young kids for 13 seventeen and eighteen year olds!!! It was like having 13 younger sisters for 5 days!

They played amazing! It was an overwhelming event. It was one of the largest single sport events ever held in Canada, with approximately 10,000 athletes and 800 teams across 3 venues. There were 14 year olds all the way up to the World League men’s and women’s teams! It was such an amazing experience to be a part of, even for us coaches. You realize how small the volleyball community is when you start recognizing coaches, and refs back from our college years! I loved watching the girls take it all in!

It was the best they had played all season!! I was so proud watching them come together as a team and play their hearts out!!

So before I get too sappy….Jenn, Brynna, Karissa, Caroleena, Kiren, Verity, Mackenzie, Gabe, Cassidy, Kailene, Michaela, Katie and Kennedy here’s your blog post!! I LOVED every single minute of coaching you all!! I am so proud of your season, how you bonded as a team, and how you represented the club at Nationals!! You made us laugh, you made us so frustrated (I mean c’mon you put our mattress in the bathroom!), you made us insanely proud and I feel so glad to have gotten to been a part of your lives!! I miss you all already!! Wednesday and Sunday nights just won’t be the same without getting to see your faces!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep in touch!! (and you 17’s COME BACK NEXT YEAR! We couldn’t imagine coaching anyone else!)

LOVE YOU GIRLS! :)

And here’s a few photos from our Nationals journey!!  WOOPA!!! ;)

 

Note how the male coaches spent the ONE HOUR flight vs the female coaches!! haha

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Don’t ever leave your phone unattended!! It was selfie central! :) 

Check out the two in the mirror :)

The girls thought it would be HILARIOUS to prank me and Marco. So front desk GAVE THEM A KEY TO OUR ROOM! haha seriously without ID or anything!!

And they put our mattress in our teeny tiny bathroom. And then left a note “Love you guys!!”

We got to see World League Men’s Canada vs Cuba! Such amazing Volleyball!!! Canada won in 3!!

Me and Care scored a Charger for our rental car!!

Some warm up in the street with a mini volleyball! haha they crack me up!



Thank you girls for SUCH an amazing season!! LOVE YOU! :)


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