Halloween Celebration

 I realize this post is very late as all the kids are back at home now for J-term, but we had a fun Senior Day which we celebrated on Halloween also, since this was our last official practice of the 2020 season.  The theme for Halloween was Disney Competitions, so each class had a different color, the seniors being green.  

 

 

 

Our seniors came into this most unusual season with absolutely fabulous attitudes and that made all the difference.  Most of the team returned to campus this Fall despite being able to have a competitive season, and I will always be grateful for those four putting everything they had into this last season and helping make it a memorable and meaningful experience for us all.

The juniors were team blue, and this class was a little thin this year on court--meaning they were missing Jane who chose to take a semester off, and Bella was out from knee surgery, and then Ali had surgery on her ankle.  Although Bella will most likely help out as El has, we're hoping that by next Fall Ali will be back to being 100% and ready to go, along with Jane!

Team yellow was our sophomores, who were bundles of joy and optimism and really helped lead our team workouts in the weight room.  Weird to think they are sophomores already, especially as a couple of them pointed out to me that they really didn't feel like they finished their freshman year since they still haven't really experienced a true Spring in Middlebury.  Since two of them are from CA, it'll definitely be good to experience one of VT's unique seasons, something we refer to as "Mud Season!"  At this point, a mud season without Covid would still be welcomed with open arms!

Last, but certainly not least is our Freshman class in red.  What an environment to start college in, but they're doing great.  They all came and although socializing was MUCH harder than it usually is, they navigated their way around that and seemed to be meeting people just fine.  They loved being with the team and although it's quite a bit harder to really get to know your teammates without the long bus rides, hotel stays, and team dinners, they were integrated into the team dynamic on the court nonetheless!  We all look forward to those other, off the court bonding moments to come, but at least we had a season of sorts this year and no one ended up with Covid!!

Team pics are hard to really get a good look at since we all have to stay 6' apart at all times, but here we all are--that witch in the back is Coach (me).  

 Finally, however, we were allowed to actually play 6v6 with only intermittent times where we're closer than 6', and we all enormously enjoyed those sections of practice when we could actually PLAY the game!  As a coach, the drill work was actually fantastic, though, but so much of what we do is game-related, that it was definitely a challenge for all of us.

Next post will be a breakdown of Senior Day, so stay tuned!! (You'll recognize the outfits since we celebrated Senior Day on our last official day of practice, which also was Halloween...nothing like cramming it all into one day...