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...

2020 Season Birthdays and Activities

 We previously identified one of our September birthdays with Kelly, but our celebrations continued with three other September Birthdays later in the month!  

Both Maggie and Emma have late September birthdays, as well as Assistant Coach Brian with our last Fall birthday of the Season.  Which means that I guess I'll just have to bake for "other" reasons in October because we all love post practice treats! 

Additionally, one of our other traditions is a fake-out at some point during pre-season.  We really have to work hard to find a good, believable way to do this, especially as the sophomores and juniors often know it's coming.  I think we succeeded again this year, which is always a treat for me and the seniors!  We pulled off a "conditioning practice" that began at the stadium where we were to do some jump testing before continuing with the testing.  Then, when they got up there, we had pizza waiting for them bought by one of the senior parents!  Fun day for all!

I talked with the seniors at the beginning of the season and we tried to figure out what sort of schedule would work out best for everyone this year.  Most of the team really looked forward to coming to practice as much for the volleyball as an outlet to exercise and be together.  Since we weren't preparing for competition, and couldn't even fully play our game with the early rules, we decided on the following schedule for 2020:  Three days of skills/drills, one day of yoga and a "competition day," consisting of our 2v2 or 3v3 tournaments.

It's a long standing tradition for me to make a pie for whomever on the team qualifies (it's a team secret what qualifies!). I don't actually have a pie picture, but I do love to share my harvest or sorts with the team.  Usually this is either eggs from my chickens, or zucchini bread, or apply pie, but I don't have any apple trees, I just like to make pie.  This year, I shared some corn with some of the players who live in a house and could cook it...Fall VT sweet corn is a treat you really shouldn't miss!!

Something else we've tried to do this year on a regular basis is weekly yoga!  In a regular season we'd often do a yoga session on a Monday after a long weekend of both play and travel to help us loosen up some stiff muscles before getting back into training for the next weekend.  However, this year since our schedule was cleared of competition, I figured that a weekly yoga session would be very beneficial.  We've been outside most of the Fall, and only the last couple sessions had to be inside toward the end of October, so that was lucky!