Believe in Yourself

This week, is the first of many weeks where I have volleyball practically everyday. I start off with coaching my juniors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Thursdays I have Omaha Sports Club, Saturdays are my women's league, Sundays are my junior's tournaments and finally I may be playing in another league on Mondays. I think I have too much on my plate.

Even though I may complain how much I do in the week, there are some good things that come from it. Yesterday, was our first women's tournament of the season. We haven't played actual volleyball for about a month so I knew some games weren't going to look pretty. I was right, some of the time. We finished half way in the pack in pool play, like we usually do so we were matched up with some tough teams in the tournament. We picked ourselves up a little and finally come out with a strong first round win. The second round, we played this team fairly well the first time around. Although somehow we lost our momentum, fell apart and lost the game. However, that team ended up winning the day, so it put our team in third place. Not bad for the first weekend I say.

Today was my junior's tournament. It was snowing, I was tired, in a lot of pain and I really didn't want to go. Since this was my girls' first tournament, I didn't know what to expect. I swear the girls want me dead before I'm thirty, because they can't seem to be consistent! Right away we do well beating the first team in the first game and then lose the second. Beat the second team in the first game, lose the second. Play well with third team, be ahead the whole time each game and then lose both games. Finally it was tournament time and I was getting a really bad headache and it was probably from lack of sleep and food.

To win the tournament we needed to beat the top two teams. Splendid. We came out strong in the semi-finals, then made it interesting and took them to three games. We won. Kelly and I were going crazy! Finally, the championship, a prize to be won, a game to prove ourselves that we are the better team, the only team we have not beaten was here. We took it slow at first but we took the upper hand after the first game. Second game came out strong was well ahead to victory, when poof! We let them come back and beat us. Final game. My head exploding, Kelly's head exploding, the parents' heads exploding. The girls needed to dig deep, believe in themselves that they could do it. Right here, down to the very last game. Show everyone that we can do this. First one to 15 wins. We went for it and succeeded. We won the game, the match, the tournament. We were the champions! I can't tell how long it's been since I first started coaching, but to see your girls win a tournament, is one of the greatest feelings in the world. This was my first look at how much my time has meant to them... and it has paid off.