that’s a wrap…

On Sunday, Ellie will play her final volleyball tournament with her travel team…Avalanche Volleyball Club. Call me cliche, but it feels like we just joined the Avalanche family yesterday. Yet at the same time, it feels like we’ve been with them forever. Having a child join and become a part of a sports travel team is a unique opportunity with a myriad of experiences and emotions.

enter AVC

We first met Coach Kyle and were introduced to the idea of a travel team in October of Ellie’s junior year. She had just made the decision to begin the recruiting process and pursue the possibility of playing NCAA volleyball. We knew that club volleyball would be an integral piece of this process…we just didn’t know which club she would be a part of. Coach Kyle reached out to Ellie and they exchanged contact information to discuss the opportunities available for her within AVC. During this time, she was also being contacted by the directors of a couple of other travel clubs. We researched, we talked, we weighed pros and cons and fees, plugged season calendars into our family calendars and charted highway miles. Ultimately, Ellie decided that everything about AVC just “felt right”. And…she wasn’t wrong.

tryouts

Tryouts were on a Sunday afternoon. I filled out the paperwork, Ellie got her tryout number and t-shirt and off she went to warm up. I attended a parent informational meeting and then kept myself busy for the couple of hours that parents weren’t allowed to be in the gymnasium. When I walked back in to attend the scrimmage portion of the afternoon, when parents were allowed in the gymnasium, I ran into Coach Kyle. I asked him how things had been going and I remember his response. “It’s been amazing. These girls bonded instantly…it’s like they’ve played together for years.” That right there, in Coach’s words, is exactly how I feel about our time with AVC.

august turns into december

A volleyball travel team is a weird dichotomy. It’s a team composed of players from neighboring school districts coming together as unfamiliar teammates hoping to quickly become a cohesive, winning team. December arrives and the girls that they have stared down opposite the net, the rivals they competed against for conference titles and bragging rights from August through October are now the girls they will rely on. They will rely on each other for the perfect pass to convert to the perfect set ending in the perfect kill. Rather than hoping they will net a serve or shank the dig, they now rely on one another to have their backs and finish the play. And then August comes. High-school season rolls around and they are once again your biggest rivals. But, watch out. This time around…they know you. They know your weaknesses. They know you struggle returning a serve with a top-spin or that you freeze up on set point. They also know your strengths. They know where to set up a double-block because they know exactly where you love to hit. They know where they need to defend because you have a wicked, sneaky tip. They know you. And they love you. Well, once this match is over….they love you.

weekend routine

And the AVC parents…they have truly become my extended family. And I am going to miss them. Terribly. I honestly don’t know what my weekends will be like without these people. There have been early mornings, late nights, sloppy winter roads and countless hotels. In unfamiliar gymnasiums and abandoned warehouses-turned-athletic complexes, we have seen questionable calls, inaccurate scoreboards, heartbreaking losses and exceptional victories. We’ve been sideline spectators to perseverance, teamwork, grit and triumph. Together, we’ve watched our girls get faster, smarter and stronger at this game they love so much. Whether they’re aware of it or not, the AVC parents have become some of my daughter’s biggest cheerleaders. In the competitive environment of club sports, cheerleaders like this, cheering for the athlete that is not their child, are not necessarily the “norm”. One small huge example…when Mike and I had to head right home after a downstate Saturday tournament, it was another AVC family that made sure Ellie was able to stay an extra night so she could participate in a Sunday recruiting showcase. In fact, it just happened to be this showcase where her future NCAA coach “found” her and began recruiting her. We love your family for being a part of this! And…we should probably hook you up with some tickets and OC merch.

the end

On Sunday, this…all of this and so much more…wraps up. Another chapter closes. These words and this post don’t do justice to the gratitude I feel and the love I have for Coach Kyle and the rest of our AVC family. These weekends and these people will forever be the keepers of some of my favorite memories.

*All photos in this post are credited to Doretta Brodin*