the good, the bad and the beautiful

  we are at two opposite ends of the spectrum with our two volleyball girls.

tessa's team is a group of 17-year-old girls all hoping for college scholarships.  they have all been playing for years; the game is in their blood now, and they work together like a well-oiled machine, sometimes executing their plays with that perfect blend of skill and instinct so beautiful it takes my breath away.  they play against 18-year-olds, 6' 1" 180 lbs.-of-solid-muscle 18-year-olds who hit the ball so hard you can hardly see it until you hear the sound of it smashing against the wood floor or off the hands of a stunned middle blocker. one of the teams we played this weekend has three of its girls committed to play for pac 10 colleges next year.  all this to say, the level of play is high.  the game is fast, smart and powerful.  and it is a blast to watch.

maddie's team is a group of 13-year-old girls who have never played club volleyball before.  many of them have never even played on a school team before; most of them have trouble just making their serves.  at their first tournament last weekend, they lost their first game 25-3.  the next game they lost 25-4.  the next game, 25-5.  we parents on the sidelines noticed that each game they scored more points.  (the next match, they scored 16 points in one game.) we started to celebrate that.  just making a serve, making a nice set, returning the ball back over the net, these became huge celebrations.  we watched the girls scramble around the court, most of the time not sure where they were supposed to be, and we watched the coach, a twenty-two year-old girl--and a saint in my book--reign in her frustration, sacrifice her own competitive spirit. she never got mad, but point after point, kept instructing, encouraging, celebrating, correcting, like you would a team of any skill level. what we were watching wasn't just beginning volleyball.  we were watching a coach treat this group of little girls with dignity, believing in them, seeing them as being in process, training them to never give up, encourage each other, and work for a better result--next time.  the rich and beautiful character stuff that a scoreboard can never measure. 

so, like i said, we are at two opposite ends of the spectrum with our two volleyball girls. and if i had to choose which team i would rather watch, i couldn't. each has its own value, its own beauty, its own inspiration.   a team focused on excellence, coached by expertise?  or a team focused on learning, coached by love? watching the one gives me goosebumps, but watching the other makes a lump rise in my throat.

tessa went with us to watch maddie's first tournament, even though it meant getting up at 6:30 a.m. on a weekend.  she sat there with us and smiled and cheered.  and when it was all over maddie ran to tessa first.  it was tessa who gave her the first hug, the first "you played great, beej!"  and they walked from the gym to the car together, each with an arm draped around the other.

and to me, that is the most beautiful part of it all.