The Best Part of Coaching.....

Welcome to the ‘Welcome Diner.’

It’s located in downtown Phoenix at 10^th Street and Roosevelt. No, this hasn’t’ become a restaurant review blog although the food is legit!

This is a story of the best part of coaching.

You see, Jenn is a former players. She played on a couple of club teams growing up, won a State title at her high school and after deciding to leave volleyball behind,  spent the next few years going through a rigorous college career that took her through such rib ticklers as  ‘organic chemistry’ and ‘sustainability.’ She worked this past summer in Santa Cruz measuring and sampling water in the lakes and streams and ocean.

Now, she’s a restaurant entrepreneur.

As coaches, you hear the phrase random often when it comes to our game, but it’s even more true of our athletes. Coach long enough and ‘what goes around, comes around.’ Some go on to play in college, some decide to head to school and some have their future decided for them through economic hardships or amazing opportunities too good to pass up.

And sometimes the random takes over.

Lisa played four years of college ball and along the way,  got bitten by the travel bug. To date, she has traveled to and stayed for week long stints (or longer) in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala. She has sampled their foods, stayed in hostels and met other young travelers writing their own adventures. She is readying a trip to the Far East in the coming months.

Mindy and Jenny are immersed in their nursing careers. Michelle is a dental hygienist. Trisha is a softball coach at GCC and strength and conditioning coach. Sarah is getting her graduate degree, Lindsay works with hazardous biochemical’s that require an FBI background check and arriving in the mail this week, an announcement that Tracey tied the knot with her beau of a year in her Parents backyard in an impromptu occasion.

All this from just one team. Oh, and by the way, almost all of them are coaching in the Region this season!

It’s comforting to think that some of the skills these girls learned over their careers have helped them become the young women they are today. 

Watching Jenn navigate the brunch rush at the ‘Welcome Diner’ she was communicative, making sure those in the kitchen (that is half the size of a walk in closet), knew when she was behind them.  She was all about the team, helping where she could, jumping in to help cook and serve and/or take out the trash when needed. She worked harder in that hour than most will work in a day and she made sure everyone who came and went knew who she was and invited them back. As a libero, she needed all those skills and maybe, just maybe we’re seeing the fruits of her labor all those years playing volleyball.

This isn't a food blog, it’s just a quick nod to those amazing young women who don our uniforms, make the best of themselves and through the good times and bad, make us proud.

The best part of coaching!