Jess

Jessica is 16 years old. In many ways she is a lot like other 16 year old girls. She likes country music, talks a lot with her friends and she loves playing volleyball.

Jess is an outside hitter for her high school team set a small rural community in south eastern Washington. Her family owns orchards; thousands of cherry trees….thousands! Jess is one of 11 children and her summer days are spent playing and practicing one of her sports; softball, basketball and volleyball, then configuring rides and schedules of friends and families to make getting through the day most efficiently.

With a strawberry blonde pony tail that sways behind her every step, Jess is relaxed and comfortable on the court. At 5-9, she isn’t overly imposing and her build does suggest someone who plays several sports but she has the ability to put a ball down. In one drill, she passes 5 perfect 3’s in serve receive. When the coach calls the team’s attention to the accomplishment after the drill, Jess is visibly embarrassed. She is humility defined.

Jess is 16 years old and has a checking account. She has had to pay for the volleyball camp she is attending. She has to pay for the college camp she wants to go to in a few weeks. She earns her money working for her family in the orchards. Camp ends at 2 p.m. on a Thursday and Jess will go back to her family orchards and begin to pick sweet cherries, by hand, off the trees until her basketball game at 7 that night. She will get up early Friday and spend the day and the weekend picking fruit and plotting her schedule for the upcoming slate of games ahead.

Jess’s high school team just won the Washington State High School 1A softball championship. At a party celebrating this fete, she and her team mates are choosing championship rings. Jess’s ring is modest because if she wants it, she will pay for it herself and also because Jess herself is modest in her abilities and accomplishments.

As humble in life as Jess is, she is relentless on the court. Quiet but focused and coachable; she wants to get better for her team. She is usually on the outside, but the coach also throws her into the back row, and then on the right side. Jess nods and goes, gives it everything she has and plays at 100% the entire time. At the end of camp, she is soaked in sweat and tired.

Jessica talks to her teammates in the hallway at lunch. She never has a bad thing to say about anyone and never complains about anything. She appreciates the help she receives from her friends and family and her teams and is always first with a please and a thank you.

Jessica has a new coach this season. Her coach is someone she has known for a long time; the upshot of a small town existence. Jess listens to her coach’s feedback and makes changes, keeping her mind open. She wants to get better for her team.

Jess is 16 years old. She has just finished a drill where she hit 11 balls from the outside, 6 of which were for kills and no errors. She had the highest hitting percentage of any of the hitters in the drill yet she seems uncomfortable. After the final few hitters finish, she walks up to the coach and tells her she missed a hitting error. She wasn’t perfect, her hitting percentage in the drill needed to be adjusted lower.

The coach, knowing that it was important to Jess, made the adjustment on the white board in front of the team.

Jess almost seemed relieved. She finished practice with the same intensity and fire as when she first stepped on the court. She takes off her shoes after practice, shoes she paid for herself, and gathers the three team mates she will give rides home to. Then she gets home, changes and heads out into the trees. She’ll help her family in their business, help her checking account along the way and further solidify a work ethic that makes coaches hearts race.

Jess is 16 years old. She wants to get better for her teammates.

Athletes aren’t always able to be picked out of a crowd but you sure know them when you meet them.