i will never be able to adequately explain how much i loved playing volleyball in college. i adored the sport and was so fortunate to get to play at such a high level (oh so close to the final 4 my senior year). but the biggest reason i look back on my 4 years playing for tech as golden are because of the people. my teammates, my coaches, the GT athletics staff, the parents of the players, the fans. because we all had such a positive experience, almost all of my team is in some form of vball coaching today and are making awesome careers for themselves all over the country.
ACC champs. that's me there, shockingly white and rocking the cornrows. dont blame me, blair forced her culture upon me.
so when atlanta hosted a big high school tournament recently, lots of my far-flung besties were in town to coach or recruit. i was peeing-my-pants excited to have 3 of them come to our place on sunday. my heart is bursting with how much i love these people and how much fun we had.
despite being about 3 inches taller than the average american female, playing with these glamazons all 4 years gave me a serious napoleon complex and i was pretty sure i was an official little person. this picture brought it all back.
note: i am 5'7 and standing as high as my tippies will take me here.
the lineup from left to right:
-at right side hitter, from tiffin, ohio, standing 6'2 (before the hair), THE off-blocker tip retriever, world-renown group home employee, and most likely to drag me around a hotel inside her suitcase ("ohmygod, i am sweating"), the one-leg wonder, #9: laura "bird" kuhn!!!
-at outside hitter, from grissom, alabama, standing 6'4, all-conference/all-american/all-planet earth superstar, newlywed, youngest/hottest head coach in all of D1 and most likely to kick me in a physical altercation before a match and deface a treadmill, #12: lauren sauer!!!
-at outside hitter/freshman, from houston, texas/the dungeon family, standing 5'11 (i think?), my tannest bridesmaid, viral video starlet (that's jessica alba right before her), and friend most likely to be hit on EVERYWHERE we go, #(perfect)10: blair moon!!!
-at defensive specialist, from duluth, GA, standing 5'7 and fitting into zero pairs of her playing-days spandex, most likely to almost be kicked off the team due to rambunctiousness and most likely to order fish n' chips at every pregame meal, #8: keight dukes!
fun story. bird fell asleep on my couch while we were all hanging out this day. she was really tired and said later, "that's like my favorite thing in the world, falling asleep when people are talking." sure. why not?
the thing about bird is that she is pretty much the most golden person you have ever met in your life. the easiest person to be around, and most randomly hilarious. i have never EVER met anyone like her. she has the most unique way of describing what she's thinking and it usually makes 100% of the people who hear her fall straight in love with her. when we were going to dinner that night she told me and blair, "do you know why i love places like this? the stairs. i. LOVE. stairs." golden.
so we woke her up because lauren and her hubs were leaving and we wanted to get a picture. bird was like half asleep still when we lined up for the pic. then i noticed we were in height order: lauren, bird, blair, keight and looked like one of those AT&T commercials with the bars. so i said, "oh, we need to switch so it doesn't look weird." with zero hesitation bird yells, "scatter!" and puts her arms above her head, palms pressed together, jumps, spins in the air and lands down two slots on my left.
this from the girl who was unconscious 3 minutes prior. it was maybe the best thing i have ever witnessed.
she had just seconds prior been between sauer and blair.
i'm still not sure i understand this next part. i guess sauer really wanted some cookie cake so they stopped at the publix before my house and decided to get on commemorating our VB reunion. i think the intended message was supposed to get the message of "have a great day ladies...and also judah, jesse and casey (sauer's husband)." but this is what they showed up with. i was so so so confused.
well, sure.
it was amazing. each of the chicas bonded with a member of our family. sauer wanted to steal layla, bird wanted judah and blair wanted the dogs (probably so she can dogfight them....you know). no one wanted the cats. in fact we tried to give scout away last month and the family returned her within 2 days. i should have said no returns without a receipt.
showing off some couch-spelunking moves
bird was helping judah track down scout so he could swat at her with the bat. they got her cornered in the tent. if we've learned anything from looney toons it's that cats and birds are mortal enemies.
ADORE this picture. i have never seen layla do this with anyone. (sauer ended up buying my beloved leaf pillow. it had no place in my house and i loved it too much to sell to a stranger)
just like old times, we big girls and can put DOWN some food. all that's missing here is marisa sneaking off in the corner of a restaurant with an entire cookie parfait when no one is looking.
OMG I am so jealous and wish I could have been there. I miss you girls so much!!!! Much love from Germany!!!
ReplyDeleteHow do you group so many clever words together?! I mean I'm dying right now!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this tribute to GTVB!! Point Tech!
looooooooove it - why can't we all be best friends that live in the same city and hang out all the time?Keight you are just hillarious
ReplyDeleteI am 100% in love with your fam and life and i have plans to steal Layla and cuddle with her nonstop - please give her a much softer version of the Sauer hug
missed you Marisa!
Dan is going to be so jealous he missed all of those girls! I will have to send him the post so he can see how well they are doing!
ReplyDelete