PAMPERS AND PEARLS: The Pink Out!

The biggest thing I miss about my job is not just teaching, but mostly coaching volleyball. Coaching is so wonderful; the smell of the gym, the camaraderie with the other coaches, the relationships I developed with the players and the trust they instilled in me...it's unbelievably fulfilling. Not to mention the fact that I myself have played volleyball since I was 12 years old and it just won't leave my blood; to me it is the greatest game on earth!

So tonight Wake and I donned our pink and headed up to the gym for the 6th annual "Pink Out" game versus our rivals to recognize the fight against breast cancer. Every year both teams sell t-shirts, baked goods, pink garb, etc..., and donate all the proceeds to the Donna Deegan foundation. Donna Deegan was a local tv personality here in Jacksonville. She is a three-time breast cancer survivor and the founder of 26.2 with DONNA. "The foundation is a nonprofit organization formed to raise money exclusively for those on the First Coast living with breast cancer. Since its inception in June of 2003, The Donna Foundation has been successful in assisting over 5,000 local women and raising over $1.5 million." It's very bittersweet for me to walk into that gym, especially on a night like tonight. It's so wonderful to see all my friends and students again, but I yearn to be on the court with the team. I was/am so proud to be a part of the BK vball program. Our girls are so amazing. Most of them are Honors and AP students studying their butts off while still playing volleyball for 3+ hours a day, 6 days a week. We expect a lot from them (our team has been to State 4 of the past 6 years) and we are currently ranked 2nd in State this year. It makes me so proud to see them grow athletically, academically and spiritually. And it makes me even more proud on a night like tonight when they run out on the court in pink and play a game I love for women like my mother.