Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose

I never thought that I’d be happy to sit on a bus for seven hours until this past weekend. In the past, driving from Blacksburg to Virginia Beach was always just a 5 hour ride that went on forever and ever. This weekend, yes it took extra time for stops, but that just left us more time to share giggles and memories. This semester, I have been a volleyball coach at Special Olympics for Area 9 every Tuesday with the same players and a majority of the same volunteers week to week. This was my second year as a volleyball coach and by the end of this season I knew everyone’s names, skills, and so much more. In the past, APO would send two to five volunteers each week for this project, but this year it was just me and XDA girls and a few Pi Kapp boys because they wanted people who would show up week to week and put in the effort to know the players. All of our practices led up to this weekend. The Fall Championships for Special Olympics in Virginia Beach.

It was a jam-packed weekend. We left the Christiansburg Rec Center on Friday night at 6:11pm. They had warned us at practice on Tuesday that the buses would leave immediately at 6pm, but it was me who held them up. I rushed from class at 5:30 to pack and then got my friend Kim to drop me off at the center. We got stuck in traffic and I thought I was going to be left behind for sure. But alas, they waited and left as soon as I got on the bus. There were three buses and three different teams, so the teams all rode together and got to bond along the long journey from Blacksburg to Virginia Beach. My team consisted of Jimmy (a 71 year old man who never stops smiling and making jokes and singing), Richard (a housekeeping worker in Derring Hall that you probably pass all the time but never get to hear his contagious laugh), Doug (a West End dish cleaner who is more athletic than I’ll ever be), Sharon (a lady who always is straight up and never tells a lie), David (a quieter man who never gives up and never sits down, always on the move), Bonnie (a woman who has so much love to give but can never fully express her ideas), and four other XDA volunteers (Austin, Ally, Emilee, Hannah M).

We arrived at our hotel around 1:23am and headed straight to bed.

The next morning, we got breakfast in BJ’s room. BJ is the coordinator for Area 9 Special Olympics and always is the most hospitable. She supplied us with coffee, bagels, and words of encouragement. In the past, the buses always had left Saturday morning and the athletes never had the opportunity to actually go to the beach, but we had all morning to do so this year! A large group of volunteers and athletes walked 5 miles down the beach to the pier and back to our hotel taking pictures and chatting along the way. The athletes were so excited to have their toes in the sand and it didn’t matter that it was only 55 degrees outside. I never really liked going to the beach with my family every summer and didn’t fully appreciate those memories until the moment I was surrounded by the athletes’ smiles and shell collecting and picture taking. Then we all gathered together and went to TVA where we would play our preliminary matches to see where we would be placed in the actual tournament.

My team is in the lowest division (unified division B) which meant the games were fast and the volleys were short. Two games went by quickly. The first game wasn’t really close, but we got to teach our athletes how to sub and how to listen to the whistles from the ref. We had never practiced with our full team together before since a lot more people go to practice each week compared to who actually was at the tournament. The second game started out rough (like 12-0 rough) and then we came back to a more respectable loss at 25-17. After the prelims, we went back to the hotel to prepare for dinner and shower and clean up for the opening ceremonies planned for that night. When I arrived at dinner, Luke, a former athlete of mine (he moved up to the better division), immediately called me out for being late and offered me a seat even though there weren’t any seats available at his table.

As soon as I got my food, Luke, Franklin, Richard, and Bonnie all moved over to sit with me. Richard kept me constantly up-to-date on the Virginia Tech football game and Luke asked about how I had been since volleyball last season. He told me all about how much he missed me and how he didn’t want me to graduate and leave and how well I played and how I should be on his team again. After dinner, we went to a local high school for the opening ceremonies. There were lots of speakers, fun music, and performances. It was a lot like a high school pep rally. The lighting of their Olympic torch is always a moving time because the athlete given that honor always cries and is absolutely honored to be the one selected to do so.

Then there was a dance, but Luke didn’t want me to go dance with other people so he got me to go play Bingo with him instead. As an avid bingo player at Warm Hearth, I would mutter my bingo puns to Luke as we played and he would burst out laughing disturbing everyone else’s concentration. The Special Olympics motto is "Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt," so even bingo was a liberal event where everyone won a prize. The rest of the night consisted of dancing in the hotel lobby with some random boys, eating pizza at 10pm and then immediately going to bed. On Sunday, we got to play seven games and we only won game 6, but I was so proud of the endless positivity and effort that my team, the NRV Spikers put forth. Since we only won that one game, we technically came in third out of three, but our division is more based on skill improvement so we got cool new silver medals before we had to embark on the long journey home.

Just like the journey to VB, the ride home was just as long and Jimmy never failed to lighten the mood with his songs and little comments. I believe that kindness keeps the world afloat and Special Olympics athletes never fail to amaze me with their endless love and affection. So if you ever get the chance, make sure to put in a little time and effort and try coaching a Special Olympics sport.