16U Black Proves Their Mettle On and Off the Court

In the last tournament of the season, the 16U Black girls traveled to Pittsburgh, PA to test their skills against their American counterparts. Little did they know that their determination would be needed as soon as they arrived at the hotel!

Shortly after 9:00 pm, while two of our players were in the hotel lobby, they were confronted by two robbers who pointed a gun at the girls. The girls were able to escape unharmed and ran back to their rooms. Police were called, but got to the hotel too late to catch the robbers. Needless to say, such an event was traumatic for both of these girls, as well as their teammates. We spent the remainder of the evening going over the events as these girls gave their statements to the police. We comforted each other as best we could, then had a mostly restless sleep, trying to prepare for an 8:00 am start the following morning.

But this is 16U Durham Attack Black, a group of girls who have been together for 3 years, and it took more than looking down the barrel of a gun to throw us off our game. The first day, the girls hit the court ready to play and expend some of their built-up adrenaline from the night before. Pool play was easy, and the girls won their pool handily.

On Sunday, the girls proved that they were again ready to take on the best, and their defense and offence was consistent and effective. They beat Fort Wayne Kaepa Blue 16, a group of tall girls who played hard with excellent defense. In their final match of the day, our girls went down to Virginia Elite 16, another group of excellent volleyball players, who did not let the ball touch the ground. The two games were tightly fought; 23-25 and 24-26. These two teams went on the next day to win Gold and Silver in the 16U Championship round. I think they were taken by surprise at the team from Canada! In the final match on the final day, Fort Wayne Kaepa Blue 16 came back to reclaim victory from our girls, again with tight matches of 22-25, 23-25. The girls tied for 5th overall in this division.

All in all, an excellent last tournament for 16U Black girls. Over the years, I have said this on many occasions - while this team has had many victories, and some heart-breaking defeats, these girls have never wavered in their determination to go for the win, sometimes against imposing odds. We have seen them storm back from seemingly insurmountable circumstances; they just will not take defeat as a given. How appropriate then, that in their final tournament of the season, they proved once again that in spite of a traumatic event, lingering fear and many tears, they were able to face forward and play some of their best volleyball this season. This is a team with a giant heart, the sign of true champions.

We missed two of our players, Taylor Warman and Tara Roberts. Thank-you to Paul McGrath, who coached this team in Pittsburgh (for old time’s sake!), to all the wonderful parents who always make any tournament a joy to attend, and especially to all our daughters. As always, words cannot convey our pride in being your parents.

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