Greg Peters

From Panthers to 'Cats to Cardinals and every other high school in our area, many Pierce County parents have at least one thing in common every single year; the same shared pre-ordained destiny of doom. We don't want it to end, but every single one of us knows it's coming. It's the moment your kid, my youngest daughter Ava for me, finishes the last high school game of their career.

As Ava's career came to a screeching stop Saturday night against Hudson in the section volleyball finals, Green Day’s "Time of Your Life" was the soundtrack playing in my mind. The soundtrack came complete with an obituary of career snapshots flashing right in front of me. It started with a skinny 9-year-old kid with glasses and pig-tails cheering and making up her own sign when we traveled to Green Bay to watch the Wildcats in their first volleyball state tournament in 2016. Ava's sign read "#9 Guards The Line;" her favorite River Falls' player was #9 Sam Krueger. Like a huge watermelon of memories being thrown off a skyscraper, her career snapshots ended with a thud.

Real-life hit me over the head with a sledgehammer as Ava walked towards me with her head held high, but her facial expression was drenched in emotion and sweat. Like a lit fuse to a bomb, she exploded with a hug upon arrival, something that has never happened. Ava just hugged me and the harder she squeezed, the more I could feel the finality of the moment. I didn't know what to say. The only thing I could muster up was telling her how proud I was of her. "Proud" is a good Dad comment, but as announcer Vin Scully once said, "Good is not good when better is expected."

I wanted to tell her something profound, something to make her feel better, but during that unscripted and unplanned organic moment, the only natural response was to stand there like a sturdy tree and return her hug, if nothing more than to help provide shade from the searing lights and celebratory music inside the gym.   

Some will believe this story to be a little less than soul-stirring. "It's just high school sports," they may say.

But I could feel the electricity of our combined thoughts during that hug. I know it's been the same shared feeling between children and parents for decades during that exact same split second of time. It's not the loss that hurts; it's that the clock struck 12, the alarm went off and, just like that, the togetherness of high school sports was over for her for the rest of time. One more win Saturday night would've been like a warm fall day stealing ticks of the clock from old man winter just around the corner. It's the bus rides and the post-game parent gatherings. The collective relationship of a true team is what makes it so special. Neither of us wanted it to end, but we couldn't stop it any easier than trying to put up a road block on Mother Earth as she travels around the sun.   

If one looks at crowd pictures from the Wildcats' state volleyball tournament runs over the years, most of the girls playing this year were all in the Resch Center seats cheering them on eight years ago. That's when volleyball exploded in our town. The elementary-aged girls in the seats last year when River Falls made the state tournament will be the cast of characters in the years to come. You can count on that. Wildcat Head Coach Sara Kealy already knows most of their names and what positions they'll be playing. It's a microcosm of the “Volleyball House That Coach Kealy Built” over her last 15 years. Here may be the best example of it. I was in Ptacek's Family Market last week and saw two young girls with their mom wearing St. Thomas volleyball sweatshirts. I didn't know the kids or their mom and asked them, "Hey, you two are big Tommie volleyball fans, huh?"

The kids excitedly replied, "Yeah! We got to see Morgan Kealy (former Wildcat) play!"

Then, I asked the girls if they were practicing and one of the girls said, "Yes! My favorite player is Goose (libero Olivia Doerre's nickname). I'm practicing just like she does off the wall!"

Ava and fellow senior Maddy Range used to play a driveway volleyball game called "Beat Izzy Barr" (former Wildcat setter from 2016) when they were in fourth grade. I walked out of Ptacek's with an oxymoron of a smile. I immediately recalled a quote I heard from Wildcat baseball Coach Ryan Bishop (whose daughter, Bailee, also played volleyball for RFHS this year), that reads "Legacy is not leaving something behind for other people; it's leaving something behind in other people."

My bitter-sweet smirk was knowing Ava and her teammates were leaving behind expectations, work ethic, and courage in their young Wildcat community sisters, but with legacy thought comes forced high school retirement and I knew Ava only had, at most, a little over a week left.        

I knew very little about volleyball when Wildcat Assistant Coach Fred Barr asked if I would help out with the public address on the mic at games 13 years ago. I've matriculated to doing the play-by-play on the River Falls Sports broadcasts, so I've had a court-side seat to Coach Kealy's program for quite some time. Most people may not know this, but one of her goals has always been to better the game of volleyball in our area. A small way she helps the cause is by allowing herself to be mic'd up on the broadcast during time-outs. She is growing the game in our area with broadcasting direct behind-the-scenes volleyball acumen.

"I know people are watching and listening and I think it makes my time-outs more effective because I'm more accountable," Kealy has said in the past.

Michael Jordan once said, "You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them."

Setting high expectations and forcing her players out of their comfort zones is another annual ritual for Kealy. "You can't grow and get better when you're comfortable," says Kealy every year.

Make no mistake about it, Coach Kealy wanted to win Saturday's section final as much as anyone and she knew Hudson was going to be the Wildcats' toughest section competitor before this season even began. That still didn't stop her from working with Hudson players for summer lessons when asked. "If they get better, then we get better and other teams in our area get better," said Kealy, "It's just giving back to the game and these kids just like coaches did for me when I was growing up."

How many other high school coaches help make their opponents better in the off-season? Sara Kealy does. She puts the game and the kids before herself.   

During the on-air pre-game broadcast interview before Saturday's section final, Coach Kealy talked about pressure being a privilege for her team. It's a complete mindset shift. Instead of being nervous before a huge section final game, they're taught to feel pride having the opportunity to play.

Well, Coach Kealy, the region and section title plaques you all won together will, inevitably, collect dust over the years, but the memories will last forever. So will the life-long lessons you taught Ava about leadership, confidence, and hard work.

It has been a privilege, Coach. I wish Ava had a 13th grade.