I was only able to see 3 1/2 of our Senior Boys Volleyball matches at the Single A Provincial Championships, though arguably the most important ones: the opener, the last round robin, the semi-final, and the final. Three events stood out for me:

The lesson:

In the match against Fernie, one of their players spiked the ball out of bounds. The call was going in our favor. I don’t know if our player called it first, but I did see our coach signal to the referee that the ball brushed the fingers of our player. The correct call was made and Fernie got the point. A colleague sitting beside me confirmed what I saw and commented on how great that was.

Before anyone accuses us of being self-righteous, she also pointed out that the Cedars coach did the same thing in the opening match. I have since heard that several players at the tournament made the same call.

It struck me that this kind of integrity demonstrated at the Provincial level is a good lesson for students at the elementary school, who will sometimes spend half of a recess arguing about whether something was a goal or if someone was out in a playground game. I hope I can pass this lesson on to our students.

The scare:

Aaron Postma has arguably the strongest spike on our team. It is at least in part why he was named First Team All-Star. So when one of his sizzlers hit my grandson square in the face, there was obvious concern. Two observations of what happened very quickly:

  • It was bad enough to realize that I hadn’t done a thing to protect him, knowing the hazard of where we were sitting. It was even more disheartening to be told by people behind me that I actually moved away. Sorry, Noah.
  • Noah’s reaction, quite humorous in retrospect, was straight out of the commercial: “I’m good, I’m good.”

The joyful surprise:

During the next time-out, Aaron came over and presented Noah with a mini gold volleyball and an apology. Those who know me won’t be surprised that I teared up at that. Again, an example of the integrity and faithfulness consistently evident among our team members and, from what I could tell, among most participants at the tournament.

Experiencing the tournament as I did, allows us to participate in sports as an act of worship, not of the game or the players, but of God who created us as physical beings who can do remarkable things and who calls us to do so with integrity.

Oh, and I do have one more takeaway. Being there to see our team go unbeaten to take the first ACSS volleyball championship at home was pretty sweet!