BuiltFORDTuff!: West Lafayette Coed Grass Tourney

Team Hoagies- Lauren Ford, Maggie Thomas, Damon Daniels, Brian Winchester,
Jason Page, Suzanne Van Schaack, Not Pictured- Clayton Chandler

June 12, 2010- Two weekends ago me and some friends participated in a Charity Coed Volleyball and Ultimate Frisbee Tournament up in West Lafayette, Indiana. This tourney was in support of The Trinity Mission, a regional homeless shelter and drug & alcohol rehabilitation center, that helps and supports men who have maybe gone down the wrong track or made some bad decisions in their lives. It helps them try and get back on their feet. What a great cause!

Upon arriving the weather did not look to good to play outside. It was dark and dreary, with a very strong chance of rain. I was a little worried because rain means wet grass and slipping and sliding all over the place. Not to mention, I am a very physical volleyball player. Meaning I like to get up and bang and I would not want to jump on ground that was not dry and safe. But the weather was up and down the whole time. When the sun finally came out, I was complaining about it being too hot. Beggars cannot be choosers I guess.

The tourney opened with an inspirational thought given by one of the mission's workers. He talked about a White Elephant Gift Exchange party he went to. That is where you exchange gifts that are around your house or usually junk with no meaning or value. He said he ended up with a broken mirror, which usually indicates seven years bad luck. Tough Break right? The moral of his story was that sometimes you are given things and situations in life that are not pretty, that are broken. You have to push through and use what you have. Never use that as an excuse. We finished with a prayer before starting. On a funny note, one of my teammates had been in the Port a Potty like the whole time and decided to come up during this man's speech saying, "Whew!" I had to keep from falling over dying laughing since I was in the front. My teammates also did the best they could to hold in their laughter as well.

In pool play the tourney was divided into two groups, a lower and a competitive group. Each team plays each other once. This determines the tournament play at the end. The team with the best record usually has the better seed and will play the lowest team. The rules state that each team have 3 guys and 3 girls. If you don't have 6 players you at least need to have as many girls as you have guys. My team brought sevens players just in case. We had a pretty easy time in pool except facing a team from Fort Wayne. They were pretty good and beat us with 4 players. All their guys were 6'3 or taller.

Upon getting the second seed, we got a bye in the tourney along with Team Fort Wayne. In the first round we avenged our first loss against them. Sweet! I even got a block on one of their guys, whom I may add was a complete jerk! So it felt good. But he was a good player and I think we all were a little bit antsy out there. That's what competition brings out and he was a good competitor, their who team was. Making a short story shorter, we faced off against team Fort Wayne in the finals. We had to play them twice because of a double elimination rule, but it was a hard fought match. In the end they were just too much to overcome. Plus it was hot outside and I think all of us were dead tired. My team captain was a little ticked off, but in the end second is cool. It was for a good cause and there are never losers in that situation. Our prize was a free six-inch sub at Subway! So I was happy. SUCCESS!