Volleyball Tryouts

As volleyball tryouts were approaching late Sunday night, Mackenna woke up on Saturday morning with a massive headache and a really bad sore throat. I took her temperature; I discovered she also had a fever of 102.4! NOOOOO! She had trained and worked so hard to get to this point, she just can’t possibly be sick!

Matt and I debated taking her to urgent care. We both think she may have strep throat but by taking her too soon, would the rapid test results come back negative? (That has happened before!) By 1:00 she was feeling worse, so Matt took her to urgent care. She was still running a low-grade fever even after having taken Motrin. The test results were positive; she had strep throat! She was given an antibiotic and I felt a little relieved. We knew she would be feeling better soon!

On Sunday, she woke up and was feeling much better. She began to feel nervous and excited as the day went on as she was thinking about the beginning of tryouts.

The tryouts…Sunday night, Matt took her to the high school track at 11:45pm. They put all of the girls into four groups, two upperclassman groups and two freshman groups. They had to run a mile (4 laps) in a given time. (Upperclassman in 8 minutes, freshman in 8:30) Mackenna had been training and was feeling pretty good. She had run it in 8:20 recently and felt she could make her time.

The first group started just after midnight on August 5; it was the official beginning of the high school season. The upperclassman went first and then the freshman. Mackenna was in the last group because they were also grouped by last name.

She posted a time of 7:46!!! (With strep throat!) Her fastest time yet! She was so excited and proud she had even beat the upperclassman time!

Not every girl made their time and had to keep coming back to the track each morning (although at 6:45am instead of midnight).

Later on Monday, she had to report back at 5:45am for a session until 7:30am and then later from 2:30-4:30pm. It was a crazy day of adrenaline rush and small sleep windows. Monday night she went to bed at 8:00pm. She was exhausted!

Tuesday was better since they had to report at 7:45am. She was there until 11 and then had to go back at 12:15. The tryout session ended at 2. They called the girls into the coaches’ office individually to let them know if they had made it through to the next round…first cuts! Two o’clock came and went and no one exited the building. Then it was 2:15, 2:30…no one came out! Talk about nerve racking!!! Finally, at 2:40, girls came out of the building. She had made it through to the next round!!

On Wednesday, the final day of tryouts, the freshman had to report to the gym at 7:45am until 10. She had a nice long break and then had to return at 1:15. This session was scheduled to end at 4:30. Mackenna texted me around 4:15 and said to plan on closer to 4:45. I was pacing!! I was going crazy wondering if she had made it. She felt really confident, but I didn’t want her to be disappointed. Finally, shortly after 5, she sent me a text: I MADE THE TEAM!

We are so happy and proud of her!