Well the season with the Vipers has come to a close. Recently we competed in Calgary for Westerns, and while there a cute story developed.
Two of my friends I had gone to school with showed up with their niece to watch a couple of games. Their niece is only five-years-old and watched the game quite intently.
Following the game I went over and sat with them for a little while and her auntie asked the little girl if she had a favourite player on the team. The young girl smiled and said that the girl had something in her hair, making a twisting motion for a braid.
Eugene Brown had come over to say hi and we mentioned that if this little girl really wanted she could meet her favourite player. A shy smile spread across the girl’s face and a few quick nods of the head by this youngster had Eugene running off to go grab a piece of paper, a pen, and the young girl’s favourite player, Hailee Fleck.
Initially Hailee thought Eugene was attempting to play a practical joke on her. Send her to some random little girl and ask if she wanted an autograph; would have been a good one. Although he exclaimed this was not the case.
Hailee came over and it was the cutest thing in the world. The young five-year-old was star struck and could barely talk, after all she had just met her favourite player. The little girl sat with her aunt and when asked how to spell her name got out the first letter, but was so shy she needed her aunt to help her finish.
I asked if the girl wanted a photo with Hailee and immediately the youngster started nodding her head. She didn’t want her auntie in the photo with her, but still shy remained seated on her auntie’s lap, which made me laugh.
Following the photo and autograph, which I think likely made Hailee’s day too, the young girl watched another match of ours. Although she had a tough time talking to her favourite player at the time, she made sure her aunt told me to tell Hailee, “You are a good jumper! You hit the ball all the way over the fence [the net]! You’re so awesome!”
During the second game the young girl, now knowing Hailee’s name, watched, completely invested: “Hailee can jump so high.” “Hailee just hit the ball.” “Did you see Hailee…” I even laughed to myself as I saw the young girl turned, talking to her aunties, spin around in excitement when Hailee was going back to serve.
What made this even better was that Hailee’s mom, Janine, was sitting near them and got to enjoy this little girl so excited to watch her favourite player, which of course is Janine’s favourite player too.
The next day the auntie texted me again, this time with fan mail for Hailee, it was a photo of the five-year-old girl with a picture she drew of a kitten with writing on it, “Love you. Good luck, Hailee!” My friend then texted me later in the day saying her niece talked non-stop at breakfast with her grandpa about volleyball.
Although she had enjoyed watching, Hailee going over to the little girl definitely made an impression. Her auntie said that we had likely created a future volleyball player, especially after we sent a tennis ball sized volleyball home to her later with each of the girls’ autographs on it.
Her aunt let me know she was thrilled with the gift and was immediately practicing her serve: “The whole team signed it! You are the best team and my favourite. You are my team. I’m going to love you forever.”
