92 Blue Marbles

In the end, it was for all the marbles—92 of them to be exact. But the 2008 Kentucky girls' state volleyball champion, Mercy Academy had been playing that way since the beginning of their season. On the first day of practice, way back on July 15, Coach Todd Garvey showed his talented team a jar of 92 "Mercy blue" colored marbles. "There were 92 days in the season and each marble represented one of those days," Garvey says. "At the end of every practice and after each game, the girls would take one blue marble out of the jar and either keep it or throw it away. It was a way to motivate them—to keep them focused on giving their best effort for every practice and every game," he says. "We wanted to get to that last one and still be playing." Senior tri-captain Casey Garvey, Todd's younger sister and 6th Region Player of the Year as well as the MVP of the State Tournament, echoes her brother's/coach's sentiments about those marbles: "Watching the marbles disappear day by day made us realize how fast the season goes." Senior tri-captain Kelsey Anderson, who earned a scholarship to play at Alabama next year, offers her take: "We just didn't want to waste one. We didn't want to have any regrets about our play at the end of the season." A jar of marbles may sound hokey, but the team responded in every practice and every game. They went 40-1 in matches for the season while winning 86 of the 96 games they played. Along the way to the state title, the Jaguars won the Tournament of Champions in St. Louis, traveled to Tampa to take the Berkely Premier Volleyball Tournament and defeated rival Assumption High School to win the Louisville Invitational Volleyball Tournament. They may well end up ranked #1 in the nation when the final rankings are published December 11. "It was a great season for our girls. Casey, Kelsey and Paige (Wessel—the third senior tri-captain) were true leaders for this team," says Coach Garvey. "They are three of the more talented players in the country and they accepted their roles and provided great leadership for everyone." It wasn't easy, though. The Jaguars had to beat Sacred Heart in the championship game, a team they had defeated four times earlier in the year. A fifth win would be very difficult. Wessel, who will play at Western Kentucky next year says, "We did not want to give them that one chance to beat us." Adds Anderson, "We were well prepared for them. We had to focus on what we needed to do to win and we did." And on the Sacred Heart sideline was Coach Eric Garvey, Casey and Todd's older brother. Think there was a little sibling rivalry? "It was very special to coach against him in the championship game," says Todd. "I'm sure Casey and I will have a few things to say to him at the holiday dinner table," he laughs, "but we're proud to have been on the floor competing against each other. Eric and his team were a classy group of competitors." Maybe at the Thanksgiving table the coaches Garvey and Casey can celebrate with their father Ken, Mercy's coach the last time they won the state championship in 1990. "Winning this championship was just as much for our dad and all the past players at Mercy who worked so hard to get our program to this level," says Todd. In the end, the 2008 Kentucky Girls' Volleyball Championship was a family affair and a will provide a great collection of memories ... and marbles. Paul Najjar is a freelance writer and sports commentator. Read his sports commentary at www.paulonsports.com.