A North Texas volleyball coach spent a season helping young players learn the game. By championship day, he found himself coaching both teams competing for the title.<\/p>\n
The final two teams standing in the Colleyville Recreation League were both coached by Michael Maupin, a PE teacher at Glenhope Elementary School.<\/p>\n
“Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose,” Maupin said.<\/p>\n
The championship matchup was the result of an idea from his daughter, Skylar Maupin.<\/p>\n
“I just thought it was such a cool idea to play volleyball with everybody that I love,” Skylar said.<\/p>\n
Skylar asked her dad to create a team with her friends.<\/p>\n
“I grew up playing soccer, and I didn’t know anything about volleyball,” Maupin said.<\/p>\n
Still, he decided to give it a try.<\/p>\n
Students at a North Texas elementary school were asked whether they wanted to learn something new.<\/p>\n
“My friends were like, you should really try Coach Maupin’s team. And I was like, okay,” said Abi Pichardo.<\/p>\n
“I’ve known him since I was little,” said Camdyn Harig.<\/p>\n
“I decided to go try it, and I was like, oh my gosh, I actually like it,” said Ximena Herrera.<\/p>\n
What Maupin expected to be a few girls learning the basics quickly grew.<\/p>\n
“Next thing you know, we have three teams of all kids that have enjoyed it and want to play,” he said.<\/p>\n
After-school practices turned into games in the Colleyville Recreation League and provided opportunities for players to help one another improve.<\/p>\n
“I know Kate, she’s been working so hard on her serve,” said Cailyn Carter.<\/p>\n
“When she finally got it, everybody was so happy. We were so happy!” said Ava Nowell.<\/p>\n
The players said they learned lessons beyond volleyball.<\/p>\n
“I’m not gonna lie, before, all this volleyball stuff, I had a really bad temper, but now I can use that temper!” said Anika Ghose.<\/p>\n
As the teams advanced through the bracket, they continued winning.<\/p>\n
“If we get down in our heads, then we’re not going to do as well. It’s all about the energy and our confidence,” Carter said.<\/p>\n
Their success created an unusual situation.<\/p>\n
The last two teams remaining in the league were both coached by Maupin.<\/p>\n
“At the end of it all, one big happy family,” Maupin said.<\/p>\n
During the championship match, he stood near the middle of the net, offering instruction and encouragement to both teams.<\/p>\n
“I like that control, Camdyn. That was the right amount of pace,” Maupin said during the game.<\/p>\n
“They have all said, I don’t like playing them because they are my friends and we learned this sport together,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He’s like hyping us up, and then he’s moving to hype the other team up,” said Rylee Herms.<\/p>\n
The players embraced the matchup while continuing to cheer for one another.<\/p>\n
In the championship game, Team Silver and Team Black, named for Glenhope’s school colors, began creating cheers together.<\/p>\n
“We are the pack, silver and black. Woo! Excellent, here we go,” they chanted.<\/p>\n
“I feel like I just built up so much memories and the ace chance that I’m going to be carrying on and I’m gonna be teaching my children this ace chance,” said Ema Rondon.<\/p>\n
The girls have since graduated from Glenhope Elementary and moved on to middle school, but many are still playing volleyball.<\/p>\n
“I hear him all the time. I can hear him, like, Hannah, call the ball, you got this,” said Hana Lathouwers.<\/p>\n
Even after the players left elementary school, Maupin continued coaching them.<\/p>\n
“Because I love them, they’re fantastic. They’re awesome kids. I’m lucky to get to coach them,” he said.<\/p>\n
The girls said they are sad to leave behind a season spent playing with friends they have known since kindergarten. Many now play for club teams around North Texas.<\/p>\n
“I’d love to sit in a rocker and watch the girls play and not have to coach them anymore,” Maupin said.<\/p>\n
The players are not ready for that.<\/p>\n
“I would relive it a thousand times,” Rondon said.<\/p>\n
Coach Maupin’s daughter played on Team Black, which won the championship match against Team Silver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A North Texas volleyball coach spent a season helping young players learn the game. By championship day, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11949,27,29,28,5670],"class_list":["post-320273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-carter-in-the-classroom","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-volleyball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}