The Black Sock of Marshalltown

Once upon a time…

It was 2009. It was volleyball season and that means traveling. Like every other VB team outside of the top 50 NCAA D-1 teams, that means vans and buses. For us, a bus, because we were traveling from Springfield, IL, home of the Loggers, to Marshalltown, Iowa for a tournament. It was September 19.

We got into town early enough that we checked in to the motel before heading to the gym. This was convenient–less delay getting food later (because we were heading to Ames for some Hickory Park…always remember, good food is the focal point of my coaching). So it would seem…

You know how players are heading to a tournament, especially when you know you’re going to get to play top teams (three of our four opponents were ranked that weekend). They are amped up and that starts well before you get to the gym.

ASIDE: Rules about cell phones, all that, for riding a bus are silly–if you are worried about those things, you have a different cultural problem with your team. If you have competitive kids, in that last hour before reaching a gym, they’ve got their minds on the game…even if they’ve got homework sitting in their laps or they are tapping messages to a smoochie significant other on their phone. REALLY–think about that and your team. If you KNEW they were focused, you wouldn’t care what they were doing…and focus doesn’t come from a coach’s diktat.

So I give room assignments to players, hand out keys, and off they go to put stuff down and change (easier at a hotel than the bathrooms of a community college…and more private). I’ll have the hotel paperwork done by the time they’ve changed, I reckon–because the desk clerk is not the fastest or most efficient ever. One of my players was back really fast. I was impressed.

Her name was Lauren M. Lauren was a hard-worker. If I just started with “She was a 5’7 middle who wound up all-conference”, you wouldn’t have needed me to note her work ethic directly. She was smart on the court, too, in a way other coaches hated. Like all coaches, I have a soft spot in my heart for athletes like Lauren M. To continue the story….

She appears at the top of the stairs right next to the hotel desk/the little walkway overlooking the foyer. “Dietz, we have a PROBLEM.” Who knows if we do…I mean, it could simply be the toilet paper is one-ply in the room.

“What?”

“The room has bedbugs.” She was dangling one of her socks over the railing [think about this in a minute…]

The desk clerk caught that, looked at Lauren, then me. “Our rooms are clean. I will make sure to check though.” CYA in action.

So I said to Lauren, “They’ll work on it. If necessary, they’ll clean the room while we’re gone. By the way, you know we wear white socks.”

Lauren’s eyes are wide like a Looney Tunes character. “That’s the problem.” She shook the black sock. It started showing white as the black fell off. “This IS my white sock.”

I don’t recall saying anything–what do you say? I do remember the desk clerk immediately calling the general manager. The two rooms at the end of that floor–those players wound up with new rooms…which meant to me that it wasn’t something Lauren could have somehow brought from home). I remember us getting free access to the hotel’s laundry for all of those girls’ clothes/belongings.

And the hotel? Every room we had got comped. As a small program where 50%+ of the money you spend has been fund-raised by your athletes, that’s huge. I mean, if you’re at a small school, the sudden savings of $650+ dollars is IMMENSE.

Up above, I mentioned focus and that competitive athletes focus in on the match regardless of what else may be going on around them? This is where you go ‘See, Jim…not true.’ Except–it was true. Our first match that day was against the #5 team in the country. Lauren picked up an ace, three blocks, five digs, and hit 8-1-13, .539. Second match of the day? One ace, three blocks, a dig, hit 8-1-16, .438.

You’re right though–99% of the time, a sock so covered with bedbugs it is a different color completely is going to freak a kid out, way out, and they won’t be worth anything the rest of the weekend. That’s why this is a great memory of one of my alums. It didn’t phase Lauren.

I suppose that’s carried over into adult life. She wound up a probation officer. Dealing with interesting situations and people is a daily experience for her.

And that’s it–no real lesson or deep meaning…other than always check your sheets and pillow cases, check the bed, when you wind up staying at a hotel. Otherwise the bedbugs may not wait until you sleep tight to get you!