Corona Virus Quarantine Day #49: Birthday week goodness.  May 7, 2020

Today was a productive day…I made Cooper’s favorite breakfast today…french toast in honor of their birthday week.  He was pretty excited about it.  I feel like very once in awhile we really need these uber productive days!  I homeschool our children and didn’t want to walk off the job so let’s call that a success.  Fletcher even did all his work without complaining and I found that if I time him he is motivated to work harder.  So a huge win for me!  It’s all about making things a game!

So focused.  His goal was to finish this page in 5 minutes…proud to say he crushed it…if only I could get him to be this focused each day!  

I organized and cleaned much of the house today as well to prepare it for a cleaning service tomorrow.  I cannot tell you how excited I am about this.  I have been cleaning this house top to bottom each week to keep it sanitary for Gaga and all of us.  In the past almost 7 weeks I am really the only one who has left.  Bryan picked up takeout a few times and Gaga went to the doctor but other than that I have gone shopping once a week and gone out as little as possible.  With Gaga in the hospital I felt like it would be really important to get the house really scrubbed down so she can come home to a super clean house.  The cleaners use hospital grade cleaning supplies and can I tell you what a great reprieve this will be for me?  I’m worn out.  Working, being the homeschool teacher, the chef and the maid has me worn down.  So happy early Mother’s Day to me!  I really can’t tell you how excited I am!

On another totally unrelated note, I was on a national call today for the American Volleyball Coaches Association and we discussed a great deal of things.  We had speakers from USA volleyball and many other associations to talk to us about the future of sport in general and of course specifically as it relates to volleyball.  Can I tell you that it made me feel a little depressed?  There is so much uncertainty about whether or not sports will happen in the fall, if there should be fans and of course the economic repercussions of having the game without anyone in the seats watching.  Summer camps for the collegiate coaches are off the table and club volleyball programs are hoping to stay in business.  One of our speakers discussed the idea that this was an opportunity to change how we do things in our sport and in youth sports in general.  He also shared some alarming statistics.  For example, 70% of youth are unfit and most young people quit organized sports by the age of 11.  Our triplets just turned 10.  It’s hard to believe that.  But I also among live in a demographic of people that can afford club sports and that have the time and means to make that happen for their kids.  We also both coach and have been around sports our entire lives, so our kids, you can say, have an advantage in that regard.

His program, “Project Play” talks about providing quality access to all kids.  But this Covid crisis has all sports programs scratching their heads.  There is the obvious problem of funding.  If there are no fans and for the spring and summer most club sports have been cancelled or their seasons cut considerably shorter…how do they make up for that revenue loss?  So clubs and sports programs need to start asking themselves how do we get more people involved, make youth sports more inclusive and at an affordable price.

Another question that was brought up was regional play.  One AD remarked that in flying to one conference school they flew over 10 other schools they could be playing that are not in their conference.  The issue of course with this is that universities want a competitive conference to have a strong RPI and and opportunity to compete in post season play.  So the question remains, in college, high schools and club programs across the country does it make more sense on many levels to play only regional teams and restrict travel as much as possible?  So for example, in Kansas City, where the volleyball is quite strong nationally, would it be better for the teams here to play regional programs across states like Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and even Illinois but scratch traveling to places like Florida or California (many teams here do this each season)?

This covid crisis has brought up so many questions when it comes to sport and I am so fortunate to be a part of an organization that is looking for responsible answers.  The American Volleyball Coaches Association is an incredible organization that promotes not only volleyball but most recently worked in conjunction with many other organizations to try to save sports at the collegiate level.  Sports like swimming, tennis, soccer, baseball and softball, men’s and women’s volleyball, golf and wrestling were all on the chopping block.  With March Madness being cancelled and the concerns about little to no football revenue being a possibility…the NCAA was approached about allowing schools to cut programs.  The AVCA was a huge part of making sure that for now…that didn’t happen.  Our leader Kathy DeBoer is one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met.  She’s not only smart, but she’s a work horse, a doer and a get stuff done kind of woman.  While this call gave me concerns and made my head spin on many levels I am blessed to be part of the conversation and hopefully part of the solution.

I’d love to sit down and talk with the coaches I know and respect and come up with creative ideas to how we play sports in the covid crisis and beyond.

I’d love to answer the questions that were posed today in my meeting…like is it time for a change in youth sports?  Should they cost as much as they do? Should they occupy as much time as they do?

One suggestion that I loved was how sports programs should work together to allow more cross over or dual and tri sport athletes. So in other words if more programs were willing to work with kids and families and any individual sports program took up less of their time, kids playing multiple sports would be possible.  Kids can’t do that now past a certain age because there is only so much time in the day.  I’m sure anyone who knows anything about being an athlete,  playing more than one thing is what’s best for our actual athletes.

So. Many. Questions.  So. Many. Thoughts.  I could write about it all night.

In other news, I need to give a shout out to my sweet husband.  The kids all got new beds for their birthday and of course they wanted them set up immediately.  So Bryan Dorsey was on calls all day and tonight he worked his rear end off to set up those beds for the kids.  They were beyond excited to have their “new rooms” and each of them went to bed with a very happy smile on their face. Bryan will go to bed tonight very tired!

Tomorrow they want to hang things on the walls.  LORD help us.  

Lastly, an update on Gaga.  She didn’t have a great day today.  She was poked and prodded, tested and tried.  But…hopefully tomorrow we will get some answers from all those tests.  They did an MRI of her head, a CAT Scan with contrast of her chest, abdomen and pelvis and several heart tests.  So say some extra prayers that we get answers and that whatever this is…they can fix her up and send her home.  There are a lot of people missing her.

Thank you to all the people who reached out to me today about her.  She is very special to a lot of people and I’m so grateful for the prayers.

The kids also wrote about 40 letters today and I am proud to say it’s the first time they wrote them and I addressed them and got them in the mail the same day and not 5 days later…see productive!  

Stay well everyone…GOD bless!

#dorseyshenanigan

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