Under The Radar: A Redshirt Diary

Trip The Light

November 30, 2021

Monday and Tuesday were jam-packed with tasks for the entire JMU volleyball program, from the coaches to the support staff, as they attempted to have everything in place for the arrival of Brown, Hawaii, and Texas Tech at the Convocation Center on Wednesday. Tori oversaw the delivery of merchandise and concession goods at the Convo while Nick did 10-minute interviews with each member of the roster. He also asked Lauren to do voiceover for the team's season highlights film. Meanwhile, Marc was feverishly working with the professors of all eighteen players and Manager Justin Willett to coordinate the students' taking of Finals next week should they make it to the regionals. As for the players, Sarah met with Dr. Julie Carr on Monday morning to get herself registered for the pair of Social Communication online courses that Marc would be taking during Winter Session and Cameryn spoke with her major advisor about adding a minor in Sport Communication to her academic plan in order to give her a pipeline to the MA in Sport and Recreation Leadership following the completion of her undergraduate degree.

At the conclusion of Tuesday's practice, Marc announced to the team that they would be excused from classes the remainder of this week, with exam times being 7:30am, 10:00am, and 12:30pm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, plus 8:00am and 10:30am on Saturday. He also handed out to each of them their individual exam schedules based on JMU's pre-set schedule for next Monday through Friday. As for Sarah, she had been scheduled for the 10:00am time slot on each of the three weekdays being that her classes were in the evenings. After Lauren had dismissed the players for the day, she and Marc talked over his executive decision.

Lauren: Chris (Roth) and Jennifer (Phillips, Senior Assoc. AD for Student-Athlete Development) signed off on your plan, I take it.

Marc: Yes. This is as streamlined as I could make it so the players wouldn't have to go prof-by-prof to schedule alternate times to take their exams. This also means someone from your staff won't be required to proctor your players' Finals while they're away from campus, which would have been the other option.

Lauren: Say we don't make it past the second round. What will my team be doing during Finals Week?

Marc: That would be up to you. Their academic work will have been completed by that point and therefore they would be under no obligation to remain here beyond that unless you require it for some reason.

Lauren: So treat it similar to Thanksgiving Week, when there were no classes, possibly?

Marc: Again, it would be your call on whether to keep them here or not.

Lauren: God, you're a lifesaver! In 2017, our last appearance in the Show, there was no thought about how to handle Finals, as they were scheduled to happen the week of the Final Four. We didn't have to worry about how our players would finish out the semester with us possibly on the other side of the country. Get any input from Sarah?

Marc: Actually, no. This conundrum was so obvious that I didn't need to ask around about how to resolve it. Say you win Thursday and Friday. Around 2/3 of the pods will have their second-round games on Saturday, meaning you will have no clue necessarily where you'd be going until that evening sometime. At least the two western-based pods aren't in our quarter of the draw, thus their results won't have an effect on your regional site. With the regional semis all on Thursday the 9th, you'd be leaving campus for it on Tuesday sometime, like the three teams coming here did today. There are 1000 different tasks that need to be accomplished between finding out who will be hosting and traveling to the destination. If the players, you, or I had to worry about getting their Finals moved around.....let's just say that would be a problem of immense proportions. This way, the team is free by 3pm each of the next three days and thus won't be having to miss or be late for anything on the volleyball side, since you're playing the later game on Thursday and the Friday match is scheduled for 7pm. And by the way, I think I'm more like a Starburst.