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Hanging up the knee pads
The friendships were always the most important aspect of their volleyball team. More important than the scores. More important than the trophies. More important than the wins and losses.
The friendships between the women on the Malleck Oil volleyball team will continue even as the team ends more than 30 years of spikes, serves and swings.
Made up of mothers, grandmothers and one great-grandmother, the team, which has been sponsored by Malleck Oil the past 26 years, has seen several team member changes, but the friendships still continue.
Three of the team's original six members still play, led by team manager Nita Malleck along with Bev Dodge and Carol Rodel. Another original member, Aggie Roberts, quit playing just three years ago. Rounding out this year's final roster was 10-year-veteran Joan Stewart, Norma Klein and Cheryl Hamrick.
Other team members throughout the years include Sonya Prentis, Pam Messinger, Deb Huss, Doris Horky, Pat Nielson, Kathy Lester, Trish Rippen and Jan Rice.
While they were there to play volleyball, the friendship was the most important aspect.
"We always got along. We didn't get mad," Bev said. "We would laugh at each other as well as with the other teams."
Ed Thomas YMCA executive director Mike Gonzales is not surprised by the team's longevity.
"The biggest factor for the team is socialization," he said. A lot of the things a person does at the Y, from running on the treadmill to lifting weight, could be done on your own, but it's the social factor of the YMCA, which keeps them coming back, he said.
Referring to Malleck Oil, Gonzales said, "they took it to the extreme. They know everything about each other."
The team began as a way for the women -- then young mothers -- to get out, to visit and to exercise. Every Tuesday morning, Mrs. Curtis would watch the children while the mothers socialized and learned to play volleyball with five or six other teams, depending on how many people showed up that day, Nita said.
Eventually, a night league started and the team played two times a week.
The women recalled playing at the old YMCA in the late 1970s with its one court -- one very small court.
Nita remembered serving on the west side required standing on the court, while the other side meant standing under the balcony. The scoreboard was a flip board. And during the winter, it was so cold in the gym that the players had to wear coats while playing.
Even with the move from the downtown YMCA to its new building on West E Street in the early '80s, the morning league continued with a nursery in the northeast corner of the Y, according to Gonzales. "It was always packed."
As the kids got older, the women began returning to work and the morning session was eliminated and just the night league remained.
Over the years, the team won the league title and the tournament championship several times. "That's been several years ago," Bev noted. The trophies from those championships are split among the team members.
The team's favorite moments range from Nita nearly performing the splits reaching for a ball to comments from other volleyball players and spectators.
"It was nice to walk in the hallway and hear, 'Those ladies played pretty good ball today,' " said Norma.
"I was asked who I was here to watch," Nita said. "I said, 'I'm not. I'm here to play.'"
Between the eight members at the final pizza party, six were grandmothers with 32 grandkids among them. Nita added that she is also a great-grandmother.
Bev appreciated the equality shown to them and the other teams. "We got the same lecture from the refs about no cussing during the game," just like all the other teams.
Instead, "we just said it to ourselves or under our breath," Carol added.
Cheryl said even her father noted the team's ability. "Dad was impressed with the 'old ladies' being able to hit it over (the net)," she said.
All of the women noted that their husbands never came to watch, although they regularly made it to the pizza parties to celebrate the end of the fall and spring sessions.
Nita guessed, "The men thought they'd be embarrassed." She didn't note whether it would be the women or the men who would be more embarrassed.
Don Klein interjected that he did show up once -- during the 26 years -- but it just made the team nervous.
The team members are hanging up their knee pads after 26 years because as Bev put it: "The other teams got younger and we got older."
Gonzales said the younger teams are coming into the league more experienced than when these women began playing. "Generations are going through high school and college playing volleyball and bringing those skills to the game," he said. "It's a higher level of competition."
With no Level III available in the women's division, Malleck Oil was playing Level II the past several seasons.
"We're not a power team. There are no overhand serves. We just wanted to play," Bev said. "We do a lot of ducking now."
Nita added, "We wanted to quit before any of us got hurt," noting that the worst injury anyone on their team suffered was a cracked finger.
If Level III returned as an option, many of the players said they would return to the volleyball court.
Even if that doesn't happen, the women plan to keep on exercising, to keep on walking, to keep on moving. And to keep on meeting for pizza -- and for the friendship, of course.