Coach Labeau

We all got called into the pool today during 7th period for a quick meeting about next season for polo. At first all of JV swimming and varsity polo players were all sitting on the bleachers when Coach Labeau told us she wouldn't be coaching or teaching at Falls next year. Surprisingly, I didn't start crying... until she did.

I've NEVER seen Labeau cry. EVER. Seeing her cry and realizing the coach who convinced me to play polo, the coach that made me fall in love with the sport, the coach who would listen to me complain about swimming and always give me a "it's going to be okay" hug when I was having a bad day, the coach who was the first person to text me last year when I passed out in school and was sitting in Cy-Fair hospital getting EKG's done and trips to the cardiologist, the one who just let me cry when I found out Clay passed away, the coach that sometimes I'd get extremely frustrated with, but who I loved so much wouldn't be coaching polo my senior year made me so upset.

We were so lookin' forward to polo next year. We had big plans for fundraisers so that we could go to tournaments, we wanted to have a senior game with Jersey Village, we wanted to have team-building activities, we wanted it to be the best season ever. I guess we all just thought LaBeau would be there too.

There are 7 seniors that have been playing polo together since freshman year; Mina, Andrew, Matt, Matthew, Jodie, Connor, and me. We've all gotten pretty close, and we all love Labeau. At one point we were like "Coach, just one more year". She promised she'd come to games and she wouldn't just leave us in the dark. That'd she wouldn't completley ditch us for our senior year.

Earlier that day she was talkin' about how the class of 2011 has been her favorite class she has coached. In retrospect, I realize now why she was saying that. BLAH!

After talkin' to swimming, she pulled polo out of the group and sat us down. She talked about how we are a family, and how even if we get the crappiest coach next year, if we even GET a coach next year, that we need to stay together, and pull the team together and push through the season. To be the family we always have been. And not let anyone get in the way of that. It made me think just how thankful I am to have a polo team who I can depend on so much.

So now we have decided to make a book for Labeau. So we are all writing her a letter and I'm combining some team pictures with the letters and pulling it all into a kinda scrapbook type thing. Hopefully she'll like it!