James Beach: Happy Birthday Conleigh From The Volleyball Family

  • Tuesday, April 7, 2020
  • James Beach
Conleigh Brock, left, present day and, on the right, as a seven year old competing against a team of 12-year old volleyball players. Conleigh is celebrating her 16th birthday under these unusual times.
Conleigh Brock, left, present day and, on the right, as a seven year old competing against a team of 12-year old volleyball players. Conleigh is celebrating her 16th birthday under these unusual times.
photo by Contributed

Over the last few weeks I have had numerous emails and texts from lifelong friends and acquaintances, and folks, if there has ever been a silver lining to this stay-at-home stuff it is the fact many of us have taken the time to reflect back on the important things – and people – in their life. Having so much free time in a world where most of us are used to staying on the gas pedal from dusk til dawn is certainly challenging, but it comes with its share of rewards.

 

Last night I spent almost three hours on this app that has been all the rage called Zoom and I got to sit back and laugh with the greatest group of high school baseball coaches in this town. And just as I have realized with every text or email or phone call I have gotten, I realized just how many special people there are in our little corner of the world and how much so many of them mean to me personally.

 

My colleague Kevin Llewallyn has been banging out stories left and right on accomplished high school seniors in this forum over the last few weeks, telling the tales of so many deserving young men and women who sit at home while their spring sports’ seasons pass day by day. Each of these seniors were brought into the world immediately after 9/11 and each brought with them the hopes of a better day ahead. They came along at a time of uncertainty and today they continue to remind of us of that hope from which they were born.

 

I have come to realize there is only one way to deal with uncertainty and survive it and that is through hope. I’m not big on coincidences because I personally believe in order. I look no further than the Easter sunrise which lies ahead to know where my hope resonates.

 

I encourage those I talk with that free time should be bathed in hope and in every crisis, there is hidden opportunity for good if only you will look for it. Some of the best lessons I have ever learned have come from times of pain, and I am thankful for each. I have people who I have walked with in my lifetime who have always carried the rope necessary to pull me out of the ditch.

 

When I first started working at the newspaper back in 1981, I was assigned the task of covering high school volleyball and the first thought in my head was why me Lord? Nobody in the state actually covered volleyball as a beat. It was a call-in sport. Something for the girls to do before basketball season began. We were going to actually use newspaper space to document games of girls’ volleyball, and it was my byline that was going to do it.

 

I told my boss Roy Exum I knew exactly zero about the game and to be honest had no clue where to even begin to which he replied, “well, you might want to go introduce yourself to Juanita Merrill. I think she might be able to help you there.”

 

Now let me tell you something about Juanita Merrill. I absolutely adore the woman now, but the first time I went to one of her Kirkman practices she absolutely terrified me. The sound of words such as bump, set, and spike from her mouth were said with a drill instructors’ cadence. She commanded respect from her girls and she certainly got it from me as well.

 

I also learned you don’t win four straight state titles or 81 consecutive matches without your players buying in, and her players hung on her every word. They loved her, just as I came to love her.

 

My biggest volleyball influence, though, came in the form of Catherine Neely, and I will fight anybody who says there is a person who does more for girls’ sports in this state than Coach Neely. To this day, if ever I need a hug, hers would be the arms I would run to among all coaches. The East Ridge legend was my best friend. But my volleyball family continued to grow, and with each new member, my love for the sport grew. Soon after I couldn’t get enough of Red Bank’s Susan Thurman. And I so admired Connie Young at Bradley and Peggy Thomas at GPS. There was Janet Tate at Hixson and Betty Robinson at Ooltewah, and Lara Strang who took over for Thomas at GPS.

 

And our town was blessed with some of the state’s best players back then. I can close my eyes and still see East Ridge’s Kim Huskey or Kirkman’s Priscilla Robinson pounding away kills. I see Red Bank’s Robin Bates digging everything hit her way. I loved watching Lisa White play at East Ridge and Trish Rivers at Ooltewah. Cindy Snyder from Tyner and Meg Glass at GPS were near and dear to me. Jody Adams was a volleyball player to me long before she dominated the basketball hardwood and was one of just a handful of Bearette players Jim Smiddy allowed to double-dip sports.

 

Volleyball will always be special to me and what I thought would be the worst assignment in newspaper history was absolutely one the greatest things that ever happened to me. 

 

Which brings me to Mr. Volleyball himself: Paul Brock.

 

The sport brought Paul and I together when he was a player. I marveled at the things he did on the court because I had never seen them done that way before. And he was always lending a hand, first to this set of girls and later to that team, that is always destined he would be a coach. He started coaching club ball in 1986 with the Chattanooga Volleyball Club which later morphed into the Dig to Win club and is now recognized across the South as Choo Choo City volleyball.

 

It led him to GPS where he moonlighted from his job at TVA to help lead the Bruisers to three state titles and two runner-up trophies in an eight-year period.  During his first state run, I roomed with him at his hotel in Murfreesboro because I had failed to secure accommodations in time to get a room. He was always stepping up for other people. It still goes down as one of my favorite state title teams because of the late-night tales that were told in that hotel room.

 

But like me, volleyball has led to so much more for Paul. He met his wife Nancy through the sport, and the work they did together – Nancy coached at Brainerd Baptist and side-by-side at Choo Choo City – easily made them the first family of the sport around town. They had two children: Conleigh who is a spitting image of her mother, and Miller, who was born on Mother’s Day. And the love for volleyball only became stronger with two more hearts beating for it.

 

I remember a picture of Conleigh when she was just seven years old playing in a 12-under summer tournament. The picture was published in USA Volleyball Magazine with the caption it’s not how big you are, but how big you play. Conleigh’s head barely topped the bottom of the net and the 12-year-old opposite her was twice her size.

 

Her heart has always been bigger than most.

 

Today is Conleigh’s 16th birthday. It won’t be celebrated the way most 16th birthdays should be, not with this stay-at-home order in place, and her closest friends scattered across town. But Conleigh is all too familiar with life being unfair. Her birthday last year came a week after she buried her mother. Nancy fought off cancer time and again through the years, each time it returned putting on her brave face and attacking it with vigor and courage. The same kind of courage you see in Conleigh when she was seven playing against 12-year-olds. The kind of courage we should all latch onto as sports seasons, graduation, proms and birthdays slip by the wayside.

 

The kind of courage it took when Conleigh approached Baylor headmaster Scott Wilson the day after Nancy was buried and asked if she could tell her classmates about her mother. Wilson, whose own daughter Georgia was being treated for cancer at the same MD Anderson Hospital facility Nancy had been, made it happen. Conleigh told her classmates in the same room where some 1,500 people had waited in line just days before to pay respects to Nancy, how she would honor her mother.  

 

Kids still wearing volleyball uniforms they had played games in that afternoon showed up for the visitation as an entire volleyball community came together to honor Conleigh’s mother. And Conleigh continues to honor her mother, helping her dad coach the same Brainerd Baptist team her mom loved so dearly for the last three years.

 

In the middle of my Zoom meeting last night I got a text from Paul that was sent to a whole group of volleyball family across town. He wanted to make Conleigh’s birthday as special as possible and encouraged folks to reach out to her today. I can only imagine poor Conleigh’s inbox of messages today because I know exactly how loving the volleyball family is.

 

Most kids – I know mine don’t – cringe a little when someone tells them they look just like their mother or father. When I look at Conleigh, though, I suspect she is rather proud of her looks, and I know every time I see a picture from Paul, it brings absolute joy to my face seeing the Nancy in her smile.

 

As I said earlier, I am on the constant hunt for the hope in things, no matter how dire things may be, and just as I see Nancy in Conleigh’s face, I find so much hope in knowing there is so much more of Nancy than just her looks inside her.

 

The easy thing to say is no 16-year-old should ever have to see such an ugly side to life this soon, but Conleigh’s courage in the face of all it, is the hope that gets so many of us through the not-so-kind days.

 

Happy Birthday Conleigh Brock and know you are so loved, and so admired by one of the greatest families around: the volleyball family. Your mother is incredibly proud of you and knowing all that I know about you from my friend Paul, that’s the greatest gift of all.

 

(Email James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)

Happy birthday, Conleigh!
Happy birthday, Conleigh!
photo by Contributed
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