By Joseph Staszewski
The Fontbonne Hall volleyball team lost its semifinal match, but just playing was more important than winning with 10 players and Coach Linda Strong left homeless after evacuating Breezy Point because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy.
The players decided Monday at the Bay Ridge school that they wanted to play as a way to get back to normal. They took the court to be together with their second family one more time.
“Coming back out and seeing your teammates, playing like we have before, cheering each other up, smiling, laughing, we haven’t done that in awhile,” said junior Casey McDade, whose house burned down. “It’s great to come together again.”
There were tears in private in the post-game meeting after a 25–15, 25–21, 25–20 loss to Archbishop Molloy in the Brooklyn-Queens Division I semifinals at St. Francis Prep last Thursday night. Strong told her team how proud she was of them for just being out there. They were all happy to be together.
“We wanted to play for each other,” junior co-captain Kristen Sullivan said.
The players’ courage wasn’t lost on their opponents either. It only raised their admiration for them.
“Our hearts go out to them,” Molloy’s Emily Rabot said. “I know it’s really hard. We give them props for coming out here tonight.”
It wasn’t the same team that lost to Molloy in five sets in all three regular season meetings. Strong could sense a difference in the team’s play, saying they went through the motions and lacked a killer instinct. She said she didn’t want to get on them during the contest because she knew what they were going through and how hard it is.
“I didn’t want them to feel bad about their performance,” the coach said. “I don’t think I could have gotten out on the volleyball court and played half as well as they did.”
Even in the darkest moments the players are amazed at the generosity around them. The school has put together drives for essential household items and given them new school supplies. McDade said teachers and students approach her and ask what she needs.
“People are coming up to me and giving me money,” she said. “Everyone wants to be such a big help. I feel like people are there for me. I feel like I don’t have nothing anymore.”
Strong, who recently found an apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, said she and the players have been living a nomadic existence, moving to a different friend or family member’s home. Junior Daisy Trustumm couldn’t even make the game because she is living in Connecticut. Eight members of the school’s first-place junior varsity team were also affected, adding to an already difficult situation.
“It’s really, really tough on these kids,” Strong said. “They are too young to have to experience this. It’s horrible.”
Many of the players have been back to Breezy Point to what’s left of their homes. Sullivan called it “pure devastation” — just burnt houses and houses collapsed inside of others. It didn’t feel like home, but doesn’t mean it won’t be home again in time.
“My family is very determined to rebuild our house where it was,” McDade said. “But it’s going to take awhile.”
