As I was walking from the parking lot to the Lac qui Parle Valley main entrance Tuesday for the volleyball match, I noticed the doors and windows were all covered in the new LQPV logo. It looked amazing! I thought to myself this is going to be a great night. And it was!

It was the season opener for the LQPV Eagles volleyball team and the Braves from Benson. I was really excited to get back to broadcasting high school sports. The last time I was broadcasting high school sports was at Pebble Creek in Becker, covering the state golf meet. That was the second week of June, so I was ready to put the headset on again and get back into my routine of broadcasting sports. I really enjoy doing play by play of volleyball. I’m always a little rusty with the volleyball terminology during the first match of the season. During the junior varsity match I did some play by play in my head to get used to the language. Volleyball is a fast moving sport so you have to be quick while broadcasting. I also wrote down some volleyball terms like, digs, kills, pass, block, side out, ace, setter, libero, slide and anything else I could use.

I was surprised to learn that the new Benson volleyball coach is Ainsley Anderson, Ainsley coached volleyball at LQPV a few years ago. She was head coach for one year, before taking a teaching job in Benson. It was nice to see and visit with her. She gave me the starting line-up and we talked about her team a bit. The Eagles also have a new volleyball coach in Brooklyn Gould. Brooklyn told me she likes to talk, so she will be perfect for radio. It’s been fun getting to know her and see what she is doing with the volleyball team.

The volleyball match with Benson was a thriller! It went five sets, with LQPV pulling out the exciting win. When I get home I always sit in my chair and get caught up with my social media posts. Getting the scores out and gathering other scores from that night. I received a message from one of the Benson volleyball players thanking me for broadcasting the match and she told me a pretty good story. Her name is Lilly Slaughter. During the broadcast I made the comment that her last name was the same as the rock band Slaughter that was just at the Swift County Fair in Appleton last Friday night! I was wondering if she attended the concert in the Chuck Brown building.

To my surprise Lilly had listened to the livestream when she got home and heard me mention her name and if she had attended the Slaughter concert. She was messaging me to tell me she had attended the concert with her mom and even met the band personally at a restaurant in Benson. She sent me pictures and and told me she had a great time. I thought that was a great story.

There’s two stories here. One is Lilly’s and the other is mine in that you never know who is listening to the radio broadcast and how that effects people’s lives. Lilly is a good volleyball player. I was very impressed with her volleyball skills. I was even more impressed that she felt comfortable enough to message me and share her story about Slaughter. We have never met and don’t even know each other. Because of radio and volleyball I have a new friend. The power of radio!