Life has been good since junior Sallye Hale moved up to join the varsity for playoffs. Sallye, known as Sassy to her teammates, was the only junior on JV and served as captain of the team. “We were undefeated in district,” she says, “and we had a great time.” But varsity has its perks. “I got to ride the bus to the playoff game in Waco, and we watched scary movies. The team reached out to include me and make me feel comfortable.”

Cheers from the student section and the player sidelines were deafening when Sallye subbed in at the first playoff game. “I got a little nervous, because it was my first varsity game and I didn’t expect to go in, but hearing everyone cheering made me feel great.” If she wasn’t on the volleyball team, Sally thinks it would be fun to be the school mascot. That makes sense – she told me her gameday ritual is to wear crazy socks under her ankle braces. She says Robert Rowe is her favorite teacher, “he’s hard but he stood by me when I wasn’t doing that well in Algebra II. He helped me understand it and improve.”

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

And, when I spoke to her Monday, she had a bold confidence in her team – “I predict we’ll win against Rowlett (they did in 3 last night), then we’ll get to go to Huntsville. That game would conflict with the football playoff game, but hopefully we’ll both keep winning so both teams will get to cheer for each other.” Sallye, all of us in LH hope you are right.