Post by palo on Oct 14, 2004 11:13:50 GMT -5
It sounds like Erin actually has the opportunity to medically redshirt for this season and doesn't want to.
I guess multiple matches played on the same day do not count against her for some reason.
Can anyone explain this better?
Here is the article.
Virtue trades kneepads for a clipboard
Ian Gold
Published: Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Article Tools: Page 1 of 1
After practice, when everyone else has left, the figure that has always been the last to leave still is.
She stayed on the court to help a couple of other players with their hitting. The figure is no longer buzzing around the court diving for balls but is instead out of team issue and into a knee brace.
When senior setter Erin Virtue went down, the team changed. While the team was forced to move on and keep playing, it was tougher for an athlete who lived and breathed volleyball to realize that she had put on her orange jersey for the last time.
"I don't think it's ever going to be easy," Virtue said. "Just coming into the gym and knowing it's my last season here, I don't think it will ever be easier. The best I can do is to just get used to it a little bit more."
Virtue tore her ACL Sept. 17 in the game against Ball State University. Although she could have petitioned for a fifth year of eligibility, she said she did not want to change the chemistry of future teams.
Her coach knows her well and understands what a season-ending injury can do to a person. To him, she was the last player you would want something to happen to but the first player who would figure out how to get better - mentally and physically.
"I think she was impacted by the injury at first," Illinois head coach Don Hardin said. "But Erin is someone who really wants to help the team and will do whatever she can to help the team."
Helping the team has been Virtue's goal since she arrived on campus, but now she has been able to step back and think about what comes next. She molded her athletic goal and her academic goal into one.
"I'm a kinesiology major because I want to be a coach," Virtue said. "It's started a little earlier than I wanted it to, but it's something that will help me with experience and things later on. I'm trying really hard to keep my enthusiasm up in practice and evolve as a leader; I'm trying to impact the team in my own special way."
Virtue describes her coaching experience so far as fun; she enjoys continuing to learn from assistant coach Jen Flynn. Hardin still considers Flynn one of the best setters in the country.
"I think a lot of it has to do with knowing you can't be on the court, knowing that you're not the one that everyone is relying on, but you can still be part of it by informing people and teaching people," Flynn said. "She is going to do a good job of that because she knows the game very well. And her relations with people and interactions are very mature and that will help her coaching as well."
Even this early after the injury, Virtue's effects on the Illini are invaluable. After she went down, the team was going through the motions with their heads down; now they are back to playing volleyball the way they know how. Virtue will shed all the credit for helping to pick up their spirits, but without her involvement the turnaround would not be possible.
The team has already realized what she meant to them as a player. Now they will start to look to the sideline and realize what she still means as coach.
