Shari Bernhardt from the IUPUI volleyball team is spending her summer in Huntington Beach, California, as she was one of six collegiate volleyball players nationwide to be selected to participate in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Volleyball Internship Program. Throughout the summer, Shari will be providing weekly updates through her blog, which will also be posted on IUPUIJags.com. Below is her ninth entry since arriving in California on May 15.
So this week looked pretty normal overall. Since the rest of our time in California mainly consists of coaching camps, that's what we did. Monday - Thursday we had a morning beach camp in Huntington for boys and girls in middle school. There was also a high school girls indoor camp at Liberty Christian High School. The interns got to choose which camp to coach at and I decided to coach the high school indoor camp. I got to head up the camp director position and was in charge of the camp layout. It was a neat way to be in a leadership role and grow in that way. There were eight girls there from different places and it was so neat to see them light up every time they came in and saw us. At this camp, the girls learned a ton physically, spiritually, and mentally; even myself. We got to teach them about being a leader and a light to their own high schools teams as well as show them news skills on the court. I enjoyed my four days of camp with them and hope to stay connected with the girls we met and coached!
Since this week was pretty normal, we had our usual weekly workouts, investment night, and family night dinner. Alisa, who is one of the interns from Angelo State University in Texas, had to leave early from the summer. In South Carolina during our one-day camp in Summerville, she tore here ACL for the second time. She had to leave early in order to get surgery out of the way before going back to school. With all that being said, we all spent the week having fun with Alisa -- a.k.a we got to spend a whole day in San Diego. I got to go to my first MLB game – San Diego Padres vs. San Francisco Giants. Before the game that night we also got to visit the biggest zoo, the San Diego Zoo. We didn't have a ton of time but got to see super sweet animals! My favorite was the giraffes!
Saturday was a pool day to spend more time as a family before Alisa left Sunday morning. Saturday night we had our last college night. We went to University of California-Irvine and got to play capture the flag in the dark around their campus. We all got to be kids and chase one another around using our physical ability and somewhat of our smarts. Since all of the college night people are volleyball players or other athletes, the game of course was intense and competitive but a blast all the same!
Sunday morning we took Alisa to the airport and said goodbye. We were all crying, but it was bittersweet to see her go knowing that we all will be soon doing the same thing. We have developed deep friendships and they will continue to grow, but it won't be like this summer we got to spend together doing ministry and volleyball together in California.
