Nov. 9, 2007

Special to TarHeelBlue.com by Daniel Blank

Ashley Board, Bekah Brinkley and Christie Clark will be the stars Friday night. They will be applauded and honored by the Carmichael Auditorium fans. Their coach will make a speech about their contributions to the team and the University. Hugs and flowers will be exchanged.

Then the match with Virginia will start and the trio will recede from the spotlight. Board will still see significant playing time at defensive specialist, but game action for Brinkley and Clark has become sparser as younger players have emerged for the Tar Heels.

But to say the three are playing limited roles in their final season at Carolina would be short-sighted. They are the unquestioned leaders of the team and have been the steadying force for a young team enduring an up-and-down season. It's not quite what they envisioned for themselves - all seniors dream of being the stars who lead their teams to championship glory - but they have embraced their roles and are ready to move to the next stage of their lives with no regrets.

I had an opportunity to sit down with Ashley, Bekah and Christie on the eve of their final weekend playing at Carmichael Auditorium as the three seniors reflected on their Carolina careers and discussed what comes next for them.

Daniel Blank: What were your goals for the season? Has it played out the way you expected?

Bekah Brinkley: Just to try to make the most of it, to savor every minute of it and to know that that's the `last time.' The last time we play that team in Carmichael or that team on the road, and to just try to finish strong and make the most of every day, every opportunity.

Christie Clark: I think we've hit some bumps in the road, but that's how we all learn and I think you always come out of a season learning more than you ever expected to. And it doesn't always come from playing but you always come out with unexpected things that you learn.

BB: I think you learn things that you never thought you could do. Just in drills, you come out of drills doing things you never thought you could do and beating teams that people didn't expect you to (beat).

Ashley Board: I learned a lot of things that I can use later on because I also want to be a volleyball coach at the college level. Just taking issues that we've had on the team that we've had to resolve, learning the best way to solve them or if something didn't work, then learning from that. But I think just being in the leadership role has just been a lot different from last year because we've had a lot of different issues but I've just learned how to deal with that. Coach (Joe) Sagula just told me the other day actually, `You being a captain this year will have taught you more about how to be a coach then I could ever teach you in 50 coaching clinics.'

DB: How has the dynamic changed for yourselves now that you're the seniors and you're the ones that everybody else on the team is looking up to for leadership?

CC: I know we can look at it all from different perspectives just because of the roles that we play on the court. My role this year has been more of an encourager because there are a lot of younger people playing. So my job in practice and in games is to encourage them and try to make them feel welcome. I think we can all look at that differently, but that's kind of how I see my role.

AB: It's definitely weird. I think I liked being a freshman, ya know? There isn't any pressure but it's been fun being a senior because people listen because we are older. You do have a little bit more authority, but it comes with a little extra pressure because we have so much experience and making sure we do the right things, setting good examples.

BB: I think it's almost surreal being the oldest people on the team. In my mind as a freshman a sophomore and a junior, I was thinking, Wow, the seniors are so much older, and I kind of put them on this big pedestal but then you become a senior you're like, no I'm just one of them too. It kind of brings everything back into perspective - this is it. I respected the people that came before us so much and just put them so much above and then now I'm here, I'm like, no, I'm on the same playing field as the freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

DB: Do you have to remind yourselves some times that you are the senior and you are the person that people will be looking to?

BB: We've got underclassmen who have a huge amount of talent and so it's easy to forget that they're freshmen, sophomores and juniors and so you do have to remind yourself that, Hey, I am the senior and I do need to take responsibility.

DB: Has it been difficult maybe not having the presence on the court all the time?

BB: It's difficult. You consider whether or not you're making a big enough contribution. The thing that I've just had to remind myself is that if I'm working hard every day, I'm making the person who's playing in front of me better and I'm either going to challenge them and make them better or I'm going to challenge them and beat them out for that spot. But either way I've had to work just as hard. And then you have to come alongside them and encourage them and keep the team morale high and keep everyone on the same page working as one unit.

CC: We kind of learn to play together as positions and kind of fight for each other as a position. So we have four middles on the team, and there are two that consistently play and when they're doing well in a game the other two of us feel like we had a part in that too because we are the ones that helped them in practice. And when they're doing poorly we think of what we can do to make them better. We all kind of work together as a position to make that position as strong as possible for the whole team. Yes, it's been hard some times, but then you realize that you do have a role on the court, even if you're not necessarily on the court.

DB: How do you keep that even keel even during those times when you are disappointed or frustrated that you're not playing more?

CC: I think it all comes down to, we all came here with the same goal, and that was to win. If the team's winning whether or not you're on the court, the team still wins and you're still part of the team. When the team's losing then it's harder to keep up the façade, obviously, harder for everyone to still be happy about that.

BB: You have to use that as a motivation to continue working hard. If Coach is playing someone in front of you then obviously he thinks they're doing a better job, but there's still something more that you can do and you have to use that as your motivation.

DB: It's been a fairly up-and-down season, has that been tougher to deal with than say, individual performances?

AB: Yeah, this year's been really hard to deal with, especially because this is our last year and you just want to do it now. We're asking some younger players to play really big roles so when you ask them to do that there's always going to be some inconsistencies because they don't have the experience that older players do.

DB: Do any of you see a future in volleyball past this year?

AB: I've been coaching for four years, younger kids, and I'm going to be with the team in the spring and next fall, helping out and coaching some more and hopefully from there, when I graduate in December, I can get another assistant job at a college.

DB: Both Christie and Bekah are moving on to grad school next year. Is there a bit of nostalgia as your careers wind down?

CC: It's been nine years of my life. That's about half of my life that is now going to move on to something else, which is exciting. It's kind of bittersweet because after the last nine years I've thought about or played or done something with volleyball pretty much every single day and so it's kind of like I'm starting a whole new life now, which is scary and exciting, but still kind of sad - like leaving home for the first time.

BB: Same story. Eleven years and we're ... done. It's exciting because I'm excited about what's coming next but at the same time I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye and not lace those shoes up again.

DB: What do you anticipate Senior Night being like?

CC: At least after (today) we still have Saturday (against Virginia Tech). I guess it saves some of the emotion, because the thing I'm most worried about is my mom crying. She cried at my senior night for high school. Once my mom starts crying I just start going.

AB: There's going to be a lot of emotion and I think that's going to come after it's over. The celebration's beforehand and it'll be really nice and really special and having my parents out there on the court will be awesome but I don't think it'll really hit me until the last point on Saturday. And we still have two more ACC weekends after that so we can still kind of postpone it until we're done with that, and then it really sinks in. But this is our last weekend to play in Carmichael. I can't afford to be an emotional headcase.

DB: You've watched three previous Senior Nights, is it going to be weird having the feeling, `Now it's my turn'?

BB: I still feel like I'm just getting to college, like this is my freshman or sophomore year and I'm still just kind of enjoying the whole college experience, and now it's all winding down. It has all gone by so fast. It's scary.

CC: I think the point at which I'm going to realize it's our last time is when we're singing in front of Fever as we do at every game. Every game this year, I've progressively gotten more goosebumps when we're singing with them and with the band. Fever and the band have made the whole Carmichael experience so special and they're kind of one of the reasons it's going to be so hard, just because they've made it so exciting for us.

DB: Has it been something that you've all been cognizant of, that this is your last season? Is that something that's in the back of your head the whole season?

CC: I've noticed myself thinking about it, about everything - this is my last time to play at Virginia, this is my last time to play at Duke, or this is my last time to play against this person who I played club with. There's been a lot of `last times.'

AB: I just try not to let it get into my head, I guess to save it all for your last year is kind of stupid. I think I'm going to be really satisfied with my season because I know that I worked hard for four years and not just for a few months when it was my last year.

DB: Are you satisfied walking away now, feeling like you've accomplished what you hoped to when you came here as freshmen?

BB: Yes and no. Yes, I'm proud of the way we worked and persevered, but at the same time, none of us are going to be satisfied, we're always going to want something more and say, What if? What could I have done more? But I think that's healthy. Yes we're satisfied, but we still want more out of it.

CC: I really like what Ashley said about not saving it all for your senior year, and I think that's why it's so hard, or so bitter toward the end, because you have put so much into it for four years. It's kind of how you feel so emotionally drained after finals week. I don't know if that's a good analogy, but you're so invested in it, and you've been so invested in it for four years, and it's taken up so much of your time and energy and you have your ups and downs and then it all just kind of comes together.

AB: I'm just excited because I'll be in a position where I can pass on my experiences and tell those kids that have just come in as freshmen, you better work hard now. And I think I will be pretty satisfied because I really embraced being here and I'm just so thankful to have had this opportunity to be here and play here. And I know that I'll be able to coach kids that will be better than me but that really excites me too. I'm excited to move on, but I'm going to miss it so much.