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Week of April 23, 2008


Blaire Foltz
Plano, TX

Club:  Victory 14 Select

Jersey #7
Position:  OH/DS

Her Victory team competed this past weekend in the Lone Star Classic here in Dallas.  Initially seeded 43^rd, the team played to a 9^th place finish and Blaire was one of the standouts of the team from beginning to end, credited with 36 kills, 7 service aces and 8 digs.  There is truly much more to the story which makes her performance one of courage, heart and faith.

Beginning last Wednesday, Blaire’s father lay in a hospital room in Plano, dying from a cancer that he had been fighting courageously for a number of years.  Blaire went to practice on Thursday and then traveled straight to his bedside.  On Friday afternoon, she went to the hospital for “one last visit” before heading downtown to play.  She was pulled off of the court during the third match on Friday and rushed to his bedside because the doctors believed he would not live through the night.  He had asked that all of his children gather together with him as day turned to night on Friday.  The doctors were wrong and he lived to see Saturday morning.  Again, Blaire put on her uniform and was on the court at 8 a.m. Saturday for the team’s first match.  Her request of her teammates was simple – no more tears, no more long faces, no more sad hugs – just put on your gear, treat me as normally as possible and play. That’s just what happened. The team played all day and had two crossover matches to get into the gold bracket, one at 6 p.m. Saturday and the other at 8 o’clock.  Blaire was instrumental in helping the team win the first crossover match and then consulted with her Mom and doctors, by cell phone, when it was over.  The second crossover match was over about 9:30 p.m. and Victory 14S won 30-28, 22-25 and 15-13.  Blaire had the winning kill in that third and deciding game.  She immediately called her Mom, but got no answer.  She was rushed to the hospital, eager to tell her Mom and Dad, in person, of the team’s success.

Greg Foltz died before his daughter arrived.  He died, in fact, while she was battling in that third and final game.  Was she angry that she didn’t get there “in time”?  No, because she knew that her Daddy already knew they had won and that God called him home just in time to help guide her hand during that last game.

Sunday morning, unbelievably, she was back on the court with her team at 7:15 a.m. No more tears, no more long faces and no more sad hugs allowed.  Everyone put on their gear and played.  It was just what Blaire wanted and just what she knew her father would have wanted.  Her Mom watched from the sideline – supporting her daughter in the midst of her own terrible grief.  

We could all learn a great deal from the heart and courage and faith of this remarkable young girl and her incredible family.