FROM HORSEPLAY to Heroes

BY GREG PETERS

President Ronald Reagan once said, “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”

Upon reading, you either clench your ele- phant-sized fist in mandate or your limousine is filled with inflated fuel as you mule into battle. Either way, you judge. Such is human nature.

In the arena of competition, your enemy is right across the aisle, or in this case, the net.

It’s not a normal setting to strike up a new friendship when court is in session. We’re conditioned to find fault in our enemies, to seek the worst. It fuels the fire in our com petitive spirit. It is the reason trophies were invented.

But sometimes, friendship begins in the most inauspicious manner. Such is the case with Maddy Doerre and Mckenna Wucherer.

Wucherer is a starting freshman outside hitter for the Minnesota Gopher volleyball team. Last year, her senior season for Brook –

field Central, she was the #1 recruit in the en – tire country. Wucherer is 6’1″ and her waist is routinely near the top of the net when she winds up for a kill. The ball makes a dif – ferent sound coming ou her hand, like the diuerence between a bazooka and BB gun. The mix of talent and tenacity was the rea son Wucherer was selected to represent the United States 18U team at the world cham – pionships in Mexico last fall where she was named the tournament’s top outside hitter. She took a three-week hiatus from her high school team to compete. Without her, the Lancers were 11-8. When the best 17-year- old outside hitter on the planet returned, Brookfield Central was undefeated and made their first-ever WIAA State Tournament ap – pearance. Their first-round opponent was the River Falls Wildcats.

At this time last year, Maddy Doerre was a senior right-side hitter for the Wildcats. Doerre was a three-sport athlete with no intentions to play any sport at the college level. She knew the state tournament would be her last ovcial competition on a volleyball court. The finality of the state tournament for Mad – dy would have a much diuerent meaning for her than it would for Mckenna.

It would be an ending that would smack her in the face, literally.

The Lancers and Wildcats had fought to a fifth set, but the match was slipping away for Maddy Doerre and her team, as Brookfield and Mckenna Wucherer just took over down the stretch. Great players find a way to take over a game. The Lancer match point from Mckenna was an absolute cannon down the line. There was a thud made from Mckenna’s right hand and whack when the ball hit Mad dy Doerre’s nose about 9 feet away. It was a millisecond lightning and thunder combi nation.

The blood spurted on Maddy’s face was a

red exclamation point on her volleyball ca reer.

How is it even possible to return a hit from Mckenna Wucherer at point-blank range?

“You pray,” said Doerre, “You send up a prayer and my prayer didn’t get answered that time.” But, as they say, God works in mysterious ways.

“Before I knew her, across the net, she’s just this fierce competitor,” said Doerre, “I thought she’d be mean and all those things you think when you’re playing against some one.”

“I couldn’t really celebrate with my team until I found out she was OK,” said Wucherer, “Volleyball isn’t going to last forever, but the relationships will. It’s the little inter- actions like that, that can go a long way.” Maddy Doerre’s bloody nose had dried up, but a friendship was just beginning to cultivate.

“Girls never do that (see if other girls are ok),” said Doerre, “They win. They’re done. It’s like let’s go. That wasn’t Mckenna at all. She’s actually this super nice person and we ended up becoming friends and I found out what an amazing person she is.” “You have to make the most of every little interaction and make the most of every mo – ment,” said Wucherer. “Because the people that are going to be there for you are the peo- ple you meet along the way.” Doerre and Wucherer have been following each other on social media and share words of encouragement, as they are both college freshman and living in new cities. Maddy at –

tends UW-La Crosse and is majoring in ra diation therapy to help cure cancer patients. Mckenna’s mom passed away from cancer. “Now it’s (the bloody nose) a funny mo – ment and we’re going to be open to reach out to each other,” said Wucherer.

“I could not have asked for a better person to hit me in the face, honestly,” said Doerre.

Asked if she would keep everything the same way, Doerre laughed and said, “I would. I’d take it right in the face.” Mckenna’s reaching out to Maddy may have been easy to do, but it’s also extremely easy not to do. One act of kindness may have the ripple euect to last a lifetime.

Don’t judge a bloody book by its cover; you might want to open it up and find out what small interactions are inside. As American poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves.” Maddy Doerre’s younger sister, Olivia, is a freshman defensive specialist on this year’s Wildcat volleyball team looking for their seventh straight WIAA State Tournament ap – pearance. The “Road to the Resch” begins for River Falls this Saturday night in the region finals.