What an exciting week this has been for Cumberland Homeschool Athletic Teams, Inc (CHAT)! With the passage of HB 290 public high school teams were officially permitted by the KHSAA to play against home school teams in interscholastic competition. To the best of my knowledge our JV Lady Blazers and the JV North Laurel Lady Jaguars were the first two teams to take advantage of this new legislation on Tuesday, September 11, 2018, followed by the Varsity teams. Although our beloved Trailblazers lost in an exciting match (varsity scores 20-25, 23-25), it was a landmark event and a thrilling game. The North Laurel High School coaches and administration were wonderful hosts.

Two days later, on Thursday, September 13th, in Williamsburg, KY, the Cumberland Athletics Trail Blazers confronted the Williamsburg Yellow Jackets. (A quick BTW, why do the Yellow Jackets have orange jerseys and mascots? Anyways…) With a rather raucous crowd behind each team (we’re not mentioning parental names here), our Blazers won the 3-out-of-5 match in three straight games. (The last game was a nail-biting 25-23 win.) As the visiting team’s traveling supporters were bursting out in celebration, a quick hush settled over the crowd as an opposing player passed out in all the excitement. By God’s grace she recovered quickly, and the post-game festivities continued.

For those who attended the match, we witnessed stellar play from every position, despite missing one of our key players, Alex (The Ace) Cunningham (out with an incapacitating migraine per reports circulating on Facebook). “Down the River” Greer made some excellent sets resulting in kills and tips by her front-line giants, Abby “The Big” Diehl, “You gotta have” Faith Drew and Brooklyn Jung. “Make my day” Kristin Renee surprised everyone, including her family who sat next to me in awe, with a couple of aces and other excellent serves as she stepped into a role that has been challenging for her in the past. “Poison” Ivy did her serving thing as usual leading to chants of “Get out the prednisone.” She also shifted it up a “Greer” or two with some impressive hits and kills from the outside hitter position. Zoe “Take ‘em down” Brown came in with backrow passing which led to subsequent sets and kills.

All-in-all this was one of the most exciting games I have ever attended in Cumberland Athletics history and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season brings our way. One of CA’s recent graduates, Sydney White, a superb setter in her own right, and now a collegiate athlete at the University of the Cumberlands, attended the game. She provided encouragement and support to River Greer from the sidelines and also remarked how good our team looks this year. It was great to see Karen White, our retired Athletic Director, and her husband and former CHAT BB coach, Andy in the stands.

(I am officially relinquishing the game reporting to any interested CA homeschool students/parents who may want to use this opportunity as a creative writing assignment. Please send your article and any photos to bruce.jung@chatky.org for editing and submission.)