By RICHIE HALL
The Guerin Catholic girls tennis team is a program on the rise, with a veteran coach, talented athletes and consistent rankings in the state’s top 30.
It also has a tradition, one that’s just as – if not more important to the team than wins and losses. The Golden Eagles team puts together yearly service projects that help those in the community in need.
“Sometimes we do more than one,” said Guerin Catholic coach Becky Ragsdale. “It just depends. We usually let our seniors be involved.”
Those seniors select a project, and the team tries to finish that project before the season starts. “But during the season, if there’s a need within our community, we’ll go ahead and do another service project,” said Ragsdale.
The projects are varied, but all of them center on helping people and bringing comfort to those who may be going through a tough time.
“We’ve visited the Bridgewater nursing home,” said Ragsdale. One project involved sending cards to people who are battling a terminal illness. “That was well-received,” said Ragsdale.
“We have good kids,” said Ragsdale, who has been coaching the GC team since 2015. “They’re just so thoughtful and compassionate and caring. It’s just an amazing accomplishment. It’s not about wins and losses for our team, it’s about giving back to our community.”
This year’s Guerin Catholic service project involved making hand-made blankets for people who are patients in infusion at the IU Health Joe and Shelly Schwarz Cancer Center. It’s a project that’s very close to Golden Eagles assistant coach Lynn Trott, as she is a cancer survivor.
“It’s important to me to be able to pay back a facility that saved my life,” said Trott, who volunteers at the center.
Junior varsity Purple and Gold Coach Jennifer Clouse, Assistant Coach Lynn Trott and Head Coach Becky Ragsdale show off one of the blankets made by the Guerin Catholic girls tennis team. (Photo provided)
“She reached out to me in early December of last year wondering if the IU Health Schwarz Cancer Center would be open to a donation of handmade fleece blankets,” said Ann Bredensteiner, Manager of Integrative Health and Volunteers at the center. “Lynn has been a volunteer at the cancer center and she knows first -hand what kind of impact a donation like this means to our facility. We enthusiastically said yes.”
The girls on the team took the project very seriously. They spent one of their Saturdays in the Guerin Catholic media center making the blankets, and Ragsdale said the players used their own babysitting money to buy the supplies.
“This has been such a meaningful service project that we will probably do it again next year,” said Ragsdale.
Hannah Dilley was one of the senior captains on the Golden Eagles team.
“It was a really good learning experience to learn how to plan things like this and organize a large group, because we never had as many tennis girls as we did this year,” said Dilley. “It was a lot more planning and making sure everyone was concluded. But it worked out really well.”
Bredensteiner
“Sometimes people have never had a handmade gift, let alone a handmade gift at a time they’re facing a health crisis,” said Trott. “I think it’s rewarding for our girls and out staff to give back to the community and show them how important it is to show compassion for people in times of need.”
The team made 30 blankets for the center – “It took three carloads to bring the blankets over,” said Trott. Each one contained a handwritten card as well.
“It’s a total team commitment,” said Ragsdale. “Our parents get involved, our team moms get involved, our coaches are there, everybody takes this very seriously. Our administration, they support us. Our principal let us come to school late.”
The blankets got a very positive reception from the patients.
“There were so many different types of blankets to choose from,” said Bredensteiner. “There were blankets with all different types of motifs and colors. The patients absolutely loved them.”
The Guerin Catholic girls tennis team has a tradition of putting together annual service projects, something that has become an important part of the Golden Eagles’ season. For this year’s project, the team crafted hand-made blankets and delivered them to patients at the IU Health Joe and Shelly Schwarz Cancer Center. (Photo provided)
“That was really cool to see where all of our work was going,” said Dilley. “We packed all the blankets into the trunks of a few cars. We talked to the director, and she told us how meaningful everything was and how much of an impact it makes.”
“Our goal was just to make these blankets and hopefully provide some kind of comfort and make somebody’s life a little happier,” said Ragsdale. The coach said both the school’s principal and the team got what she called a “lovely note” from a patient named Suzanne thanking the GC girls for what they did. The note read: “Moments like yesterday can be a healing balm to the emotional scars cancer can bring to a person.”
“That brought us all to tears,” said Ragsdale. “When we got this note from this lady, it was just like, unbelievable.”
Ragsdale told her girls to “take this feeling with you” and realize it was a feeling of doing something good for other people, “and that’s when you know you’ve made a difference.”
“I applaud the Guerin athletes for their team efforts not only in sports but off the court as well,” said Bredensteiner. “It was such a kind gesture to come together as a team to make blankets and handmade cards for our patients. The ladies took a lot of time and care cutting, tying and organizing this project. We are grateful for the team’s compassion and thoughtfulness.”
Members of the Guerin Catholic girls tennis team spent a Saturday afternoon hand-crafting blankets for the IU Schwarz Cancer Center. (Front row) Anna Kolb and Kara Buehnerkemper. (Back row, from left) Katie Kolb, Meredith Mattingly, Grace Quigley, Lillian Quigley, Courtney Bassi, and Addison Gruesser. (Photo provided)
The project made an impact on the team, and the coaches still remember some of the patients, such as Suzanne – “she’s still in our thoughts and prayers,” said Trott.
“We’re still thinking about her and we hope her recovery’s going well,” said Ragsdale.
Trott was one of those patients, so this project has additional meaning for her.
“As a grateful patient of IU Health, it’s super meaningful to me to be able to pay it forward, and to watch our girls experience that moment when something they had a hand in organizing is very meaningful to me as well,” said Trott. “I think the girls were able to experience first hand that feeling of compassion when they recognized all the hard work that went into making this project happen and see the benefits of others receiving the blankets.”
Anyone wishing to volunteer at the IU Health Joe and Shelly Schwarz Cancer Center can visit iuhealth.org/North-volunteer.