BY KRISTA RAMSEY"Everyone has their own strengths. I love to slide on the floor - that's my game," Mimi Sunderman says, sipping iced tea and relaxing after a two-hour volleyball practice. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Of course, sometimes it's a little bit harder getting up off the floor." Anyone who plays competitive volleyball can understand that. The slams, the spikes, the power serves and, oh, the aching muscles. But nothing is going to stop Mrs. Sunderman from playing the sport she loves - not four broken bones, not rehab, and certainly not age. At 71, she is a key member of the defending national championship team in the U.S. National Senior Sports Classic, otherwise known as Senior Olympics. Ten women - eight from Greater Cincinnati - comprise the team. Their ages range from 68 to 80. They head to Tucson, Ariz., May 20 to defend their gold medal. If you picture gray-haired women softly tossing up a ball and shuffling after it, take a side-out penalty. These women come armed with knee pads, water bottles and goggles. They bump, they set, they dive and occasionally crash into each other going for the ball. And when they don't, they hear about it from their coach, 71-year-old Melba Stein, who has played the sport for 61 years. "Everybody, get your feet up and MOVE! Rock it a little bit," she says, holding her whistle ready. Under her breath she murmurs, "It kills me when nobody blocks." It's a little hard to excuse when your team has a total of 345 years' experience in the sport. Some of the women hit local gyms four and five times a week, playing on several senior-center recreation teams, often with teammates of a mere 60 or 65. Night practices often run until 11 p.m. The next day, many head off to their other sports - badminton, golf, swimming, even javelin throwing. "I used to play tennis," Mrs. Sunderman confides regretfully, "but I can't find time for that any more." They do it for fitness and friendship, but most of all for competition. "My husband likes to walk, but I like to win," says team captain Rudy Franer, mother of 10 and grandmother of 18. "You are an inspiration to us all," says team sponsor Diane Seiwert, president of Geriatric Nursing Care Inc., downtown. "Whether you win at nationals or not, it doesn't matter. You've already won here." Mrs. Franer smiles, but says quietly, "It does matter. I'm going to Tucson to win - but I won't be mad and yell if we don't." "Well, I will be mad," says her coach, sitting beside her. "You'll hear me yelling all the way back to Cincinnati." The team has little experience at losing. They hold gold medals in regional, state and national Senior Olympics, and won medals at each of the five national championships since the competition began in 1987. They've played in Baton Rouge, La., San Antonio, Texas, and St. Louis. Athletic competition is nothing new to these women, most of whom started in high school more than a half-century ago. The women remember being restricted to half-court basketball. In track, they could only run 25-yard dashes and, incredibly, sometimes only 25-yard relays. "They did that because they thought a 100-yard race was too hard on the girls, that we couldn't handle it," says 68-year-old Mickey Lockman, with a smile. She is a 50-year volleyball veteran, former physical education teacher and championship (boys') Little League coach. She is entering championship play with one steel hip and a stroke that affected her entire right side. She runs, she jumps, she bumps. She is tough enough to take it. . "We're gluttons for punishment," admits Mimi Sunderman with a sly smile. "I don't care about age. I don't care about what anybody's thinking about our team. Just give me a gym and let me play." Krista Ramsey's column appears in The Enquirer on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202 or fax at 768-8340.
|