Volleyball

The call went out....VOLLEYBALL, you could tell the cadets are getting restless and chanting in low tones..volleyball, volleyball. volleyball. The date was chosen, March 7 2015, the location was selected, St. Cloud State University. Emails sent out calling for teams. No limit on teams from each squadron in the wing.

The day drew upon us, teams arrived from throughout the wing. Registration started at 9am, play started soon after, after 10 hours of sweat, aches and pains it was down to only two teams. After the dust cleared the squadron who won was St. Cloud Composite Squadron, my squadron, my cadets. We are all proud of them. Little to no practice at all, and they are #1.

Besides the volleyball, tradition also dictates the cadets have a Lock In. 12 hours of fun. They had use of a pool, climbing wall, and a movie room. They even took up a dodge ball game. By the time 6 am arrived everyone was tired and wanted to go home.

So what do you feed 148 cadets and 46 seniors you may ask?? Well some didn't stay the whole night, and others only wanted to play volleyball. We had a donation of soda pop, and water from Coke a Cola, we shopped Sam's Club to get food, 160 hot dogs, 6 large bags of kettle chips, apples, oranges, granola bars, cookies, brownies, sweet rolls for breakfast, and to top all that off, 35 pizza's. By 6am it was all gone. I set up the pizza's to be delivered at 7, 8, 9. & 10 pm. That was a smart idea, hot pizza for 4 hours. They loved it. The baked goods came from a local market, day old.

On the way Saturday afternoon I get a phone call from the Deputy of Cadets. How far out are you ?? just getting off the freeway. Are you coming straight here?? yes sir, unless you need me to divert?? Affirmative, we have 20 hungry cadets who have been playing hard, can you swing past Taco Bell and pick up 20 soft taco's??? Affirmative. Mission Completed. Upon entering the building we are swamped by the cadets. Myself and fellow seniors get everything set up to feed the masses. We get 3 roasters going with hot dogs and we blow the breakers. After a delay of 30 min we have roasters in 3 different locations cooking the dogs. 5 of us seniors tag team and get everyone feed hot dogs before the pizza arrived, not to worry the kids eat the pizza too. Our cadets hit the pool first and the climbing wall next. We have a large room set up for movies and that where most of the kids passed out for around 3 or 4 hours.

We have decided to do it all again next year. Same place as this year. We shared the duties with another squadron, next year its all ours. Many seniors said they liked the idea of having it in St. Cloud, why?? We are located in central Minnesota. Oh just to make it clear us adults are called senior members and the kids are cadets. I have slept as much as I could over the last few days. The time change helped but its taking time to adjust to.