Get To Know You BBQ

Last night we hosted at get to know you BBQ for our daughter’s new volleyball teammates. Many of the girls on the new freshman team already knew one another from Middle School or Girl Scouts, but there are several who didn’t. So we figured that an informal get together where they can hang out and just talk would give them a chance to get to know one another.

We weren’t too sure how well attended an event like this would be on a holiday weekend. But we didn’t see much point in waiting until the next weekend. This upcoming week they have two out of town road trips planned. I figured that getting to know each other after being stuck on a bus for several hours would be a moot point.

Saturday night I loaded up the BBQ grills with hamburgers, hot dogs, smoked sausages, and chicken. I boiled up a pot of corn on the cob and my dear wife put together a couple salads. Then our house was invaded by 10 high school volleyball players. 5 of the team were going out of town and couldn’t make it but we did have a bonus. One of the girl’s ride to the party was one of the varsity team players. The varsity player hung around for a while and visited with the freshmen. She passed on some pretty good information about the upcoming bus trips. I hope most of the girls were paying attention. It will make next Tuesday and Thursday a lot easier on them if they were.

Once the girls all got here we put all the food out in the kitchen, grabbed ourselves a couple of plates full of food and disappeared into the front room to watch the Notre Dame Football game. We gave the girls the run of the kitchen, dining room and living room. We figured they would open up to each other better if us parents weren’t hanging around. We could keep an “ear” on what was going on in case things got out of hand. But we couldn’t hear much, with 11 voices all talking at once it was hard to make out the individual conversations. But we were able to make sure things stayed civilized and peaceful. There was no trouble.

The girls all seemed to have a good time. That is if you call eleven teenagers sitting around in a room and all eleven of them talking at the same time. They talked and giggled and ate and giggled and gossiped and giggled. My dear wife and daughter were both very worried about how the party was going to go. They were both worried that everyone would just sit around and not say anything to anyone. I figured there was little chance of that happening. It took all of about 2 minutes for the arriving girls to settle in and make themselves at home.

They must have done an okay job of bonding. When they left here, 6 of them, including my daughter went over to another girl’s house for a sleepover. Apparently their host has pulled this last minute sleepover stuff on her mother before because she went right along with the idea. Then this morning, about the time I was expecting a call from my daughter to come get her, I got a call asking if she could go with the rest of them to a third girl’s house for a few hours.

All in all the 3 hour BBQ party we had planned lasted 23 hours and stretched across three different houses. I think we can safely say that part of the freshman volleyball team made a good start towards bonding and becoming friends last night.