A seat left empty

By Jim Sacco

Published: September 2, 2008

Don Layne didn’t forget.
In the back of the volleyball fan’s mind during Waynesboro’s five-game win over Spotswood, his thoughts, at times, strayed off the court and players bumping, setting and spiking on it, and moved toward a now-empty corner of the Little Giants’ gym.
That’s where Marian Quesenbery — “Grandma Q” to those in the know — would sit, pump her fist and kick at the air with every Waynesboro point. The longtime Waynesboro volleyball fan died on May 8 at the age of 82.
“I almost brought a lawn chair to put over there,” he said, knowing that Grandma Q always brought her own to matches.
Then he looked down toward the bleachers. He decided against it.
“But that’s where my thoughts were,” he said. “Over in that corner.”
She would have been comfortable, even in a gym so hot you could have browned a Bob Evans sausage in your armpit, watching her Little Giants (and yes, she would tell you those Little Giants were “hers”) pick up their first win of the season.
She would have loved it even more with the fashion the Little Giants won it in.
A year after cohesiveness and love of the game were questionable, the 2008 version of the Little Giants looked nothing like last year’s team. In its place Tuesday was a team that not only won, but looked like it was having fun while doing so.
No, this isn’t a 2004 redux, but after last season the slightest semblance of improvement is cause to celebrate. And if the difference is obvious on the court from the stands, then it must be blinding to second-year coach Lori Aleshire, who gets a front-row seat at matches and practices to see it taking shape. There’s a long way to go on this trip, but it’s always nice to finally hit the interstate.
“We still have some young players,” Aleshire said. “But they’re going out there to have fun.”
It’s a team not concerned about who’s getting the blocks and who’s getting the kills, Aleshire said, but a team that, well, wants to be a team.
Kind of the same way Grandma Q, well, just wanted to watch volleyball.
Amid the exuberance of the victory, Layne remembered what it was like to have Grandma Q around, half expecting a phone call earlier in the day asking what time he was going pick her up.
“One time Waynesboro wasn’t playing and I called her up to tell her we’re going to see so and so, I forgot who was playing,” he says.
Grandma Q had to opt out that night, she had already made plans to play bridge.
“Well,” Layne said. “I told her to call them up and tell them she couldn’t play.”
Ten minutes later his phone rang.
“She wanted to know what time I was going to pick her up,” Layne said.
In their first home match without Grandma Q watching, the Little Giants got the pick-me-up they needed.
Sure, it came from the girls on the floor Tuesday, but who can say if a little bit didn’t come from that now-empty corner.