Inspirational Teammate

Sophomore Courtney Cunningham

I wanted to take the time to share a story about a very motivational teammate we have at Ole Miss!  Courtney Cunningham, a sophomore MB/RS from Chicago, IL, suffered an ACL tear September 22nd at practice.  Ruby, as the team calls her, was a huge presence in our 6-2, playing RS and putting up a huge block.  Because of her injury, she was not able to travel with us for fear of her injury getting worse.

When an athlete is injured it becomes very easy for that player to get lost in their role on the team.  They are no longer going through the everyday battle of practice and matches, they have a different battle each day of rehab.  This player has to find their new role on the team and will the team accept it!

I can't be any prouder of a player that I have coached.  While we were on our trip to Florida and South Carolina, Ruby would text the team all through the day, whether we were at practice, pre-game meal, in between sets, she was ready to go!  Always with something very inspirational! 

Again, showing her strength as a leader on this team, she had surgery on Wednesday and because her pain medicine made her sick could not come to one of our biggest matches of the year against #12 LSU.  Ruby watched the whole match on TV and you better believe she called our athletic trainer in between sets 2 and 3 and wanted to be put on speakerphone as she yelled and motivated her teammates to "FINISH!!!"  

This is a lesson to any player that gets injured, find your role, find your way to become a leader just like Ruby did.  Our players wrote #10 on all their shoes and write it on their tape jobs, or hands, to always remember our inspirational leader, #10 Courtney Cunningham!  They even finish each practice and match with "Ruby, Ruby!!!"  She is a huge reason for our success this year, even though she can't do anything on the court!