Some of you may remember that one of the five officers murdered here in Dallas on July 7th was a friend of mine as is his widow and both daughters. Their older daughter and mine attended school together from K-8 and played sports together and I've coached them for several years in those sports. Our daughters are now in their freshman year in high school and don't get to see each other as much because they are in two different schools. His daughter plays volleyball and in order to honor her dad, SMU wanted to have her serve an honorary first serve at one of their upcoming games. Her mom received the following e-mail today.
His daughter had hoped to go to SMU, but doesn't know now. She's very upset.I regret to inform you that we will not be able to go through with the honorary first serve. In the switch between staff members and the handling of volleyball promotions, some information was not forwarded on correctly from (name omitted) to myself and I deeply apologize for that.
The volleyball program was not correctly informed that this would be taking place at the game, and feels that in light of recent events and diversity within the SMU community, that the demonstration could be deemed insensitive.
However, the coaching staff would like to still do something for Victoria and the team. They are invited to stay after the game for an autograph session with the players, if you would like.
Again, they apologize for the inconvenience and late notice, especially in regards to the sensitivity of this matter.
I do hope that you all will still join us on Saturday. If you would like to discuss this further, you can reach me at