This past weekend, our 1985 Bethpage High School Volleyball Team was inducted into the Bethpage Hall of Fame, a full-circle moment forty years in the making.
We hadn’t seen each other in decades. Yet the moment we gathered—flying in from across the country, sharing dinner, laughter, and stories—it felt like no time had passed. The bond was still there. The rhythm of connection, trust, and support that made us champions on the court was alive again in every conversation and every embrace.
On Saturday, we sat together behind the current Bethpage Eagles team, cheering them on from the same court where it all began. After the game, we laced up our sneakers and joined them for a quick scrimmage. The muscle memory returned instantly. The moves, the sets, the spikes—they all came back. I still remember how Deb liked the set right at the net, how Karen preferred it a little back, and how El was always ready to receive the pass.
Some things have changed. The game now uses rally scoring. There’s a position called the libero. The gym has an announcer and formal scorekeepers. But the essence is the same. Volleyball is still about communication (“I’ve got it!”), encouragement (“Shake it off, great job!”), and MTXE—Mental Toughness, Extra Effort—the mindset that defined us then and still defines us now.
Our coach, Anne DiPrima, is still coaching after fifty-five years. When I asked her why, she smiled and said, “I love shaping lives.”
And she truly has. During our Hall of Fame dinner, Coach surprised us with something remarkable. She had kept the goal sheets we wrote as teenagers—our personal and team aspirations—and handed them back to us. Those faded pages brought me right back to that first E3 moment, when she taught us to Express our end vision, to think idealistically before thinking realistically, and to believe that what we could imagine, we could achieve.
That exercise was more than a team ritual. It was leadership development before we had a name for it. We learned to articulate success, communicate with intention, collaborate without ego, and execute with relentless effort.
We were Nassau County Champions that year, finishing 25–1 with an 18-match undefeated streak. But what mattered more than the stats were the lessons we carried forward—how to stay composed when the momentum shifts, how to support one another through wins and losses, and how to lead with both courage and compassion.
At the Hall of Fame dinner, our parents were there too, still cheering us on forty years later, just as they did from the bleachers back then. Their pride, like Coach’s influence, reminded us that leadership is generational—it’s passed down, lived out, and paid forward.
For me, that court is where it all began.
It’s where I learned that excellence is never solo. It’s built on trust, communication, and showing up for your teammates. It’s where I learned that resilience isn’t just about bouncing back; it’s about moving forward with purpose. And it’s where I learned that empathy and inclusion make every team—and every leader—stronger.
Today, through the E3 Leadership Code: Express + Engage + Execute, powered by Emotional Intelligence, I still see the fingerprints of those lessons. Expressing the vision. Engaging others to believe in it. Executing with focus and effort. It all started on that court—with a team of young women who believed in one another, a coach who believed in us, and a shared commitment to something greater than ourselves.
We didn’t just build a winning team.
We built leaders.
🦅 MTXE Forever.
A really good blog and me back again.