GRASSROOTS
Pink Panthers developing boys beyond the game
No club is like the Pink Panthers. The one-
team boys’ volleyball organization that got its start with the 2014-15 season is founded on three key principles: • Working hard • Having fun • Making a difference
Nowhere in their philosophy does the word volleyball even come up. And that’s because, as club founder Lisa Deppe said, these principles can be applied to any organization sports group, theater depart- ment or traveling team. “We want to emphasize character building and developing skills,” Deppe said. “We are trying to fi nd a way to motivate young people to do something more. It’s not about playing sports.”
How it was founded
The groundwork for the Mukwonago- based Pink Panthers was built by Deppe and her longtime friend Tanya Pozorski, who battled cancer for close to 10 years. During the last 4.5 years of Pozorski’s life, she had stage four metastatic breast cancer that required her to spend much of her time in hospital rooms. It was there that the Pink Panthers began to take shape. “I wanted to make all that time spent in a treatment room with
her mean something more,” Deppe said softly. It was there that they began brainstorming the idea of helping kids learn about humanity, learn about the quality of life and learn about living in the moment, much like Pozorski was doing in the hospital.
“Our time together was about having fun and enjoying every sandwich. Going to lunch, sitting in the sun or even a simple day out –
VOLLEY VOWS: Tim Sanchez and Suzanne Fitzgerald took to the court to tie the knot in front of family and friends at the Big South Qualifi er. (Photo: Courtesy Suzanne Fitzgerald).
Nice service on Court 73: A Big South wedding
Tim Sanchez and Suzanne Fitzgerald, coaches for A5 Volleyball Club 14-Suzanne, knew one day they would get married after getting engaged on New Year’s Eve in 2012. Both held full-time jobs, living 40 miles apart, children from previous marriages and coaching the same club team with weeks busy with training and weekends full of tournaments. So instead of waiting for the calm, they chose to have their wedding vows at the most hec- tic time – the day before the start of the Big South Qualifi er taking place in the Georgia World Congress Center Hall B in Atlanta. From an idea that started as a joke turned into reality with the blessing of their club and Big South offi cials. Sanchez, 48, and Fitzgerald, 41, borrowed Court 73 to say their “I dos” with the sounds of Molten balls being hit and shoes squeaking on the Sport Court from the USA Volleyball High Performance Tryouts taking place a few courts away.
The couple had 50 or so of their previous athletes they coached attend the wedding.
small things easily taken for granted,” Deppe said. “The Pink Panthers exist to improve the quality of life for families living with illness. Giving support and hope to others – that is the legacy of our friendship.”
Maybe easier said than done. But thanks
to Deppe’s background in marketing and her husband’s expertise in the world of volleyball, things quickly started to evolve. “Volleyball is a lifelong endeavor,” Deppe
said. “That’s why I like it so much. So using this sport is a great place to start for our mis- sion.”
In college, Deppe was a cross country run- ner at the University of Hawaii, where she met her future husband, Tom Deppe, a member of the men’s volleyball team in the late 1980s. As a coach, Tom acts as a mentor for the athletes, helping them fi nd their inspiration
POSITIVE ON PINK: Members of the Pink Panthers share a philosphy of helping oth- ers. (Photo: Courtesy Lisa Deppe).
54 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
and setting goals off the court just as much as on the court, Lisa said.
And all of the players have bought into this philosophy.
Kyle Koehn, a sophomore at Mukwonago High School, said he was attracted to the Pink Panthers to be able to do something more. “This team has really brought a great group of close friends together to help the community and those who are affected by (Pozorski’s) terrible sickness,” Koehn said. “This group has taught me that athletes should be helping the community and earning money for a good cause instead of being handed money to play on a team.”
How it works
For most families who participate in traveling sports, the word “fundraising” leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. So when Lisa and Pozorski were laying out how the Pink Panthers would operate,
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