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Nancy McCormick has never been one to fuss about her wardrobe.
But today the 77-year-old Bellevue grandma faces a choice: Should she wear blue, red or green? Go with a rainbow?
McCormick, you see, has five granddaughters playing today for three different teams that qualified for the state high school volleyball tournament.
None of the squads compete against each other on this first day of tournament action. But that hasn't kept the girls from playfully pressuring their granny to declare her allegiance by sporting their team's color.
Pushing for the blue of Marian High is senior outside hitter Mel McCormick.
Senior Meredith and sophomore Reagan McCormick wear the red of Elkhorn High.
A second sibling set, junior Hannah and freshman Janey Malcolm, will take the court in the green of Falls City Sacred Heart.
Through today, Grandma Nancy has artfully dodged the color choice question. Instead she turns to the girls' overall talents. (They're all accomplished students, she notes, with senses of humor, too.)
She speaks of her pride in family.
The thrill of this week.
“My glory,” she said. “I just couldn't believe it when I first heard. I was so proud.”
Though volleyball coaches and officials can name sister duos, most couldn't recall a year that as many first-cousin competitors together climbed to the pinnacle of high school volleyball play.
The thought tickles their Grandma Nancy, who wonders where the athleticism came from.
She plays bridge, but shunned anything more physical. Her late husband, Tom, used to amuse friends by telling them he was a standout athlete — back in the seventh grade.
Yet sons Kevin and John went on to be Husker linemen for Tom Osborne in the 1980s, and they fathered three of the state volleyball players.
Kevin and Jill McCormick are parents of Meredith and Reagan. Mel is the daughter of John and Chris McCormick. Hannah and Janey belong to Mary (McCormick) and Terry Malcolm.
With 23 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren always batting around some sort of ball at family gatherings, more state title contenders probably are in the pipeline.
Mel's sister, Beth, for example, is a freshman volleyball player at Marian. Meredith and Reagan's sister, Peyton, is a seventh-grader also following in her older sisters' footsteps.
Even though Grandma Nancy and hubby Tom were born elsewhere, they raised a Husker family through and through.
“We love it here,” said Nancy.
Tom was stationed at Offutt Air Force Base when their six children were small, and in 1971 they settled into the Bellevue home where Nancy still lives. She said her kids threatened to find their own place if Mom and Dad ever relocated.
Upon his retirement from the military, Tom became the business manager for Gross High School, which all of their kids attended. Nancy was a nurse for Omaha public schools. They were married 52 years.
Nancy considers herself blessed that all of her children and their families still live in Nebraska.
Meredith, ranked seventh in hitting efficiency among all Class A players, said she would like to attend a university close to home. She wants to study architecture and play volleyball.
Mel, the other senior of the cousins, is headed to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She'll be pursuing her other love, soccer, on an athletic and academic scholarship.
The two elder cousins say they've learned a lot from volleyball — traveling on club teams, sometimes as teammates and other times as rivals, and picking up life lessons from various coaches.
“You grow not only as a player, but as a person,” said Meredith, 17.
The two thank their parents for sitting through weekend after weekend of tournament play.
And they plan to give it their all in Lincoln.
Forty-eight teams representing the best of six levels compete through Saturday.
Falls City Sacred Heart (Class D-2) plays today at 1:30 p.m.; Marian (Class A) plays at 3:30 p.m.; Elkhorn (also Class A) plays at 6:30 p.m.
With Marian and Elkhorn seeded in the top three in their class, the McCormick parents are hoping to see cousins squaring off in the championship game.
Watching it all will be Grandma Nancy, who said she may not decide until the last minute what color she'll wear today.
One option is a neutral-toned shirt with ribbons representing each of her five granddaughters.
She'll also stuff her purse with three shirts: blue, red and green.
If fans pay attention, she said, they might see “some crazy grandma” doing a quick change in the bathroom stall between games.
“This will be fun,” she said.
Contact the writer: 444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com
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