“We always played all the sports together, doing everything since we were young,” said Miller junior Camden Stockton.
“Yeah volleyball is fun with Mavrie,” said Miller junior Loghann Leivan.
The girls on Miller’s volleyball team made memories on the court.
“My freshman year we went to state in volleyball and I got to share a hotel room with Mavrie,” Leivan said.
But, they made just as many memories off the court as well.
“I think we stayed up way too late talking about the deepest things,” Leivan said. “Mavrie is always fun to get out what you need to get out. And she will always told you what you need to be told.”
They called Miller junior Mavrie Pritchett the team mom. Like a good parent, she lifts up the girls but gives it to them straight.
“She’s very honest,” Stockton said. ” [She will] tell you what you need to know.”
Last year, during the week of districts, Mavrie didn’t feel completely like herself.
“The doctors had called and said they wanted to run some more tests and they needed us to come in and get bloodwork done,” said Mavrie’s father Park Pritchett. “That was the night of the district championship. So we went in about noon and by 2 o’clock they had come in and told us she had Leukemia.”
Miller fell in the district finals that night, and it got worse after the game. The Miller volleyball team heard the news that Mavrie was diagnosed with B-Cell Leukemia.
“The team came to see her that night after the district championship night, so that was pretty special,” Park said.
“It was very emotional because we all have been very close the whole time,” Stockton said. “It definitely has changed us all, but it’s made us grow together.”
The team was now lifting Mavrie with the Miller community following right behind them.
“They all got together after a football game and had a prayer and stuff for her,” Park said.
While battling cancer, the inner team mom showed in Mavrie.
“Most of the time she will check up on me, when it’s not even me who is going through it,” Leivan said. “She’s pretty tough.”
That strong-willed mindset aided Mavrie, who is doing well a year out from her diagnosis. She is now undergoing maintenance chemotherapy.
“I think about her before every game and I pray for her before every game,” Leivan said.
Mavrie makes it out to games and practices when she can. Sometimes the volleyball team comes to her.
“We’ll all go hangout at Mavrie’s house,” Leivan said. “The other day we had dinner, we had pizza bites with her and watched hilarious home videos with her. Just stuff like that.”
“Do little things like it used to be,” Stockton said.
This season, Mavrie was recognized on cancer awareness night. The Cardinals repping a shirt with an orange ribbon.
“It means everything to her,” Park said. “They’ve played competitive volleyball since they were in the third grade. So that’s all they know….is eachother.”
It’s volleyball that brought these girls together.
“We get to be out there and Mavrie wishes that she could, but she cant so I think we just go into a game kind of knowing win it for Mavrie,” Leivan said.
And it will be this sport that continues to do so.
