'Compete With Purpose': Northwestern Volleyball's Code Of Honor
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- It's practice time for a team that qualified for the Elite 8.
"This team is really special, there's a lot of unselfishness in our program. Great leadership, great work ethic," coach Beth Wilmeth said.
And special because this program plays by a code -- an honor code.
"If our players go up and try to block a ball and the opponent ticks it off of our hands and it goes out of bounds and the referees don't see it, our players will report it to the official," Wilmeth said.
It's become a routine part of their game.
"Let's say it touched my hand, so then I'm like, 'Touch, touch touch touch,'" Shanay Gonder said. "I'm telling the ref."
That's right -- they tell the referees and self-report on the court. It has not hurt their won-loss record. It's helped build a rare integrity.
"And people kind of wondering, 'Hey, why do you do that?' and sort of that opening up some questions to talk about what our mission is as a volleyball team and how we want to compete with purpose and maybe do things that are a little bit weird and uncommon but really are central to integrity," Gonder said.
Because what they want for their student athletes is bigger than a season or an experience.
"It's given us a lot of resiliency," Wilmeth said. "We know that we can give up points that we thought we had and still come back and win games. It's exciting for them because they feel like it, in some way, makes volleyball more than just a game."
See this has become a game-changer -- in a different way.
"I think on a character level, it's such a simple thing, but it's been a great catalyst to just making sure that my word is my word and that overflows into a lot of other areas outside of volleyball as well," Gonder said.
Because what they know they are learning has carried over into life.
"We've had alumni come back and say, 'I had an accounting job, and I was under pressure to maybe change some numbers and I remembered making an honor call and I remembered being able to do that under pressure,'" Wilmeth said, "and so it's impacted them down the road which is fun to see."
