LYTLE, Texas — Sports oftentimes serve as a great mental distraction from tragic events and hard times. Fans can escape for a few hours and cheer on their favorite team.
This was set for display in Lytle, Texas, on Tuesday night.
On the scoresheet, the Lytle High School Pirates hosted the Uvalde High School Lobos in their first game of the 2022 volleyball season.
But there are times when moments surrounding the game mean more than the game itself. Case in point, this was the first athletic event for a Uvalde school in the two-and-a-half months since the tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School in May.
Before the match, Lytle held a moment of silence for the 21 victims of the shooting and presented Uvalde with 21 roses to honor the 19 children and two teachers who were killed.
Greg Sherman, a local sports reporter who covers mostly San Antonio and Austin high school sports, was there to capture the moment.
Sherman told WFAA the gym in Lytle was subdued until both teams got into the match. But once the match got going, Sherman said it felt more normal.
"I know the big thing was that the players made the fans smile, and the fans made the players smile," Sherman told WFAA.
Sherman said Uvalde played well for three sets but ran out of gas, and Lytle’s hit percentage was much better last two sets.
The record books will show Lytle won the match in five sets (22-25, 25-20, 13-25, 25-14, 15-9), but history will remember this game as a chance for the Uvalde community to move forward and return to a sense of normalcy.
Jacqueline Cardenas told Sherman after the match that the flowers were a nice gesture from Lytle.
"I thought it was good that they cared to give us flowers," Cardenas said.
You can watch Sherman's report on the game here on his YouTube page:
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