Brittany and Colleen Chambers: At home, it's mother-daughter, not coach-player

Star Tribune

Jordan volleyball coach Colleen Chambers with her three daughters: Kelsey (back left), Brittany (back center) and Lexie (front).

By MICHAEL RAND, Star Tribune

Last update: May 10, 2008 - 11:56 PM

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PERFECT TEAMS

Professional or amateur, athletes know deep down that they’re involvement and successes are linked directly to the support and sacrifice of mothers (and grandmothers) along the way. Here are four stories of some familiar local sports figures at the upper reaches of their sports and the special people who helped get them there.

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Colleen Chambers' most vivid Mother's Day memory doesn't come from a fancy brunch or a quiet day at home with her daughters. Instead, it takes place at an AAU basketball tournament in Wisconsin where her daughter Brittany was playing.

"Brittany bought me a sweatshirt that said, 'AAU mom,' " Colleen Chambers said. "Some people don't understand our lives."

To Chambers, though, it makes perfect sense. Sports and motherhood have always crossed paths as she coached volleyball -- particularly when Brittany, her oldest daughter and a two-sport star, started playing for her at Jordan High School. Making those two worlds coexist, however, is not always easy.

"We keep volleyball separate from home," Colleen said. "One time we were talking, and she finally said, 'I need a mom right now. I don't need a coach.' "

Said Brittany: "It's hard to take when a coach is yelling at you, and when it's your mom it comes over in a different way. ... But I wouldn't trade it for anything."

There have been plenty of good times; mother and daughter won the state Class 2A volleyball title together in 2006. Both recently traveled to New Mexico State, where Brittany, a senior-to-be, took a volleyball recruiting visit. They will be apart this Mother's Day, with Colleen heading to northern Minnesota and Brittany playing in another AAU hoops tournament. But they will be reunited soon enough on the court.

"The best memories are of me in the gym with her," Brittany Chambers said.

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