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Queen Bees hit the trail

Before ever taking the court for the 2006 season, the Queen Bees have already established themselves as leaders.

In August, after a grueling first week of practice, the team dedicated an entire Saturday to repairing and rebuilding the Smith’s Island Nature Trail at Lock and Dam No. 14 in Pleasant Valley, Iowa.

When the girls arrived at 8 a.m., the mile long walking trail was in shambles, but by the time they had left it looked like something from a postcard.

All-in-all the women moved more than 2,000-pounds of mulch onto the trail. Completing the service project fulfilled a number of objectives. Primarily, it went in line with the team’s mission of service and commitment, while also helping out Coach Bruce Billingsley’s son Randy, who designed and supervised the work as his Eagle Scout project. The women were more than happy to oblige, despite the early morning and long hours.

“Every year, we try to do one service project a month, but usually it’s with just 4-6 girls,” Billingsley said. “This is something everyone can be a part of, and they all worked really hard.”

It was slow going at first, as 40 girls learned how to effectively and efficiently work together. But after a lunch break, everyone found a second wind, and completed the project before the estimated time.

“Doing this by yourself would be hard, really almost impossible,’’ senior Andrea Brooks said. “It’s better than practice too, it’s a nice break. It’s also a good opportunity for the girls to bond.”

An eight hour day gave the girls a long time to bond, and by the end of the day the satisfaction of seeing a job well done was worth all the time and effort expended on the project.

“If anybody watched how hard these girls work, they would know the kind of people that

we have at St. Ambrose.,” Billingsley said. “If you watch them work, it’s teamwork.  They’ve gotten a system down relaying the (wheel barrels full of woodchips).”

As a more efficient way of transferring the wheel barrels, the Queen Bees spread out along the mile-long trail, roughly 40 yards apart, and handed the wheel barrels off to one another. Brooks led the brigade, turning the treacherous work into a running race, flying back and forth along the trail with reckless abandon.

“Doing it this way just makes it more fun for everybody,” Brooks said. “Now we don’t have girls sitting around while others are working, everyone is involved.”

They found out through service that as a team, working together, they can accomplish nearly any task. That’s something that has translated on the court over the first month of the season.