John's Journal: The Baby Is Nearly Due As The Season Continues

This piece is being written in a hurry because there isn’t much time to spare. A coach is about to give birth in the midst of the season so everything is crazy right now.

Sara Baumgard is the head volleyball coach at Stillwater High School. She and her husband Sean are prepped and ready for the birth of their first child. The due date is September 12 but sometimes, of course, the baby makes that decision.

“No, we don't know when it will happen,” Sara said after the Ponies lost at Eagan 3-1 on Tuesday night.

Sara, 29, isn’t riding the team bus to road games … and who could blame her? Sean is her driver and they have a hospital bag all packed.

“He’s basically on call every minute of every day,” Sara said. “And the bag goes with us everywhere.”

Coaching a volleyball team while being 8¾ months pregnant is not an easy thing. Sara likes to stand during matches, but sitting or standing or walking or doing anything isn’t always comfortable.

“I feel great, I really do,” Sara said. “This week, it's getting a little bit more real, that's for sure. Physically, it’s feeling like it’s right around the corner.

“When I’m coaching, I like to stand the whole time. At the beginning of this match, I said to my assistant, ‘How many points are you going to give me before I stand?’ She said, ‘Three, max.’ And I didn't even make it through one point.”

Baumgard has led the Ponies to a high level of Class 4A volleyball. The Ponies went to state in each of the last two seasons, placing fourth in 2023. One way to improve your skills and teamwork is to face tough competition, and the Ponies have certainly started this season in such a fashion.

The loss at Eagan gave them a record of 1-3, with the defeats coming against top-ranked Lakeville North, No. 3 Lakeville South and No. 4 Eagan.

Sara is a graduate of Woodbury High School who played volleyball at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wis. After college she was hired as a teacher at Stillwater “and this is where I’ve been ever since.”

Once Sara heads to the hospital, interim coach Mike Alexander will take over. He’s a former head coach at White Bear Lake who has been active in club volleyball.

“He is great,” said Sara, who is a math teacher at Stillwater High School. A substitute teacher has been lined up while she is on maternity leave.

“She's actually coming in tomorrow,” Sara said Tuesday. “She's going to meet the kids. I'll take some more time from the classroom than the volleyball court, for sure. But that should be good for the kids.”

Sara and Sean don’t know if they are having a boy or a girl, but they have names picked out for both. The volleyball players have asked questions about what’s happening.

“They’re curious,” Sara said. “With my appointments, sometimes I have to be late for practice. And I try to keep it separate. I want it to be volleyball-focused in the gym and I want to be as present for them as possible, so it's just more of me sitting then than they're used to, but they're very excited to find out if it's a boy or a girl.

“We're very excited, too. It's been something we've been praying for and hoping for.”

The Ponies will open Suburban East Conference play on Sept. 17 at No. 8 East Ridge. Who knows? There may be a special, very popular little bundle in the crowd.

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]