Sure, it was strange for her players to see Hoffman sitting on a chair at practice, her once-boundless energy crushed by fatigue, her body playing rotten tricks. She always loved the simplest element of the sport, slamming and returning the ball with her players. That went away too. And yet . . . 

"We knew she wasn't feeling great, she was tired, but she yelled at us in her usual way, except she was sitting on the sidelines," said junior Tatiana Froehlich, an outside hitter for the Falcons who played at Newton North High. "You almost forgot what she was going through."

"She never let it show," said senior captain Ashley Ahearn of Marshfield. "We never expected anything. It was surprising when we found out."