Elliott Peigen made sure that he wore a neutral white polo shirt instead of something Ooltewah red or Soddy-Daisy blue.
And he sat in the Soddy-Daisy High School bleachers almost even with the net as he watched his daughter, Libby, coach the Lady Trojans against his wife's Ooltewah squad.
"As a parent, you never go against your kid," Mr. Peigen said. "As a husband, you never go against your wife."
Elaine Peigen's Ooltewah squad beat Soddy-Daisy 3-0 on Tuesday night in the first matchup of mother and daughter as varsity head coaches. The Lady Owls won by scores of 25-11, 25-21 and 25-8 in the District 5-AAA match.
"It was frustrating looking down the line at Mom coaching, because I wanted to compete against her," Libby Peigen said. "I wanted to come out strong and show her that the great athletes I have on my side are worthy of beating her team, or at least competing with them.
"It was frustrating tonight because my team is better than what they showed."
Kristie Williams led the Lady Trojans (1-4, 1-4) with nine assists and an ace. Hanna Matthews had 22 assists and five aces and Summer Williams had 12 digs and four aces for the Lady Owls (12-4, 5-0).
"I wanted to show what I've learned from her and prove to her that I have the skill set to teach kids that they can compete with the best as long as they train that way," the Soddy-Daisy coach said. "I wish that we would have played harder, because then it would have been fun to look down the sideline at her.
"It was fun in that second game when we showed a different side of ourselves, and it was fun to see her get frustrated in that game."
Ooltewah raced out to an 11-3 lead in the first set and won by 14. In the second game, Soddy-Daisy went ahead 15-9 by winning six straight points with Cameren Swafford serving. Ooltewah dominated the rest of that set and cruised in the third set after taking a 12-2 lead.
"I think our height was an advantage for us on the front row," Elaine Peigen said. "And we have a little more experience with six seniors compared to her three."
Once the game ended a birthday cake appeared with two yellow and blue volleyballs and "24" candles planted through the frosting to celebrate Libby's birthday, which is today.
The entire family celebrated.
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.