Brady girls move to 12-1 on year.

How do you get a peanut to laugh?

You crack it up.

Where does a penguin keep his money?

In a snow bank.

Fans might wonder why the Brady volleyball team sometimes comes out of the huddle giggling.

It might have something to do with the Laffy Taffy jokes the coaches read when the girls come off the floor.

“When the girls are tense, they don’t play as well,” said coach Lynne Johnson. “We read them Laffy Taffy jokes in the huddle to loosen things up and help them refocus.”

So far, the tactic has worked pretty well.

The Eagles move to 12-1 on the season after defeating Eustis-Farnam in head-to-head action Friday night and winning three straight matches in their home tournament Saturday.

Brady easily handled Eustis-Farnam Friday night 25-11, 25-9, 25-16 and got up early Saturday morning to take down Stapleton/McPherson County 25-9, 25-22 in the first round of the tournament.

The Eagles began to struggle a bit at the end of the second set with SMC, Johnson said.

“Our passing kind of broke down,” Johnson said, “and we just didn’t have a lot of intensity.”

The difficulties carried over when the Eagles faced Eustis-Farnam again in the semi-finals when they lost the first set 31-29.

“The girls have been pretty good about working their way out of a bad situation,” Johnson said. “Instead of allowing it to cause a total nose-dive, they pull it together.”

The Laffy Taffy jokes seem to help.

“I think it helps them to let go of what just happened and start fresh on their focus.”

Once the Eagles turned it around, they had no trouble beating the Knights 25-13, 25-16.

Then they faced Anselmo-Merna in the championship, winning 25-9, 25-22.

The Eagles, who moved up to No. 4 in the Omaha World-Herald ratings this week, play Medicine Valley and Maywood at Maywood on Oct. 4 before traveling to North Platte St. Pat’s Oct. 6.

“We’ve got some hard games coming up,” Johnson said. “We’re going to have to be ready to play.”