Sunday, July 24, 2005
Week 1 in Review, Preparation for the Tournament
By Kathryn Lovell, IVA Juniors
Our author (Thanks to the Deseret News for the photo)
This past week we have been training a lot to prepare for the Global Challenge tournament. It has been awesome! We came together Monday morning to start our first practice. Carl McGown, one of the greatest coaches ever to coach volleyball, ran our first few training sessions where we worked mainly on fundamental skills like serving and passing. Along with our junior age group there was a group of youth age players and a high performance camp age group. All of the players would come together for a demonstration of the different skills as well as some drills, and then we would all go back to our individual courts and work on the things Carl was teaching us with the help of our court coaches. This was so great because we got to interact with players from other age groups and not just our own team. We met a lot of new people, got in a few water fights before the morning sessions, and played some hilarious card games during the lunch breaks! It is good to have all of the age groups training together because we are all examples to each other. The older kids push the younger kids to work hard, but the younger kids push the older kids to excel as well.
Our author and her team enjoying OC at the Lagoon
After the first few training sessions, we stayed on our own courts most of the time and practiced as a team. It was interesting playing with girls when we weren’t really used to playing together. There were a few communication lapses at first, but all of the players on our team quickly became comfortable with each other and we definitely bonded. We had a lot of fun being together each day because we all love to play the game so much! It made practice so much easier because everybody has such a positive attitude and worked hard every day. It was always really competitive during drills, with each side working hard to win. Our coaches, Al Givens, Beth Launiere, Kim Norman, and Heather Kidd are the best! Throughout all of the training sessions they have pushed us to be better and to work especially hard on our own weaknesses so that our whole team would be better.
IVA Juniors at Open Ceremonies
Even though training all day is tough both mentally and physically, this has been the greatest experience. Our team pushed through ten intense practices, and we have really come together as a team. One of the coolest things about High Performance is being put with the best athletes from your region for only a short time, and putting together a team. The bonding and growth that comes out of this experience is amazing because everyone is sacrificing for the good of the team. One of the mantras for our team is “One glories, and everyone glories”. These coaches and players really know what it means to put the team first, and I know it is the same for all of the Intermountain Region teams as well as the other teams that have traveled to Utah for this tournament. What a great thing to participate in where everyone involved knows what it means to be a team player! Thank you to all of the staff that have spent hundreds of extra hours putting this event together so that we can enjoy ourselves by playing volleyball and getting to experience many different cultures. Good luck to all of the teams as the tournament begins tomorrow, this will be a fantastic event!
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