A triple ball game between Crescent Heights, far court, and St. Mary's.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
Middle school students on the Crescent Heights volleyball team were at St. Mary’s to play a game this past Wednesday afternoon.
Grade 7 students Sophie and Hailey from Crescent Heights talked with the News about their experience on the team. Sophie wanted to play volleyball because it’s fun and a good way to get out of the house and be active.
“I like that I can make new friends and have more people to play volleyball with.”
Hailey finds playing the games the most exciting because there are different people to play against and often people on the sidelines watching and cheering.
“My mom started talking about volleyball and I thought I’d try it,” she said. “Now I’m obsessed with volleyball.”
The teams were playing triple ball, explained coaches from St. Mary’s. Each player gets one serve and then the coach will toss the second ball over the net to put it into play. This helps younger players focus on the basic skills needed to play volleyball.
Event though it’s a short season – staring in early September with playoffs at the beginning of November – the players show vast improvement in skill level in all areas of the game, including less hesitation and more confidence in their abilities, by the time it is over.
St. Mary’s has five girls and two boys teams for Grade 7-9 students. When the News arrived, two St. Mary’s teams comprised of the younger students were playing each other before the Crescent Heights students arrived.
Evan Muller is a coach of one of the girls teams and was also referee for the game with Crescent Heights.
“Nobody gets cut, that is one of our philosophies. Everyone gets a chance to play and try it out, that’s why we have so many teams. We find a spot for everyone and search around for coaches. We get everyone coming in to coach for us and it’s fantastic and works really well.”
