The finale for Webfoot 16-Black's 2012 season was in Seattle, Washington. This was an amazing trip. The results in the gym were not what we were striving for, but the experiences outside the gym were priceless. This was one of the most enjoyable trips I have had, and it is because of the players and parents involved.
The weekend of play started with playing in a pool that contained a 18's team, 17's team and another 16's team. First on the slate was the 18's team, and we came out with a little apprehension. We played well, considering our competition. The same was true against the 17's team that was up next. We did not play quite to our potential because we looked like we unsure of what to do against them. Finally, we played the 16's team, not some of our best ball. We put up a fight but were unable to overcome big runs that we gave up during each set. Saturday was a day that had me struggling with the officials all day, which may have had an effect on the teams play. We continued to struggle play wise, which was frustrating to watch. The day ended with the last two matches being better ball. The players step up their effort level and it showed on the court. I teach that it is best to walk off the court with no regrets than to walk off wishing you could have played differently. The players did that on Saturday.
Each player had their time to shine this weekend. Taylor had a sequence that she blocked a ball, and then hit the overset from the block, was dug and giving another overset and put that one away. The net play by the middles this weekend was the best I had seen all year. Maddie did a great job serving, as far as I remember, she did not miss a single serve. The outsides also did a great job passing on Saturday. I can remember all of them diving and sacrificing their bodies to make a play on the ball, Miranda and Emily both hurting fingers or hands. Shalini was incredible from behind the serving line. She had several occasions were she had long strings of points. The other player that had great success serving, was Hannah. Her serves were like bullets, that got us back into games. The setters were consistent as always, same as Cory. Her defense and passing kept many rallies alive, giving our setters settable balls, that in turn gave out hitters, hittable balls. Great Job Girls.
I would also like to say how much fun I had with this team off the court. They are a great group of young adults that are hilarious. They kept many situations light, while being able to show their competitiveness on the court. I thank you all for making this season a memorable one. I would also like to thank the parents for giving me the opportunity to work with your children and trusting in me to be a part of their development, I consider that an honor. Like I said last weekend, I hope all of you players improved as much as you would have liked this season. I saw great improvement in all of you. If you need any help finding camps to attend this summer, let me know and I will connect you. I hope to get the chance to see all of you play in the fall. To all of you , have a great summer. Thanks again for a great season.
Troy
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Power League 4-8-2012
Last Power League of the season for us and it was in town, OH YEAH! This was another opportunity for us to show how well we could handle adversity. It turned out to be a strange but good day. I love the competitiveness of the players and their drive to always finish at the top. That is a quality that is hard to find and develop. Because of their drive, we finished second in our pool and third in the division. Plus a chance to beat a team we had lost to earlier in the day, 15 Silver.
The plays that stood out to me we're the front row play of Natalie, who is getting stronger in her attacks and is blocking more often. Maddie had a consistent day of serving and hitting, getting a couple of hits in the last match that had major heat on them. Taylor has become my utility player moving from left side to middle. This is not an easy transition and she does it gracefully. She is consistent in her play and has fun on and off the court. Emily is our most competitive player and I think that is one of her best qualities. She took a situation and turned it around to be a positive for her and played with confidence, great job. The twins continue to improve and I am sure are getting more conditioned. The team and I really appreciate their effort and their progression. Their net play was the most impressive for them, getting a few blocks and dumping the ball. Shalini did a great job as our libero. Her passing and defense got better as the day went along. She always does a great job of serving and today was no different. Nice Job. Miranda also improved her play as the day went along. Her serving got better as we got later into the day as well as her passing. Plus she gets some incredible cross court kills at times. I like the way you stuck to it and pushed yourself, keep it up.
So we have a couple of weeks off and then regionals. At this time, it looks like we will have a full team for this event, something we are not used to having. I hope the players and parents are seeing the progress this team is making I was talking to another coach yesterday, and we talked about winning and losing styles. I would rather win and lose with these girls playing the right way using three hits, working as a team and trusting in other abilities than be cheap and having the ball thrown over on the first and second contacts. We talked about how the players do not learn as much and do not become team players. I feel this is just as an important a skill to develop as passing, hitting, etc. Our play is showing growth in this area. Great play today girls. Next stop Corvallis and Regionals.
The plays that stood out to me we're the front row play of Natalie, who is getting stronger in her attacks and is blocking more often. Maddie had a consistent day of serving and hitting, getting a couple of hits in the last match that had major heat on them. Taylor has become my utility player moving from left side to middle. This is not an easy transition and she does it gracefully. She is consistent in her play and has fun on and off the court. Emily is our most competitive player and I think that is one of her best qualities. She took a situation and turned it around to be a positive for her and played with confidence, great job. The twins continue to improve and I am sure are getting more conditioned. The team and I really appreciate their effort and their progression. Their net play was the most impressive for them, getting a few blocks and dumping the ball. Shalini did a great job as our libero. Her passing and defense got better as the day went along. She always does a great job of serving and today was no different. Nice Job. Miranda also improved her play as the day went along. Her serving got better as we got later into the day as well as her passing. Plus she gets some incredible cross court kills at times. I like the way you stuck to it and pushed yourself, keep it up.
So we have a couple of weeks off and then regionals. At this time, it looks like we will have a full team for this event, something we are not used to having. I hope the players and parents are seeing the progress this team is making I was talking to another coach yesterday, and we talked about winning and losing styles. I would rather win and lose with these girls playing the right way using three hits, working as a team and trusting in other abilities than be cheap and having the ball thrown over on the first and second contacts. We talked about how the players do not learn as much and do not become team players. I feel this is just as an important a skill to develop as passing, hitting, etc. Our play is showing growth in this area. Great play today girls. Next stop Corvallis and Regionals.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Salem Tourney 3/18/2012
Back to back weekends for tourneys but close to home, in Salem. Started off a little odd, eight team tourney and Salem didn't have a team in the tourney they were hosting. Our pool was changed after our first match because one team failed to show up. This had an effect on our team and we didn't really recover. Similar to last tourney we have moments of brilliance. We need to continue working on sustaining momentum and focus.
The players are growing at their own rates and are taking on roles that are difficult. The twins are continuing to learn the setting position and I commend them on taking on the challenge. Maddie had a great day for missing so much time. Emily is solid and is doing a good job with Shalini in talking on the court. The players that stuck out to me were Taylor and Cory. Taylor has become a versatile player that I can put in the left side or middle. She doesn't complain about playing middle but does a solid job for the team. Her hitting is improving, along with her ball control when passing. Keep up the good work. Cory does an amazing job in being our libero. I have asked her to take charge in the back row and pass everything she can get to and she has done just that. She was picking up balls that kept our team in plays and gave us additional opportunities to score. Her ball control has gotten better as the season has come along, every pass is right on target. Thanks Cory!!
Next tourney is Power League on the 7th at Willamalane. Opportunity to improve and gain experience.
The players are growing at their own rates and are taking on roles that are difficult. The twins are continuing to learn the setting position and I commend them on taking on the challenge. Maddie had a great day for missing so much time. Emily is solid and is doing a good job with Shalini in talking on the court. The players that stuck out to me were Taylor and Cory. Taylor has become a versatile player that I can put in the left side or middle. She doesn't complain about playing middle but does a solid job for the team. Her hitting is improving, along with her ball control when passing. Keep up the good work. Cory does an amazing job in being our libero. I have asked her to take charge in the back row and pass everything she can get to and she has done just that. She was picking up balls that kept our team in plays and gave us additional opportunities to score. Her ball control has gotten better as the season has come along, every pass is right on target. Thanks Cory!!
Next tourney is Power League on the 7th at Willamalane. Opportunity to improve and gain experience.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Power League-3/10/2012
Looking to be a day of adversity, playing with seven players today (one sick and one hurt). Also our first tourney with having the twins do the setting, they did a very good job. In pool play, we had moments of glory. But not enough of them to secure us a win. This left us the four seed out of our pool. Our day went from being on on schedule to being out of whack. The other pool in our division was still two matches behind so we ended up reffing three matches in a row. After the three hours of not playing, we played our crossover match. It was a rematch of the championship match from last power league. It was a good match, we just came up a lil short. We then reffed and played again, getting out of the gym at about 6:45. After being on schedule during pool play, we were the last team out of the gym.
Like I said earlier, it was a day of adversity and an opportunity to grow as a team. We took steps in that direction and continue to improve. All the players did well, the middles gave a solid performance (Natalie premiered her jump serve at this tourney). The outsides gave us all they had, playing through injury and illness. The top players would have to be Cory, Molly and Hannah. Cory did an amazing job of passing yesterday, her defense saved us on many plays and kept us in matches at times. Great Job!! Molly and Hannah have had the toughest transition, being asked to set. They have done a great job of stepping into the role. They have done something special on this team and have taken over a position that they were not expecting to. Thank you girls. Looking forward to what we can accomplish. Next tourney, next weekend, another opportunity to improve.
Like I said earlier, it was a day of adversity and an opportunity to grow as a team. We took steps in that direction and continue to improve. All the players did well, the middles gave a solid performance (Natalie premiered her jump serve at this tourney). The outsides gave us all they had, playing through injury and illness. The top players would have to be Cory, Molly and Hannah. Cory did an amazing job of passing yesterday, her defense saved us on many plays and kept us in matches at times. Great Job!! Molly and Hannah have had the toughest transition, being asked to set. They have done a great job of stepping into the role. They have done something special on this team and have taken over a position that they were not expecting to. Thank you girls. Looking forward to what we can accomplish. Next tourney, next weekend, another opportunity to improve.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Wilson Invitational 2/18-20/2012
It has taken me a couple of days to get to this, so here I go. This tourney was a chance for this team to show how they could handle adversity and how well conditioned they were. They started off the tourney down in numbers, Cory was away at a wedding in LA. That meant extra playing time for our players, also players playing in positions that are a little out of their comfort zone. Saturday's site was at the tennis courts of OSU. For those of you familiar with that site, know that it is one of the coldest venues around. Plus, it didn't help that the weather outside was chilly as well. We had the afternoon wave and started play in the first round. The team came out a little rough and lost the match in two sets. After a bye and reffing duties, the team regrouped and came back with two wins and finished in a three way tie for first in the pool. After a tiebreaker of head to head, it came down to point differential. We still ended up tied with one of the teams for second, so the next tie breaker was a coin flip that left us the third seed. This would come to benefit us later on. The second day we came in as the third seed in our pool. We had the same results as the first day, lost first match but came back to win the next two. This time there was not a three way tie, we were the clear cut second seed moving into the last day as the 22 seed overall. The final day we started off cold again but were able to come back and win the first set after giving up a big lead to start the set. We let the second set slip away and had to go to three. The other team wouldn't go away and we had to really fight to get in the game. At one point, I think we were down 11-8 and came back to tie it at 14-14 but didn't quite have enough to take it over the top. We finished the tourney with a great win to leave us finishing 23rd overall, up ten spots from our original seeding of 33rd. This finish placed us higher than the two teams we tied with on the first day. It is great to see this team's desire to be competitive and hunger to be the best. I hope they continue to grow as players and teammates. We have a long season to go still and we need to trust and rely on each other to finish strong.
Like I told the players, all of them had moments of greatness over the weekend. Shalini played great for us this weekend as the libero. My right sides were consistent as always. The outsides were fantastic, getting most of the sets and doing something positive with them. The players that shined the brightest would be the middles. Natalie, Maddie and Taylor were outstanding over the weekend. They had some of their best play of the season so far. They played the net liked they owned it, having season highs in blocks and working the corners on their kills. They expand their level of play by playing some back row defense. All three players have improved their serving and defense in the back row. It was great to see them step up to the challenge and deliver. It is going to be thrilling to see how these girls continue to grow and make huge strides throughout the season. Congrats to the middles, great job!!!
In my eyes, good teams are not the ones that play well with all their players available and win the games they are supposed to, but the teams that are successful when they are not suppose to win and dealing with adversity. This team has been able to do that, and will have to continue to do it. If they continue to believe in each others skills and ability and rise to the occasion, they will thrive in our next tourneys. Thank you for making my job fun.
Like I told the players, all of them had moments of greatness over the weekend. Shalini played great for us this weekend as the libero. My right sides were consistent as always. The outsides were fantastic, getting most of the sets and doing something positive with them. The players that shined the brightest would be the middles. Natalie, Maddie and Taylor were outstanding over the weekend. They had some of their best play of the season so far. They played the net liked they owned it, having season highs in blocks and working the corners on their kills. They expand their level of play by playing some back row defense. All three players have improved their serving and defense in the back row. It was great to see them step up to the challenge and deliver. It is going to be thrilling to see how these girls continue to grow and make huge strides throughout the season. Congrats to the middles, great job!!!
In my eyes, good teams are not the ones that play well with all their players available and win the games they are supposed to, but the teams that are successful when they are not suppose to win and dealing with adversity. This team has been able to do that, and will have to continue to do it. If they continue to believe in each others skills and ability and rise to the occasion, they will thrive in our next tourneys. Thank you for making my job fun.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Power League 2/12/12
Our power league site today was at Portland State University. We were seeded third in our pool, playing teams that we played at qualifier last month. As typical to our starts at tournaments, we came out hot and won the first match. They played well and looked like they thought today maybe an easy day. We then played our next march without the energy of the first match and came out short, losing in two sets. The final match of pool play was a crazy train. We played a team that lacked control, so balls were coming from all kinds of awkward directions. We split the first two sets, wanting to come out hard in the third. That didn't happen though. We fell behind 1-7 and had to work hard to get back in the game. The girls did an amazing job of playing their game and not only worked their way back into the game but won the match 18-16. With a little help from another team in our pool, we finished first in our pool. The first match of bracket was the best the team has played all season, so far. The passes were money every single time, plus the serving was extremely tough. The team came out on top and moved to the championship match. The team ended the day the same way it started, winning. They finished off the other team in two and walked out with new beanies to show for it.
All the players had moments where they shined brightly. The twins did a great job serving and blocking today. They continue to be solid players that are consistent. Brit and Maddie played great, despite dealing with some injuries. The top players today had to be Shalini and Emily. Shalini had an incredible day serving and a solid job in the back row. Her back row play has become very reliable and is continuing to get stronger there. Emily just happened to be our "go to" today. Anytime we needed a side out or a point, she came through for us. She is the leader on the court in building up our communication level and stepped her net game up by blocking some balls. Amazing job today team. Keep reaching for more and have fun while doing it.
All the players had moments where they shined brightly. The twins did a great job serving and blocking today. They continue to be solid players that are consistent. Brit and Maddie played great, despite dealing with some injuries. The top players today had to be Shalini and Emily. Shalini had an incredible day serving and a solid job in the back row. Her back row play has become very reliable and is continuing to get stronger there. Emily just happened to be our "go to" today. Anytime we needed a side out or a point, she came through for us. She is the leader on the court in building up our communication level and stepped her net game up by blocking some balls. Amazing job today team. Keep reaching for more and have fun while doing it.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Power League Qualifier-1/22/12
Second tournament of the season, thankful that it was in town. Morning started with pool play in a three team pool. We started the day as the 102 seed. We played the third seed team in our pool, which went very well. We were able to close out a close first set Then finished off the rest of the match easily with great play. After reffing the next match, we played the two seed from the pool. This team's level of play was about equal to the first team we played. We had control of the first set in the beginning, but let it get away from us. We looked a little lifeless and lethargic, so we didn't play our best and played at their level. With some conversation between the sets, we came back out and played at our ability and finished with better effort and a win in the last set.
The crossover match was against the 105 seed, hoping that the energy from the last set of pool would carry over. We played well but were unable to overcome a couple of setbacks and lost both sets 25-26 and 25-27. This put us against the 108 team in the final crossover match of the day. The play from the girls was very inspired. They played at a high level and took care of business in two sets. The girls are starting to expand their play and grow as teammates and players (exciting to see).
All of the players had some outstanding plays throughout the day. Brit, the team's setter, did a great job setting all day without taking a break. Emily had a sweet pancake in the last set of the day to keep a play alive and then finished off the match with two aces. The twins did a fantastic job of hitting and setting when needed to, they are maturing out there at a very quick pace. Natalie, after missing a week of practice, was able to come in and make it difficult on defenses by mixing up her shots, by hitting and tipping. The two top players for the tourney though would have to be Shalini and Maddie. Sha did a great job of coming off the bench and playing back row for us today. Her passing was on target all day and she took control when she was back there like I asked her to do. I have quite an advantage by being able to put her and Cory in the back row at the same time, nothing hits the floor and I get great passes every single time. Maddie showed us some great play at the net today. She has shown growth in her hitting by hitting to both corners of the court. Not only was she a force hitting but also blocking. She took advantage of every overpass and was aggressive with what she did with them. To top it off, she served very well also. Like I said earlier, all the girls had amazing periods sometime during the day, these two impressed me the most. Both took their level of play up a notch this weekend, look out because now I have higher expectations for you.
I am excited to see the progression of the team so far. When we tighten up a couple of areas in our game, we will be hard to beat. Great job today team, let's get ready for the next Power League. Thank you parents for your support.
The crossover match was against the 105 seed, hoping that the energy from the last set of pool would carry over. We played well but were unable to overcome a couple of setbacks and lost both sets 25-26 and 25-27. This put us against the 108 team in the final crossover match of the day. The play from the girls was very inspired. They played at a high level and took care of business in two sets. The girls are starting to expand their play and grow as teammates and players (exciting to see).
All of the players had some outstanding plays throughout the day. Brit, the team's setter, did a great job setting all day without taking a break. Emily had a sweet pancake in the last set of the day to keep a play alive and then finished off the match with two aces. The twins did a fantastic job of hitting and setting when needed to, they are maturing out there at a very quick pace. Natalie, after missing a week of practice, was able to come in and make it difficult on defenses by mixing up her shots, by hitting and tipping. The two top players for the tourney though would have to be Shalini and Maddie. Sha did a great job of coming off the bench and playing back row for us today. Her passing was on target all day and she took control when she was back there like I asked her to do. I have quite an advantage by being able to put her and Cory in the back row at the same time, nothing hits the floor and I get great passes every single time. Maddie showed us some great play at the net today. She has shown growth in her hitting by hitting to both corners of the court. Not only was she a force hitting but also blocking. She took advantage of every overpass and was aggressive with what she did with them. To top it off, she served very well also. Like I said earlier, all the girls had amazing periods sometime during the day, these two impressed me the most. Both took their level of play up a notch this weekend, look out because now I have higher expectations for you.
I am excited to see the progression of the team so far. When we tighten up a couple of areas in our game, we will be hard to beat. Great job today team, let's get ready for the next Power League. Thank you parents for your support.
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