Junior volleyball players dressed up in their funnest, scariest or goofiest costumes for St. Augustine Catholic School’s annual Spooktacular volleyball tournament last weekend.
Of the 10 teams competing, two were St. Augustine teams — Team Green and Team Black — who took part in the event, said organizer and coach of the Green Team Lindsey Schamber.
The Green Team consists of mainly Grade 8 and 9 girls and their first match Friday, Oct. 30 was a two-set win against Bentley.
She says her team lost to Bentley recently during league play. “To play them again and win was really nice for them,” said Schamber.
“They had lots of three hits,” she added.
The goal with these fun tournaments is to give players as many hits on the ball as possible. Schamber added her players work well at creating a positive team environment and encouraging each other in games. While the tournament is a fun experience, it’s also a chance to meet other players and coaches and compete against teams not in their own league.
As for the rest of the season, Schamber says her team is sitting in fourth of nine spots in the league. League finals are set for Nov. 3 and 5 in Bentley.
For Team Black, the first match brought one win and one loss. Coach Chris McLean was proud of his players who mainly consist of Grade 7 players and two Grade 9 players. He said the 1-1 score after the first match was a positive experience considering their opponents were Grade 8 and 9 players.
“They’re (Team Black) way ahead of their schedule for Grade 7 (players),” said McLean.
Most of the teams that Team Black played against were older and McLean’s goal is to see them improve each match. “When you coach Grade 7s against Grade 9s you want to see growth.”
The season started tough for Team Black who couldn’t manage to make solid hits after the pass. As the season progressed, however, players started making more hits and now McLean says the team is making five hits per game. Having as many losses as they did at the outset of the season may have been a good thing for the team.
McLean suggests a team has to learn how to lose a game and then from there players can learn from their mistakes and improve. He suggests practice and following a training process helped the team improve day in and day out.