My weekend in NC — MAPL, New Friends, Old Friends and A Bunch of Ball

I apologize to all for being absent from my blog — I had a few setbacks personally (my son broke his leg in soccer tryouts a few weeks ago, requiring surgery and last week my ohana had to put down our 16 year old Cocker Spaniel, Madison), but I am back and typing away!

Two weekends ago, I took a quick 3 hour drive down to Raleigh, NC to help my great friend and now work colleague, Chuck McCracken, direct the Mid Atlantic Power League #2 tournament, hosted by Casey and Sherry at the Triangle Volleyball Club (www.trianglevolleyball.org) at the Raleigh Convention Center.  I also had the great opportunity to work the USA Volleyball High Performance Tryouts on Friday night and enter the USA Volleyball HP Coaches Pipeline.  I saw my friend Jeff Mosher from USA Volleyball and some great college and club coaches.

The USA Volleyball HP Department works to advance volleyball talent and build a broader and stronger pipeline of athletes and coaches for our USA Olympic Teams. The HP Program at USA Volleyball is the “pipeline” for young volleyball athletes who aspire to reach the elite level of their sport and who dream to one day represent the USA on the National Mens or Womens Volleyball Team.  This time around, I had the privilege of working with such great college and club coaches as Lauren and Casey Steinbrecher from James Madison University, Shelton Collier from Wingate and my friend, Blaine Tendler from Piedmont Volleyball Club.  Needless to say, what a great experience that was for me.

The goals of the HP Program include:

• To bring young volleyball athletes together in challenging and rewarding training environments;
• To provide them the opportunity to learn and develop with the best coaches in the USA Coaches’ Pipeline and to compete at the elite and international levels;
• To grow the number of opportunities available to volleyball athletes, the number of high-level matches that they are able play and the amount of time they are able to train;
• To participate High Performance teams in all FIVB or related international events possible; and
• To consistently prepare a broad pool of qualified and experienced athletes available to compete for spots on the USA Men’s and Women’s National Teams.

Entry into all HP teams and camps is based upon selection at one of many USA HP Tryouts during the winter and spring of each year.  Athletes who aspire to be on our Mens or Womens National Teams, enter the pipeline at HP tryouts in various locations around the country each year.

MAPL #2 was a huge success and it was great to see players from all over the East Coast, compete and challenge each other.  The Gold final was between the Triangle 17 Black and Triangle 18 Black teams and what a nailbiter that was!  It was won by the 17′s team 24-22 in the third set.  WOW, what a match it was.  It was also great to see all of my referee friends and I made some new friends as well!

Friendships I made this weekend:

Steve Mills – Club Director of the TCA Volleyball Club in Harrisonburg, VA

Tom Lowery – Club Director of Virginia Elite

Sheila Holloway – Director of HP Programs, Carolina Region

Dana Wall – Director of the European Global Challenge and former SDSU All American (great to see you again Dana!)

It was a long, but great weekend overall!  Next stop, Ft. Lauderdale, FL this weekend for the Cloverleaf Tournament!  Stop by the Lucky Dog Volleyball Store and say hi!

~coach k

 

 

The Importance of Growing the Keikis (Children)

My parents have always taught me to never stop striving for the highest in everything that I do.  In Hawai’i we say “Kulia Ika Nu’u”.  That phrase has been in my head since I met my now good friend Carla Carpenter-Kabalis, at the USA Volleyball High Performance Coaches Clinic last month at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.  Her club mantra is that powerful phrase — I loved her shirt so much, she gave it to me and I wear it to feel inspired.  Mahalo Carla, I miss you girl.

I’ve been a volleyball coach for many years now, mostly at the high school/club level.  My niece, Nicole, is 7 and since she was very little, she has said she would play volleyball for her Aunty Kelly.  Now that she is older, I started looking around my area for clinics for elementary school kids….I couldn’t find one.  So, I decided to start an offshoot of my Peninsula Juniors Volleyball Club called the Aloha Volleyball Academy.  Here, in Yorktown, VA, I run a youth clinics for kids who are just getting started playing volleyball and base my clinics on John Kessel’s USAV Grassroots program.  I had a chance to speak with John and attend some of his Grassroots clinics at the HP coaches clinic and thoroughly enjoyed it!  By the way, John Kessel writes a wonderful blog at the Volleyball site and it’s very much worth the read at:

http://usavolleyball.org/blogs/growing-the-game-together-s-blog

Within just two weeks, my first two youth clinics had 25 kids!  I could not believe it and this was just from word of mouth!   I have four assistants that work with me, so that the individual instruction and ratio of coaches to players is very high.  I use the Molten “First Touch” volleyballs for my little ones and they totally love it because they are covered with a very soft cloth and come in three different weights depending on the strength and skill of the player.  My older clinic is filled up with kids who weren’t quite ready for club ball this spring and wanted ball touches, so we concentrate on fixing individual technique and working on team skills.

Bringing myself back down to coach the keiki’s was one of the best things I could have done for myself as a coach.  Sometimes when you coach the older club players, you become frustrated with their skillset and think to yourself, “who taught these kids how to pass, serve and hit?”  Techniques are wrong, attitudes aren’t the best and what is saddest of all is, some of them just don’t have a love for the game — volleyball has become a job.   When I see kids who have lost that fire and passion for the game of volleyball, it just kills me inside.  I cannot even begin to express how much it hurts.

So every Sunday afternoon, I teach little ones the proper passing technique (thank you for teaching me the more correct way this January, Karch), how to attack and hit a four set outside.  Heck, I had 7 year olds calling “outside, outside!” for a four set this weekend and they were louder than some of my high school kids are on the court.  Last week, my little ones wanted to run 10 laps to warm up — 10 LAPS!  WOW! I look forward to my Sunday afternoons  I have with all of my clinic kids because for three hours each week, I have the honor and treat of working with unspoiled, excited players who are there for the love of the game with stars in their eyes and smiles on their faces.

My hope is next time around, our clinic numbers double and along with my retureners, I’ll get a new bunch of kids who I can spread my love and passion of the game to.  My clinics are progressive, meaning when each player comes back, we started with them where we left off, a “no player left behind” attitude.  If you are interested in attending my Aloha Volleyball Academy clinics and are in the Yorktown/Newport News/Hampton/Williamsburg area, please send me an email at alohavballacademy@gmail.com.

Aloha, have a great week and everyone please “Kulia Ika Nu’u” in everything you do!

~coach k

Mid Atlantic Power League #1 a success in Hampton, VA

What a tremendous turnout for the  first Mid Atlantic Power League tournament of the season!  We had 54 teams compete in the 14 – 16 Blue division and another 54 teams compete in the 16 – 18 Black division.  Teams poured in from all over the east coast, from local teams (my PJVBC club, my friend Keith Nowadly’s Williamsburg Volleyball Club, Coastal Volleyball Club and Beach Elite) to teams from PA, NC, DC and SC.  Thank you for coming out to compete!

Chuck McCracken did a tremendous job running the tournament and Craig Lenniger (Hampton Visitors Bureau) and also a coach for our 17′s team also did a super job organizing this event.  I had the treat of assisting Chuck in running the tournament and learning all the ins and outs of what was required.  It was three very long nights (midnight!), but it was well worth it!  Lucky Dog Volleyball (www.luckydogvolleyball.com) also did a super job with their volleyball store, offering various items such as shoes (for $35! you can’t beat that!), hoodies, active ankles and sweatpants.  Maria, Jennifer and Anita, you guys were awesome and the parents/kids loved it!

Congrats to my friends Greg Koon (head coach) and Mike Smith (Assistant Coach) and their Williamsburg Volleyball Club 16′s team who took the blue division, while Robin Bugg and her Triangle 18′s Black took the Black Division.  It was great volleyball seen by all.

A special mahalo to my PJVBC parents, players and volunteers who assisted in setup and takedown of 18 sportcourts and nets before and after the tournament.  What an awesome showing of aloha there from everyone involved.

Here are some pics from the event:

 

If anyone has any other pics of the event they’d like me to post here, please let send me a message!

We hope everyone had a great time!  MAPL #2 is in Raleigh on March 5th and 6th!  See you all there!

~coach k

 

Outpouring of Aloha last night

The aloha was overflowing last night when we put out a call for help to all of my Peninsula Juniors Volleyball Club players and families.  We are assisting in the Mid Atlantic Power League USAV Juniors volleyball tournament this weekend at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, VA.  18 sportcourts needed to be put down, scorekeeper tables and team chairs had to be set up at each court and we had over 70 of our PJVBC ohana come out and help.  It literally brought tears to my eyes!

 

This is what I call aloha:

 

 

If you are local to our area, please come and check out the Lucky Dog Volleyball MAPL tournament at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, VA, this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) starting at 9:00 a.m. and running into the evening.   It is free admission and there will be food and also Lucky Dog Volleyball’s Store will be set up with volleyball apparel, shoes, headbands, backpacks, shoes and other volleyball items.  Hope to see everyone there!

 

~coach k

Welcome to Aloha and Volleyball!

Aloha and welcome to my first blogging attempt!  Please bear with me while I familiarize myself with wordpress!

I am a USA Volleyball Juniors Club Director and a girl’s varsity volleyball coach in Yorktown, VA.  I was born in Charlottesville, VA, but raised in the Aloha State of Hawai’i.

This blog is created to share my aloha with other volleyball coaches, volleyball enthusiasts, parents of volleyball players, displaced kama’ainas.  You’ll also learn a little about me in the process.

Please feel free to poke around and add any positive feedback by sending me a message.

Aloha and welcome to my blog

~coach k