Youths gain volleyball skills at CHS camp

Sarah Norman had hoped for a few more young volleyball enthusiasts to attend her first summer volleyball camp as head coach of the Chester High School Lady YellowJacket's Volleyball program.

A total of 25 campers showed up July 11 for opening day of the 2018 volleyball camp. The original plan was to host players entering grades 5 and 6 from 8:30 to 10 a.m. each day of camp and volleyball hopefuls entering grades 7 and 8 were to work out from 10:30 to 12:00 noon each day.

As it turned out the camp enrollment totaled 25 enthusiastic and goal-oriented girls including five 5th graders; four sixth graders; eleven 7th graders and five 8th graders. After the first session ended, Coach Norman offered the nine 5th and 6th graders to option of staying and working out with the older girls. Likewise the 16 older were allowed to come to the early session the rest of the week.

"Since we didn't have a lot of girls in either session, it was definitely manageable to allow all 25 girls to work out together for the whole three hour camp each day if so desired," Norman said. "As it turned out, I was very surprised and pleased that each day after the first, that there were numerous girls who were really excited to work out for the entire day on Thursday July 12 and Friday July 13."

The 5th graders included Lexie Mott, Erin Liefer, Kylie Hicks, Kayden King, and Jessica Stumpe. The 6th graders included Gianna Eggemeyer, Rylie Conley, Olivia Earl, and Paige Hamilton. Those nine athletes comprised the early 8:30-10:00 a.m. session.

The second session, 10:30-noon, included 7th graders Amanda Kennon, Zoey Frazer, Angelina Bauer, Kylie Maue, Isabella Marshall, Ellen McCormick, Bethany Bazughmax, Mabry Wingerter, Kaylie Springston, Haley Hoskin, and Jordan Buskof.

Rounding out the field of 25 campers were 8th graders Savanna Guebert, Paige Vasquez, Emma Eggemeyer, Reese McCormick, and Maleia Absher.

Norman was assisted throughout the camp by new Lady Jacket Assistant Coach Sophia Stellhorn. Stellhorn will be a second year Chester High School teacher of business education, keyboarding and computer concepts, consumer economics and business and technology. She coached volleyball at Grant Middle School in Fairview Heights for a year and a half before coming to CHS.

Campers learned the volleyball techniques of setting, passing, hitting, serving, blocking, and footwork. The entire time workouts were being conducted, the campers were instilled with the traits of using good manners and having positive attitudes. Being a "great" teammate was always a key focus of the Lady Jacket summer camp program.

"We wanted the campers to learn from and bond with our Chester High School Lady Jacket players throughout the week," Norman said. "Our girls served as good role models in teaching the physical workouts and in demonstrating good manners, positive attitudes and being great teammates."

The campers also had the opportunity to scrimmage each day and get experience taking directions and competing as a team. Good manners and sportsmanship were stressed and each girl had the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to work together as a great teammate.

Current Lady Jacket players who assisted with the camp throughout the three-day event included 11 freshmen, six sophomores, five juniors and two seniors for a total of 24 high school assistants. Freshmen included Alyssa Seymour, Ashlyn Colvis, Camille Schroeder, Oddessy, Maria Nickle, Anna Childs, Gracey Roth, Hannah Colvis, Hannah Blechle, Ava Lochhead, and Kailyn Absher.

Sophomores included Marci Naeger, Josie Kattenbraker, Reese Chandler, Peyton Clendenin, Lauren Soellner, and Anna Meyer. Junior players included Ashtyn Jany, Grace Stec, Lauren Vasquez, Audrey Hopper, and Kayla Bert. The two senior players included Carlee Weir and Caitlin Roberts.

Throughout the three-day camp the youths worked hard, stayed focused, demonstrated good manners and a positive attitude and appeared to bond with their high school counterparts.

"I have to give a shout out to former CHS Coach, Adam Gibbs because I can really see that campers who take part in his SILVA program throughout the year have come to this camp with slightly better skills and confidence than some of the rookie players," Norman said. "I also can say that all of the girls have an eagerness to learn, a great work ethic and good attitudes."

Stellhorn added that each camper seemed to improve each day.

"They all had great attitudes and had a huge desire to work hard, especially on their hitting," Stellhorn said. "The younger girls were given the option of using an underhand serve this week, but almost every one of them opted to use an overhand serve to improve their skills. We can tell that the freshmen have already improved since their 8th grade season just a few months ago."

Throughout the camp the high school players seemed to use their best skills and maintained great attitudes, motivation and manners in order to serve as great teammates for the young campers.

"I actually learned more about my skills by serving as a teacher for the campers," said CHS sophomore Alana Meyer, who helped throughout the camp. "I had to notice more things about my techniques and the way I did things so I could be a great role model for the girls. It took some quick thinking for me to be able to put things in language and terms that they could understand. That also helped me to learn."