Summer Time in the Great Plains

Well the weather hasn't really cooperated enough to have truly feel like summer all of the time but we keep hoping that turns for us very quickly.

Busy, busy, busy seems to be phrase I hear all of the time from the team and even prospects. It is interesting as we all go through the school year looking forward to the summer it ends up being that we are more busy in the summer than we ever are during the year. Yet we like that way.

At the end of May I played at the USA Adult Nationals tournament in Minneapolis. HOLY COW, it was amazing to see how many great players in this country. Getting to see the Open division of the men's and women's was such a treat. These players came from some of the best college programs in teh nation as well as some of the great professional clubs in Europe. Sometimes all I could do was just sit back in amazement at the athleticism of these players. As I watched I evaluated each team and player to figure out what made them great. I have come to 2 main things for the great ones - they have excellent ball control; ball control in many different aspects whether it only be passing or setting or hitting the ball. They had a at least 2 of those skills of excellent ball control. The other thing that nearly every top tier player had was an extremely intense competitive mind so that they could get through any mistakes they did make. Yes even the great players make mistakes. KEY: LEARN TO BE MENTALLY TOUGH!!!!

I highly recommend everyone to go to and eventually play in this USA Adult National Tournament someday.

I have been going around the eastern region of SD the past few weeks doing camps at some of the high schools in the region. It has been nice to be back on the court teaching this wonderful sport to the youth of America. In the coming weeks I will be in Minneapolis at Cooper HS and then back to Parkston, SD, after that we have our camps here on campus that starts with a Youth Camp for 3rd through 8th graders (they are so fun and eager to learn) and then have a Team Camp to finish off that week followed by a camp in Chamberlain, SD and then I get a break for a few days until I go back out on the road. I love it and would not change my profession for anything else.

About two weeks ago we finalized our 2009 competition schedule, please check it out on our website. I really like the schedule because of its balance between matches we should win and others that will really test us. We are going to have a lot of new faces on the roster next season so we will have to figure quite a few things out early in the season and make sure that our team chemistry is in an extremely positive movement. It is certainly early to predict a W/L record or conference finish without having any practices at this time but I would like to say that we have a great chance of reaching somewhere between 16 to 24 wins in 2009 because of our schedule.

The summer is an important time for a volleyball player it is the time of the year where you prepare your body for the coming challenges. Enjoy your time in the summer but understand that you are on the verge of putting your body through a highly intense time of the year.

Continue to have a great summer

-Coach V