Faith Wilder-Newland said she wanted the girls who attended her Trinity Lutheran volleyball camp last week to find some love and a passion for the game.
Forty-three kids attended the camp last week, which was divided into two groups. Third through fifth grades were in the first 90-minute session, and sixth through eighth took to the court in the second session.
Wilder-Newland said the younger kids worked on fundamentals.
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“Their bodies just aren’t ready for some skills, so we try to break it down into the little steps, like how to hold their hand when they’re tipping a ball or where their feet go when they’re making an approach,” Wilder-Newland said. “So we try to break every skill down into the very basic levels so they get those mastered. Then we can start putting things together.”
She said the older group practiced more advanced drills since a lot of them will be playing on school teams this fall.
“In sixth through eighth, a lot of them have had more playing experience, so they have done more of the basic skills,” Wilder-Newland said. “We’re focusing a little bit more on refining technique they already know and teaching them the basics of group play.”
Drew Hubbard, who attends Immanuel Lutheran School, said this is the third time she has attended the Trinity volleyball camp.
“I enjoy attacking the most,” she said. “I’m working on getting the fundamentals of the game down and trying to practice to become a better player and learning more about the game so I can be better later on in life. I think I’m pretty good at serving. They teach well.”
Wilder-Newland said all abilities were welcomed to the camp.
“We’re trying to get them to understand that the sport is a lifetime sport, so even if they don’t play in school, they can play recreational ball, they play in the sand, on the grass in different levels throughout their lives,” she said.
Laura Roeder, who will be a seventh-grader at Immanuel, said she comes to the camp every year. She is a setter and said she spent a lot of time working on setting.
“If (the ball) is in the middle, you’ll have your arms (a certain way),” she said. “It’s basically a 5-2.”
Outside of Seymour, girls from Austin, Columbus, White Creek and Jennings County attended the camp.
Jayleigh Schepman, who will be a sixth-grader at Austin, stayed with her grandmother in Seymour while attending the camp.
“I came to the camp because I love playing volleyball, and I like to have fun and get better,” Schepman said. “Volleyball is very fun and very enjoyable. I like to serve.”
Wilder-Newland had her high school team helped the campers.
“With the younger group, we had one coach for every three players, and in the older group, it was about one coach for every four,” Wilder-Newland said. “We do some four-on-four, we’ll do some six-on-six drills (Wednesday), so we’ll do a little more team-type play.
“It’s a good experience for the high school girls because then they realize that some of the techniques that we’re trying to teach them, they realize that it’s our side of it. When you’re trying to show one how to do it, they kind of understand a little bit better themselves.”