Coach Faith Wilder-Newland says her Trinity Lutheran volleyball camp seems to get bigger each summer.
She said there were 42 girls in second-through-fifth grades and 63 girls in grades sixth-through-eighth that worked on their volleyball skills in the Bollinger Athletic Complex at the Seymour high school last week.
“It is our biggest camp here,” Wilder-Newland said. “There are a lot of good kids.”
Seymour girls not only attended but also from Brownstown, Columbus and other communities.
The younger kids worked to improve their passing, setting, hitting and serving.
“Most of these kids are serving overhand, so they’ve already been exposed to volleyball through camps or club or even through their school, so a lot of them have learned to serve overhand,” the coach said.
It was a four-day camp, and Wilder-Newland said, “We did some games. It’s modified-type games for the younger age group because it’s better to get them engaged to get the ball crossing the net, so doing it on a half-court allows them to be more successful.”
She said the girls in the grades 2-to-5 group practiced on a lower net.
“It’s a 7-foot net, so it’s a little shorter than a regular net (7-foot-4),” she said.
The older group was taught more skills that involve more than one contact and ball-crossing-the-net kind of drills, Wilder-Newland said.
“We still put the emphasis on doing things fundamentally right, but we try to emphasize that more through games,” she said.
One of the Brownstown girls attending was Sophie Wischmeier, who will be an eighth-grader at Lutheran Central School. Three of her teammates also attended the camp.
”I’ve been playing volleyball for as long as I can remember,” she said. “I like all things about volleyball pretty much. I like being with my friends and stuff.”
Wischmeier said she likes to attack.
“I like to play outside the best,” she said. “Sometimes, even if you’re not super tall, you can get some shots that can still work, like hitting where the defense is not and not hitting as hard as you can.”
In addition to playing for the Saints, Wischmeier has had a lot of experience playing for Trinity’s club team.
“This was my first year with Faith,” she said. “Our setter got hurt, so I had to set the last couple tournaments.”
Enola Vandercar, who attends White Creek Lutheran, said this is the second time she had attended the Trinity camp.
“I like the teamwork of volleyball and the action,” she said. “I like serving. This is my first year of serving overhand, so I’m still practicing.”
Vandercar said she likes playing defense and is learning how to dig the ball.
“I like to play in the middle front,” she said. “I’m working on my jumping. I’ve done another volleyball camp for my school. I don’t play any other sports, but I cheer.”