2011 High School Begins!

Before the season even began, the Kangs suffered a big loss when our number 1 hitter ( and one of Maddie's best friends) crumpled to the floor in practice yesterday; prognosis: sprained ankle-out for a month...half the season. A very bad break. That, coupled with our starting senior Libero out with mono (who catches MONO any more?) had the team emotionally challenged even before the trip to 4A powerhouse Skyline for an opening night non-league match up. As expected, the Kangs were never a threat, but I thought they held their own and lost by about 6-8 points every match. High School seems so 'luck of the draw' sometimes; how does a school like Skyline have 4 girls at 6 feet plus and LW has no one over 5'10"? Height is what killed us tonight...that and mediocre serve receive and serving. But like I said, they hung in there and with the 2 starters out, had an OK match to get the jitters out. Of course, things don't get any easier with the home opener tomorrow night against (3A 9th ranked in the state) Mercer Island, but no one said it would be easy! Some good competition to begin the season and it's not over until the game gets played. Just not a lot of height on this team, but they had moments tonight that were encouraging. Good to reconnect with some of the parents and see Maddie playing in a real game...her first since Club ended in May. Great to be back! Update and pictures post game tomorrow.

The Ecstasy and Agony of Tryouts

Maddie got a late start in club volleyball and I will never forget the dejection on her face and the fear in my heart as we prepared to leave Moxie Club tryouts less than 2 years ago. She came up to her mom and me and said "I guess I didn't make it" but as we gathered our things one of the coaches came up and asked her to follow along. We watched as Maddie's face lit up as she was told she had made her very first club team. We tried out for 4 other teams that year and she went home every other time without an offer. A sobering start, but one that worked out because she got lots of reps that year and really became a setter. Then a year ago this week she battled for 4 days at HS tryouts and mom and I were there when she found out she had made the Varsity team with only 2 other sophomores. The scream and the look of pure joy on her face was a moment I will never forget. She made it as a RS because there were a couple of junior setters ahead of her, but it was so fun for her to be a varsity player. Then last year at Club tryouts we didn't really know what to expect and were kind of blown away to get an offer from the first 4 teams she tried out for...yet for all that, there was genuine disappointment when Island Thunder let her walk out of the gym without a spot. We accepted a spot with Blaze and were happy, but the 10 pm call from IT with an offer was like a dream come true and she was so wired she couldn't sleep that night. And IT was so perfect for her. So as HS tryouts began on Monday, the vibe was different. After a season setting for IT and a summer filled with camps, my DD went in with a swagger and a confidence and a conviction that being a setter for LWHS was HER job this year. And so it is. No screams of joy this year, just a simple call to tell me that her and her friend Maddie W. (one of the now Sr. setters from last year) were the varsity setters. Almost as if there was never a doubt it would be otherwise. So as you players or you parents travel through your volleyball adventure, know that there will be crushing lows that you will suffer through. There will be teams you didn't make, and starting jobs that went to someone else...but if you work hard and stay with your dream, there will be joy and satisfaction from your victories. Making a team, securing a starting job.. succeeding...these will be moments you will never forget. I am as proud of the self confident Maddie who knew she would be named a setter as I am of the girl who was shocked to make the team a year ago. Is there anything better than being a proud parent? Good job, Maddies; go Kangs!

Honey? Time to WAKE UP!

Summer is winding down and soon the mornings will be filled with dad impersonating an alarm clock...Monday begins Kang Volleyball Tryouts! Much less stress this year as Maddie was trying to make Varsity as a sophomore. With a couple of setters ahead of her, she made it as a RS, but with a full year of Club setting at Island Thunder behind her and lots of volleyball at Western and UW camps, she'll be working for that #1 setter role for 2011 as the Kangs look to build on their 5 win season from a year ago. New reports from tryouts next week, Here we go!

UW Camp 2011 Version

Maddie just finished another UW Camp and had an equally good time as last year, especially since she got to reconnect with pal Jenna Hagglund, the wonderful UW setter who, when we last saw her, was in the NCAA Elite 8. She was Maddie's 'team' coach again and a swell time was had by all. Tomorrow begins Kang Camp, and the realization that summer is in full swing.... and we have yet to see the sun... some pics from  the weekend:

With Evan Sanders, Sr. Setter:

With Kylin Munoz, Jr. OH:

With Kelly Holford, Jr. L/DS and Anna Cesari, F Setter:

And with Jenna. LOVE her!

Summer Break is Over

Maddie celebrated her birthday and last open gym on June 21st and we just got back from 9 days in Vegas, Palm Springs and San Diego where we spent all of 15 minutes discussing volleyball. This is literally the first break of more than a day or two since Club tryouts last November, and I think it was good for her physically and mentally. Tomorrow she heads up to WWU for a week of camps; her opportunity to show the coaches up there what she's made of. Hope everyone has a great July 4th holiday weekend!

Raw ECC Video

I put some video up of various matches at ECC on my YouTube page. Maddie is #11! Now we're off to Vegas and Southern California before she spends a week up at some WWU Camps!

http://www.youtube.com/user/bstone1959

2011 Club Roundup

As the final point fell to the floor, sending ITVC home with a respectable 13th place finish at ECC, I took a deep breath and realized that volleyball was over for a couple of months and Maddie could relax and focus on homework and friends as summer approached. Well...wrong. High School practices started this week with several open gyms held. I mentioned that since she was fresh off club she could probably miss a few of these. "Dad, I can't miss." And that's when it kind of sunk in that Maddie has been listening to her dad all these months. Maddie is most likely the strongest setter on the HS Team, but she played RS there last year as a sophomore and knows that nothing will be handed to her. By saying "I can't miss" what she is really saying is that if she wants the starting setter job, she has to earn it. Bingo. So, club gives way to HS and some camps, but also a trip to Southern California with Dad, a couple of good family camping trips (including the annual eight-family trip to Westport to wear sweatshirts and stand under tarps in August (her 16th in a row) and a 16th birthday in June...so no, volleyball is not taking a hiatus.

So what of ITVC Blue this year? Some bad, but mostly a good positive experience.

The good: There was so much that was good. For all the frustrations with the coaches, I want to thank them for the time they spent and the sacrifices THEY made. They are good, grounded young people and I honestly wish them nothing but the best moving forward. The girls individually were all outstanding young ladies and their parents should all be proud of them. Speaking of parents, we had an awesome group. Lots of shared frustrations, but lots of high fives and parental pride going around too. A special thanks to Maddie's mom who did an outstanding job as team mom and now carries those responsibilities over to Maddie's HS Team. She is an organized and tireless part of any team, and she's a damn good mom, too. To the ITVC Club itself, a big thank you. We are so happy to be part of this family and everyone at the club was super great to be with. Who knows what U-17 holds, but I know we would certainly jump at the opportunity to continue the ride. Lastly, to Maddie, #11, setter. I was very proud of your work ethic; you were the only girl to never miss a practice. I was happy you got so many reps; you really grew as a player. I was proud that you were able to balance volleyball and school. And I was just plain proud of your sportsmanship and dedication to this sport you love so much. That will take you far, my friend.

Reports will be sporadic through the summer, but I'll check in and you can count of a full accounting of Maddie's effort to help LWHS get deep into the playoff this year. Go ITVC. Go Kangs!

But for a point here or there....

One thing I keep discussing with Maddie is how important every single point is during tournaments.

A few things that jumped out after ECC:

Look at the scores of our Sunday losses: To Apollo 22-25, 25-27
                                                              To Clackamas 25-27, 22-25

A few more digs, a few serves not out of bounds or into the net....a point early in the match or when it's 19-19...can make all the difference in the world between playing for a championship and playing for 11th place. Winning just one of those matches, to teams ranked lower than we were, and we would have been playing in Gold. Speaking of Gold...the 16 Club Championship was won by Clark County Black which they won over NW Juniors Elite Black. Interesting fact: Clark County lost one match all weekend. They lost 0-2 to ITVC Blue on Saturday. We didn't play NW Juniors this weekend, but at Regionals, we beat them in a match AND in the Bronze Championship playoff game.

So there, in a nutshell was the frustrating thing about the season....always close, but never able to win that key game to move us into a position to succeed on a bigger stage. As Maddie moves forward in her career, she needs to learn to help her team find those extra points each game. Her coaches need to motivate and explain the significance of every match. And each girl needs to dig deep and avoid those one or or two mistakes that may seem insignificant at the time, but can change a season around.

Images of ECC

Emerald City Classic - Days 2 and 3

The volleyball Gods giveth and they taketh away. Day 2 began with the news that our starting DS would be gone the rest of the tourney due to a family emergency. That coupled with the absence of another girl due to sickness turned out to be critical as the club does not have much depth. The decrease in defense and a reversion back to the days where we made 4-6 service errors per game, was too much to handle in matches 1 and 2 and we lost all 4 games by 3 points or less. Nontheless, a victory over Cascade Blue left us at 1-2 and a chance to actually come in second in the pool because of tie breakers, but the team we needed to win the last match did not, and we finished third and thus ended up in the Silver Division. Disappointing after playing so well on day one.

Monday found us actually seeded at the top of the Silver Division and we won the first match pretty handily. Playing in the next match against High Velocity, we dropped the first game but came back to win the second. Game 3 went back and forth, but after 10-10, we fell apart and ended up losing the game 15-10, thus ending both the tournament and the season. Part of me feels kind of disappointed because we could have done so much more, but the weaknesses on the team were pretty consistent all year and the tourney was kind of a microcosm of the year. A good team, but never quite able to make that leap into consistent excellence. Still, 13th out of 40 teams is nothing to sneeze at. Maddie was a little off today, but had a solid tournament and I was especially proud of her 100% serving percentage. No one else on the team was even close to that (and it hurt).

A special shout out to the folks at WVBA who hosted a wonderful tournament. This was our first trip to the Emerald City Classic and everything was set up nicely and ran smoothly. I hope your girls have a great time in Brazil. So, congrats to Maddie, 16 Blue and all of the ITVC clubs who gave it their all this weekend. A season wrap up to follow soon. Happy Memorial Day!

Emerald City Classic - Day 1

Maybe we should have practiced at the beach all year. Or maybe all tournaments should begin at 3 pm. Whatever the reason, the girls came out and played some of their best volleyball of the year, taking out two higher seeds from Oregon and an outmatched Wahine team from Des Monies, WA in 6 straight games. The serving was solid, the defense and passing worked, Maddie's sets were spot on, and our hitters were nailing it...all which puts us in a nice spot on Sunday as the top seed in our pool where we will once again battle a couple of Oregon teams and the Cascade Blue team from Seattle. As it is now 11:40 PM and exhausted from the good play by Blue and the 12th inning victory by the Mariners over the hated Yankees, I will now retire and get ready to do it all over again tomorrow.

ITVC at the Beach

The last practice of the 2011 Club Season was held at Alki Beach on a pleasant evening yesterday as the girls prepare to wrap up the season with the Emerald City Classic this Memorial Day weekend. As it's supposed to rain, again, inside at the UW seems like as good as place as any to be. The practice was spirited and fun and  I think it loosened things up a bit. I'm hoping that if the girls have fun again, it may translate into good teamwork and effort. More over the weekend!

College Volleyball Personal Coaching

Hooked Maddie up with a super young lady at Nevillizms who spent an hour working on setting techniques, serving, defense, etc. Maddie came away fired up and immediately wrote down all the knowledge that was transferred so she could work on things prior to ECC. Taking a Sunday off practice *but not the last practice before a tourney!) to head to LA for some R&R. Good Friday the 13th!

Club Volleyball: Oregon Wrap Up

I had high hopes going into the Willamette Classic this weekend in Corvallis, but the girls never really got it going. I was pretty hopeful after last week's comeback at Regionals that we would be competitive, but some truly mystifying coaching decisions and a general lack of chemistry resulted in a pretty flat effort.
From a non-volleyball perspective, I liked everything about this tournament; facilities were nice, things were on time and they even had a spring match between Western and OSU. Maddie was excited for the team to see some college ball, but the rest of the team wanted to get frozen yogurt after the last match so Maddie and her mom  went solo. Good job, Maddie and good job, mom.

I think everyone is hitting the wall, but I hope we keep it together for ECC in 2 weeks. Even Club Volleyball Dad is wearing out, but I'm sure I will miss it when it wraps up over Memorial Day. Great to see all the other ITVC teams down there this weekend as well!

Core Values....err....Corvallis

Too much money for a 2 day touney 5 hours away. Especially after the bill for Minnesota just arrived!
Girls have not been playing well.
Supposed to be rainy.

All things I used to try and convince myself not to go...but then they looked like a team again at Regionals.
And I'm carpooling with another CVD.

And so....5 AM lift off for a 10:30 start in Corvallis! Life's too short, right?

Oregon or Bust!

Puget Sound Regionals

Let me first set the stage: at the end of the Power League season, the 64 teams are broken into 3 divisions. ITVC Blue is in Division 2, one of 24 teams. The first day is pool play with the top 2 teams from each pool of 4 advancing to the Gold and Silver brackets and the bottom 2 playing in the Bronze and Copper brackets. Sadly, IT plays well, but finishes 3rd in their first pool and is thus, on Day 2, one of 12 teams playing for Bronze. So out of 24 teams that begin on Saturday, IT is playing to finish between 13th and 24th. So that being settled, we begin our day and win 2 straight matches to secure a spot in the Bronze division. We win another match and are in the top 4. Next match begins (loser goes home) and the girls just look physically beat. We lost the first game and I'm thinking that the streak is going to come to an end. In the 2nd game, we continue to look pretty sluggish until coach calls a timeout and lays into the girls pretty good. It does the trick and we come out and take game 2 and dominate game 3, 15-7. That puts us in the final against NW Juniors Elite from Edmonds, a team which we had beaten earlier in the day. Game 1 sees us rally back from a deficit to take it, but the wheels come off the bus a bit and we drop game 2...so it all comes down to a game 3. It's back and forth but we're up 13-11 and Maddie is serving. Good serve, we handle their volley and push it over for a point. Game point. Maddie takes a breath and lofts a deep serve that looks long. The other team lets it fall, and fall it does, right inside the back line for the ACE and the win! So when it's all over, ITVC finishes 13th out of 24 teams and does it by going undefeated on Sunday.

On the drive back to Kirkland I realized how important that very first round of pool play is. You finish top 2 in your flight and you are playing for a top 12 finish no matter what...but at the end of the day I think today was more satisfying to be right where we were. I cannot express how proud I was of the girls who, in effect, won a 12 team tournament today. The defense was better, which meant the passes were easier for Maddie to set which meant the hitters were in good spots to kill the ball. And everyone stepped it up. We've struggled a bit over the last few tournaments and to see them come out today and go undefeated was like a breath of fresh air. Maddie played every point in 13 games over 8 hours and capped it off with an ace. Club Volleyball Dad is very proud, and I hope the girls can use this as a springboard to play well in Corvallis next weekend and at ECC over Memorial Day. Here's to you, #11 and to your 10 teammates. Well done.

Puget Sound Regionals

After the excitement of the Royal Wedding 2011 which was just as exciting as the big one in 1981, I am off with IT Blue for a fun weekend in Fife for the Puget Sound Regionals. The team has been struggling mightily, losing 11 of their last 12 matches, so we need folks, including Maddie, to bring it up a notch and get some of their groove back. Better passing, a reduction in serve errors, spot on setting and powerful hitting need to be the themes of the weekend. Time to hang tough, avoid on court meltdowns, and get some team chemistry going again! For all of you participating or watching the girls this weekend, have fun and be safe!

Club Volleyball Minnesota WrapUp

Not a great trip for our girls in Blue last weekend as they continued their struggles in Minnesota. I spent a fair amount of time talking with Maddie this week about how sports can take you from highs to lows all the time but that the important thing was to go out and do HER best, to practice hard, to be a good teammate and to exude WINNING  (thanks, Charlie Sheen) even when there is not complete buy in by all the girls who make up your team. In her career she will deal with coaches she loves, coaches she hates and coaches she is ambivalent about, but you learn to roll with the punches and keep on striving to get better. That said, she DID enjoy Minnesota and the Mall of America and the experience as a whole was good. In retrospect, don't know if I'd spend that kind of money in pursuit of a bid we have no chance of earning, but it's yet another life experience. Inexplicably, they are not practicing this week after losing 11 of their last 12 matches over 2 tournaments, but I guess Maddie can use the rest! Next up: Regionals!

Minnesota Qualifier 2011

The girls are off to Minneapolis tomorrow for the Regional Qualifier. Dad is kind of bummed that he's not going, but maybe it will be a good thing for the team to be there with minimal parental distractions. Our seeding kind of took a hit after the Power League #5 debacle, but maybe we can sneak up on some Midwestern team in the opening round. I bribed Maddie with a crisp $20 bill in the hopes that she will keep me updated between trips to the Mall of America and some late season ice fishing. Good luck to all the ITVC clubs this weekend! Play well, be safe, and have fun!

Club Volleyball: Hitting the Wall

It's that time of the year where everyone is hitting the wall. Low energy, lackluster play and girls who skip tournaments and practice for Spring Break are all affecting our team as we head to Minnesota next week. We plan our vacation around volleyball because we believe that Maddie should learn the lesson of being depended on by your teammates. If you make a commitment to win, you do everything you can TO win. Sadly, we were missing girls at Power League 5 and it contributed to our winless day, dropping us a flight and hurting our ranking at tournaments over the next 2 months. Just hope everyone can find their second wind as we move forward!

April and May will be busy with Minnesota, Regionals, Corvallis, and ECC but we are going to try and fit in some personal setter training. I have a few leads, but if anyone knows of a quality teacher who can evaluate Maddie and suggest ways to improve, please email!