Volleyball

Staley loves to try out all the different sports that the park district has to offer, so this year she added volleyball to her repertoire.  The first and second grade girls play with a larger, lighter, softer ball and a lower net.  Staley had never played before and she improved so much from the beginning of the season to the end.

At the beginning of the season, Staley was not able to get her serves over the net and had difficulty in practice passing the ball without missing it completely or making it go behind her.  By the end of the season, she could consistently serve the ball over the net and even returned the other's team serve back over the net (albeit out of bounds) one time.  In practice, she could pretty consistently pass the ball over the net when it was tossed to her.  She was still not very aggressive during games, often watching the ball fall in front of her without going to get it, but that was typical of many of the girls.  Her improvement throughout the season was significant and that was very fun to see!

Staley's best friend plays volleyball, which was one of the reasons Staley really wanted to play.  They were excited to be on the same team.

Staley and Lilian

Although my volleyball playing experience ended in 8th grade (which was a fair number of years ago), I offered to help coach Staley's team.  We had a good group of girls and my limited knowledge was generally still a step ahead of the players, so it worked out fine.  It also helped that the other coach (Lilian's mom) played college volleyball and coaches volleyball at the high school.  The bonus was that coaching together meant that Staley and Lilian were assured a spot on the same team.

The season was fairly short and ended with a little tournament.  There were only 4 teams in the league, but Staley's team got second place.  They were so excited to be in the championship game as the first 2 teams got trophies while the other 2 teams only got medals.

So excited about her second place trophy!

I really enjoyed watching Staley progress throughout the season in her volleyball skills. She had fun, gained confidence, and built a foundation for another sport that she enjoys.  

My little volleyball player