Stay tuned for more info on tryouts and the coaching staff for 2011…VIVA!!!!

Highlights for the year included 14-1 knocking off a power MAVA 15’s team in Indy and both 14-1 and 14-2 making the gold round of the Dunes April Classic.  14-1 finished 3rd in both the Motor City Madness tourney and the Dunes April Classic, narrowly losing out to the eventual champs each time.  14-2 also had a nice showing going 7-1 but finishing only 5th due to some “interesting” formatting.  The 14-1 Team finished in the middle of the pack at nationals while 14-2 knocked out 4 wins in some very tough pools!  Between Michigan, Louisville, Indy, Dunes, and Orlando we saw some great competition and improved every time out.

I’m so pleased at some of the club development this year; 7 different coaches helped out with the two teams, girls headed to 7 different high schools played on our teams, and we proved again that the periodization format can and does work!  The girls all developed physically through the workouts with Maryellen in January and February, they all improved their skills during the training period, and we saw very little burnout and zero drama within the teams as was the case in year one.   

A big thank you goes out to all of the coaches, parents, and players for another great year at TR.  There are MAJOR plans for the 2011 season including teams in all age groups, adjustments to the training, and some fantastic new coaches coming on board.  Stay tuned!

Viva!!!!!

On April 10th TR will host an 8 team, single day tournament at Notre Dame Academy.  Any and all 14’s teams are welcome regardless of their OVR/USA/AAU/JVA affiliation.  We provide the insurance!  We’ll consider stong 13’s teams as well.  This will be a more relaxed tourney designed to be a chance to try out different lineups etc. while getting ready for bigger national type tourneys. 

If you are interested in entering a team, reffing this event, or just want more info, drop me a line at smattera@cfpohio.com

Thanks!

Email me for more detials

This team will follow the same training schedule as the smaple scheudle that was posted earlier on the site for the 14’s.  The tournament schedule will also be very similar!

Also that evening we will welcome any player who missed our 14’s tryouts last week.  We have a few spots left on our 14’s teams.

Please email me with questions!

Viva!

Sample Training Schedule

December 6^th, 13^th, 20^th, 27^th: Open Gyms (optional)

January 4^th – February 27^th: Conditioning At Positively Fit 2 nights per week, your choice which nights, plus full team workout Saturday mornings

March 1^st – May 6^th: Practice 4 days per week, Mondays off if it follows a tourney weekend.

May 10 – May 23^rd: Off Weeks

May 24^th – June 11^th: Nationals Prep Practice Schedule

Sample Tourney Schedule

March 13-14 Bluegrass Pre Qualifier – Louisville

March 20-21 Dunes March Madness – Michigan City, IN

April 10^th – Friendship Scrimmage – We Host in Toledo

April 16-18 JVA Youth Gala – Louisville

April 24-25 Michigan JVA Showcase – Grand Rapids, MI

May 8-9 Team Indiana Classic – Indy

June 5 or 12 – Pre National Scrimmage

June 16-19 – National Championship – Orlando, FL

***This Schedule is not set in stone.  It is meant to give potential families an idea of what they are committing to and what they will get for their fees.

The Fees for a 9 person team under a schedule like this will be around $1400 per player.  This includes coaching fees for a head coach and an assistant, coaches travel, facility rental, registeration, tournament entry fees, administrative fee, 2 jerseys, and a warm up top.  Every team will attend nationals, and there will be an extra fee at the end of the year for this.  The fee will be based on the tourney entry fee plus coaches travel expenses.  Figure around $200-$300 for the nationals fee.

Thank you to those who have made me aware the CYO Championships might go as late as 5:00 on Saturday.  What we will do is have a seperate tryout session at 6:00 for those young ladies who are in that Tourney (SJA, GESU, KATERI, BLESSED SACRAMENT) Sorry that it will be a terribly long day, but I figured you’d want your offer by Sunday!  Please email us if this won’t work.  I’d hate for someone to not be able to tryout becasue of scheduling conflicts. 

Announcement regarding the older age groups will come later this week! 

Hope to see you Saturday!!!

Due to the extremely large show of interest at 14’s we will conduct tryouts for at least one TR team in the 14’s age group.  Sunday the 8th is our target date but I’m still confirming the location.  Our tryout times will not conflict with TVC or Glass City!  Stay tuned for more details…

13’s is close to needing a tryout as well.  We need a few more families to make it worth while so if you are still interested and haven’t made contact yet, pelase do!

In 15’s-18’s we have several families interested.  We will do invitational teams in these age groups if there are enough quality players in these age groups. 

We will not be having teams under the age of 12 and early bird just isn’t going to fly…pun totally intended!  I strongly encourage those spring sport athletes to look at Glass City and TVC Early bird programs.  We’ll also run some clinics during that time that will be open to anyone and the conditioning with Maryellen Jordan is always available.  We’ll even help you find other players to join up with for the workouts!

Stay tuned for more detials.  I’ll post as they become available!

Viva!

There will be another meeting this sunday October 25th at 7:00 in the gym at NDA.  Things are looking good for multiple teams.  Lot’s of interest at 13’s, 14’s, and 15’s with possibilities at 16-18.  Again once we get our interest lists compiled we’ll work with our partners to determine our best course of action for tryouts or referrals to other teams.

Please take a few minutes and read through TR Theory and About pages and let us know what you think about our ideas on what club ball can be!

Hope to see you at the meeting…Viva!

This week our focus has clearly shifted to system work over skill and drill work.  While we are still doing some drill work during the “competition” period, it’s really only 20-30 mins of our practice with the remainder of the time being game type work.  Right now we are focusing on transition from defense to offense.  This single team ability is by far the biggest difference between developmental volleyball and “real” volleyball.  Learning to anticipate, read, and then perform the physical task of getting ready to attack must be done faster and faster and faster as you get older and play at higher levels.  Early in the week we really struggled to catch on to just how focused and intense you must be to play at the speed needed to compete.  However, I really think we had a breakthrough tonight.  We played very hard, talked a lot more (still need more), and really played a lot faster.  How fast we grasp these concepts will go a very long ways in determining our result this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend; A lot is being made about the fact that due to certain circumstances, we are the last seed in the tournament.  This put us as the #4 seed in the same pool at TVC.  Already there is chatter on the chat boards about our match up with them being SUA vs. NDA and Buck vs. Mattera.  So far it has almost all been good natured and I want to say here and now that I hope it remains that way.  TVC has 2 girls coming to NDA so the NDA vs SUA thing is just plain wrong.  As for Buck vs. Mattera, we’ve been playing against each other for 4 years now.  It certainly isn’t about us.  I don’t think either of us would still be alive if we lived vicariously through the athletic performance of teen-aged girls!  Would you believe that we are actually friends?  We went out to dinner at Jed’s a few weeks back.  We actually enjoy each other’s company!!!  Sorry to ruin your universe if you really bought into the Buck and Mattera are mortal enemies thing   TVC is the clear favorite in the pool, they have some great kids that I was lucky enough to coach last year and they have been playing great competition all year.  We hope to hold our own, have some fun, and get better by playing good competition.  I really have no idea what to expect.  We just don’t have the game experience that I’d like to have by this point, but I do believe that we’ll play hard and prove that we really shouldn’t be a #4

Viva!

The title of this update pretty much sums up where we are right now as a team.  Last weekend we took a trip down to Cincy to play in a 15 National Tournament.  This would be our first true test of the year as we would be playing up an age group against some of the best teams in the region and yes even the country.   The day started off with us getting absolutely drubbed by a very solid Cincy Classics team.   Our girls just simply weren’t ready for the speed of the game and the fact that you really have to earn points.  Most of my girls are used to winning points if they make one good play.  In “real” volleyball you have to make several good plays to end a point.  The second game was much more competitive but we never really threatened them. 

In the second match of the day, we were pitted against the mighty Team Z.  Team Z is one of the most successful and well regarded clubs in the country and their 15’s team backed up that reputation.  They came out firing but our girls after getting their feet wet in the first match we really figuring out how to play faster.  We scored a respectable 16 points in the first game against the national powerhouse giving us a bit more confidence heading into game two.  In game two our girls really put some nice thing together digging balls, hitting around blocks etc.  Deep into the game we found ourselves up 19-16 over Team Z forcing them to call a timeout!  We were pumped but from that point forward Z showed why they are Z finishing us off 25-22.  After talking with the Z coaches we knew we had earned their respect!

The rest of the day was a series of ups and downs.  We finished the day 1-4 losing in 3 to Atlantis and losing in 2 close ones to NKJV in the silver finals.  Overall the result wasn’t great but we learned some very valuable lessons about what it takes to compete at the next level.  It’s all about details.  If the pass doesn’t get all the way to the net the blockers can cheat to the outside.  If the set doesn’t get pushed all the way out you trap your hitter.  If you don’t hit smart, you get blocked.  If you don’t close the block they hit through you.  If you don’t press your hands, you get tooled.  If you don’t get stopped on defense, you can’t react to ball hit with that much pace.  These are all small details that you can get away with not doing against lesser competition but against good teams they make all of the difference.  The other thing we hopefully learned was speed.  Everything has to be done faster.  If you ever find yourself just standing, you’re doing something wrong. 

We’ve been working very hard on these details in practice this week.  I hope the girls enjoy their 3 day weekend, we’re going to be going very hard next week to get ready for the bid tourney!!!