ROYAL CITY — The Royal Knights held their summer volleyball camp from July 6 to 10 and brought in both new and experienced players to learn more about the sport. Knights Head Coach Melanie Griffin said this camp was a great opportunity for this team as they head closer to the start of the season. 

“I feel it was huge for these girls,” said Griffin. “They really learned and grew. We worked on some high-level stuff, and I had a young group show up so it was really good for them to see what the game can look like, and I think they felt good.” 

For the first four days of camp, girls from seventh grade to the upcoming seniors all worked together on a variety of skills and exercises to stay fresh during the offseason. The coach said she feels the girls learned a lot of new things and most importantly learned to play and have fun together.

“That’s what the game should be, is fun,” said Griffin. 

Missy Woodward, one of the upcoming Royal seniors, said she really enjoyed the opportunity to bond with her younger teammates ahead of the fall season. 

“It was really nice to just be able to hang out with the freshmen and just help them feel included,” said Woodward. 

Throughout the week she said each of the players received lessons from both their head coach and Dean Pratt, who volunteered to help out with the camp. Pratt had been a coach for both Mt Si and Quincy in the past, acts as a gold medal squared volleyball instructor, and in his career helped send 15 girls to play in junior college and sent three girls to play D1. 

His efforts at camp helped the players gain different perspectives about the game and gave them yet another opportunity to grow with the sport. 

“He just had a lot of knowledge about the game and he was able to put it into drills and practices really well,” said Woodward. “It was just well implemented and I think we learned a lot the last week.” 

On the final day of the camp, a group of younger girls arrived, which then put the older group on the spot to help coach the young players. The experience of camp for the older players translated directly as they taught the younger girls the basics of the game, which solidified their own knowledge. 

This experience will be important for all the athletes involved as they each have to instill every detail of the game to be successful, said Griffin. 

“There’s really no small thing, it’s all big things, it all matters,” she said. “That’ll be wonderful for them to teach these young girls and use the same key terms and phrases that we use at the high school level, so when they get to high school, they’ve heard them and they know exactly what they mean.” 

This camp also provided the opportunity for the girls to get used to Griffin’s leadership as their new head coach and work to continue building up the high school program into the future, said Woodward. 

“We’ve had a really good turnout of younger girls,” she said. “Just trying to build the program, help them have fun, so they want to play volleyball when they get older.”  

Holding camps like this that bring in young athletes at the elementary level is integral to the development of the volleyball program, said the coach. She has been holding the youth program for the last 11 years and has seen the direct impact on these girls since then. 

“We’ve become so much more competitive,” said Griffin. “Just understanding the mechanics at this age, get that taken care of and then when they get to middle school, they can take the next step and get more competitive and move farther along.” 

With the experience each of the high school players gained from this camp, Griffin said she feels positive about this team when official practices begin in August. She saw how coachable, flexible and hard working each of the players are and was very impressed with how well the players worked together despite their age differences. 

“There’s a gap, but there were still smiles and there was excitement and there was positivity,” said the coach. “I have seen what they’re capable of, what good people they are and what had workers they are.”

    Knights Head Coach Melanie Griffin explains to the young players proper hitting form Friday morning.
  

    Jaya Griffin demonstrates hitting the ball with Ashley Huntzinger keeping watch as the two act as coaches during the final day of the volleyball camp.
  

    Emilie Lira stands alongside two youth volleyball players with Avery Scroggins on the other side of the net as the group gets ready to participate in an exercise.
  

    One of the young participants at Friday’s volleyball camp at Royal High School hits the ball back toward her training partner.