MOSES LAKE — The Big Bend Community College Vikings volleyball program is hosting a day camp on June 26 for local Basin high school athletes. Head Coach Lindsey Linthicum said this is a great opportunity for these athletes to get a feel for college volleyball.  

“I will do a questionnaire at the end of the camp that gives the girls an opportunity to say, ‘How do you run a camp or not camp? How do you run a program, what are my best options if I am looking into a college?’ and things like that,” she said. “If they have the idea of wanting to do something like that, it really helps them to get the gears going, so they can start doing their own research and figure out what works best for them.” 

For any volleyballers interested in attending, Linthicum elaborated on what they can expect to get out of the camp.  

Athletes will gather in BBCC Building 2000 starting with an hour and a half of working through different skills, like being in the defensive position on the court.  

“If you're in a serve-receive mindset, what's the best way to pass a ball in a serve-receive situation?” Linthicum said. “What's the best way to work with an out of system ball? That happens more often than not. When a ball is out of system, how do you keep it in play? So, working on those types of skills on the communicative and then just the breakdown of these are the different scenarios that can happen in games or even in practice.” 

From there, they’ll move into positional drills. During this period of the day, players will get to break down each position and work on their fundamentals. For instance, setters will do various setting drills that help them get a feel for the tempo and the different situations they find themselves in during a game.  

“Different schools teach different things,” she said. “For them to kind of then also see at the college level, this is kind of where we set, and this is where we like to locate our balls, that gives them another opportunity to learn that skill as well, and then, of course, working them with your hitters and teaching them different angles to cut and different little shots or tips to do as well.” 

After a break in the day, they’ll return to the court to close out the day with some scrimmaging. They’ll play some competitive games like six versus six, queens court or bingo-bango-bongo, the coach said.  

While local athletes will get to work through these drills, they’ll also be doing it alongside a few of the current players in the Vikings program. According to Linthicum, this provides attendees with an opportunity to ask questions throughout the day.  

“They can ask my players questions in the sense of, 'Why did you choose Big Bend? What made you choose to play college volleyball?’ Just something that would pop into my head if I was asking questions, and they get the opportunity if they would like to ask myself or my assistant coach questions as well,” Linthicum said.  

For those interested in attending the camp, the cost is only $25. Affordability was in mind for Linthicum when organizing this year’s camp, she said.  

“I want to make those kinds of things as accessible as possible,” she said. “I know that times aren't easy right now, and every penny counts. They unfortunately won't get a shirt out of it, but even just coming for a camp and just getting your hands on the ball and getting in some playing time.” 

As of now, about eight players have signed up, Linthicum said. With a couple of weeks until the camp, she is hopeful to hit their goal of 12-15 players attending the camp.  

For those interested in attending BBCC volleyballs day camp, they can apply at this link: https://bit.ly/BBCCVB 

    Lindsey Linthicum (setting), the head coach for Big Bend Community College volleyball, sets the ball during a game they played at last summer’s volleyball camp.