Youth Clinic Promotes Volleyball

Lamorinda Youth Association (LMYA) held volleyball clinics in the big gym from January 7 through February 4. The program, now in it’s 5th year, instructed young athletes on volleyball fundamentals.

The teen volunteers for the LMYA girls volleyball program ran the clinics with the help of Campolindo girl’s volleyball coaches, Dave Chen and John Vuong, and student volunteers from the Campolindo volleyball program. While the event was a fundraiser, coaches and student trainers each receive a small stipend for their work.

Chen said, “We introduce the game of volleyball to kids who have never played before. We give them an introduction to technique and skill, the movement patterns of the game…We want to make sure each group is small enough so we get enough quality touches and give them an opportunity to experience different parts of the game.”

According to sophomore student trainer Kimya Peyvan, the purpose of the clinics was to “try to get more kids involved with the sport and know more about the sport. These girls are very young so they are developing their skills so they are lead to their future volleyball career.”

In the clinics, the players were divided into groups based on age and participated in different drills run by station leaders.

Freshman trainer Natalie Brouhard said, “I just really love the sport and I want to give other kids a chance to learn how to do it and just really love coaching like I did it before. I just think its really fun to see teaching someone something and I just love to see their reaction and them finally getting it.”

The clinics also benefit the Campolindo boys’ and girls’ volleyball program. “We have no funding. No athletic programs are funded by the schools anymore. Every single year we have zero money so we have to fundraise the heck out of everything that we can and try to keep our program alive each and every year,” said Chen.

Peyvan said that although the clinics were organized and efficient, “sometimes the kids do get tired because they are still developing and they are still very young and they get tired pretty fast. Sometimes they need a little break in between.”

Although the clinics required strenuous effort on part of the athletes, Peyvan said, “Even in the day they [the players] come, they improve within the hour.”

“They seemed to enjoy it. I think they have a lot of fun. They seem to be improving even in the 10 minutes of them being there,” said Justine Ellerly.

Chen said, “They have a great time. It is lots of action, it is lots of getting around the game, seeing it. They enjoy being lead very high schools based trainers who are older than them but not adults…There is a connection they build each session that they have. A lot of them end up going and playing at club level or LMYA level because they like what they experience and want to continue.”

According to Brouhard, the experience working with kids helped develop her passion for coaching. “I just really love the sport and I want to give other kids a chance to learn how to do it and just really love coaching like I did it before. I just think its really fun to see teaching someone something and I just love to see their reaction and them finally getting it,” she said.

“All of the girls I’ve coached I’ve run into them at my own club again. It shows that this is actually helping girls get involved in the sport so its also helping other schools, Miramonte, Acalanes, or Los Lomas they are getting more volleyball players as well because we are developing them at a young age,” said Peyvan.

There are North Coast Section and California Interscholastic Federation rules that prohibit high school teams from recruiting athletes at certain times of the year. According to Chen, “This is by all means not a recruiting technique. It is to open up the game to people who are unfamiliar with it.”

Brouhard hoped the clinics helped “make these girls fall in love with the sport and have them come back and be ready for Campolindo… Campolindo volleyball is all about learning and developing your skills so it has passing and setting so even for the people that are really young there is stuff for them too so it’s about developing your skills. The fundings go towards Campolindo too.”