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Thursday, 13 November 2008 00:00 |
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Last night the girls won their seventh straight district championship defeating district rival Manatee High School who came in with a 26 and 1 record, their only loss to Venice in the regular season. We won in three games taking 53 minutes in a dominating performance. Our record was 19 and 8. Actually both teams’ records were 2 and 0 coming into the match. That was the number of games in the second season – the playoffs. These young ladies are a very special group all sophomore and juniors. It has been so much fun to watch them grow and develop. They are focused and very coachable. Brian Wheatley, the head coach is one of the best coaches I have worked with. He drills fundamentals and teaches the game, it is like the old days. There is a system and tradition and obviously the system works. It is an honor for me to be able to work with this team and coaches. I can’t wait for 2:30 to come each day.
As I mentioned earlier their theme in the physical development portion starting last January is connections. Every day we work to connect body parts and connect to the game. The kids buy into it and get it. They recognize the direct relationship with what they do in training to what they do in matches. To give an example of their maturity I felt we needed to a bit more in warm-up. So I went to the captains and asked them what they thought putting Reaction Coach in the warm-up, their response was that is a cool idea it will really help us. That is a coaching dream when the athletes understand it and take ownership.  This is a picture of our setter, Taylor Capaso (# 10 in green) all of 5'1" going up against Manatees best hitter. On another play Taylor stuffed her. This girl epitomizes our team. Strong, fast, quick, and smart.
Today we go back to work and start our preparation for State Playoffs which begin next Wednesday night. We will do a good power session day and recharge the batteries for one last time. We only have three significant training workouts left in the season. From here on out it is sharpening and fine tuning. The young players that were just brought up to varsity and who really are only practicing and not playing will do a bit more and I will use these sessions to teach them routine and preparation for off season. Vern Gambetta http://functionalpathtraining.typepad.com |
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