Brands

What brands are popular in volleyball? Well, there are a lot of different brands in different areas, and different types of volleyball(sand vs. indoor). Also, there is a difference in brands for volleyball gear, and the actual volleyballs and equipment.
For the actual volleyballs, some of the most popular brands are Tachikara, Molten, Spalding, Wilson, Mikasa, and Baden. There are others, but these are the only ones that I have actually seen in person. Most of the indoor club tournaments, USA and AAU, use Molten balls, and very rarely have been to a tournament that uses any other brand of ball. NCAA also uses Molten, along with FIVB. Sand tournaments usually use Molten, Wilson, and Spalding, because those brands make good outdoor balls, which are slightly different than indoor balls.
The volleyball gear brands, however, are different. Some of the most popular brands for gear are Mizuno, Infinity, Nike, Asics, Rox, Adidas, and more. You can buy gear at any of these places, but a lot of the time, a team will all get the same brand of things, especially if their team, school, or club is sponsored by that brand. If a team is sponsored by a brand, that means they have to wear that brand's gear when they play in matches or tournaments, and that team gets a discount off of the gear. Most club teams and school teams are sponsored by a certain brand, and in order to have matching jerseys, they obviously all have to be the same brand. For example, my club team is sponsored by Rox, so at tournaments we all have to wear our Rox jersey, spandex, kneepads, and socks, but we can wear whatever shoes we want. Some teams will or will not include different things, like shoes, socks, spandex, etc., but every team always has to be wearing the same jerseys.
Also, some of the brands in certain types of volleyball are different than others. For example, Rox is a popular beach brand, but not as popular indoor brand, and Infinity is a popular indoor brand, but not as much in sand.
Words: 351

Cost for Club (419)

Club sports are costly for parents. Every sport has a club fee fro playing the game, some more than others. They not only have a fee for playing, but they have to pay for their jerseys, team shoes, and socks if the sport team requires it. They also have to pay for every tournament they enter in.
Every tournament has a fee that the club will pay. It could be $100 to $800. The club then splits the amount among the athletes on the team. The more girls on a team, the less the cost is going to be for one player. A volleyball team has up to about 10 girls on the team, similar to a basketball team. There are perks to having more people on a team, because the cost will be lower. At the same time, having more players on a team could be stressful, because some girls might not get a lot of playing time, and you have to work harder for your spot.
A lot of teams that are good and have players that are going to big places will have matching shoes, socks, and knee pads. Having to buy new apparel can get expensive. If a team is sponsored by a certain company, like Nike, then they will have to wear Nike apparel when they play in tournaments. Say you had Mizuno shoes and Infinity knee pads, but your team is sponsored by Nike, then you would have to buy new Nike shoes and knee pads to play for the team.
To play for a team, there are tryouts that the athletes have to attend in order to be considered fro the team. These tryouts also have a cost. Usually a club hosts 3 or 4 tryouts. They will cost around 60 dollars, but you get to go to every tryout. It isn't just one and done; you can go to multiple to show that you are dedicated and want to be on the team. Now say you didn't make the team. That means you payed that club money but you will not even be playing there, and if you do make the team, you will have to pay even more for the club fee and everything else the club requires. Also, if you don't make their team, but still want to play volleyball, then you have to tryout at multiple places, just in case you don't make your first pick, and the more tryouts you go to, the more money you pay.

Liberos

For starters, liberos are the ones with the different color jersey. That is usually the most popular question about volleyball. They wear a different color jersey because they are the only ones who can go in for someone without using up a substitution. You usually use a libero for a certain position the whole time, and not just once in a while. They know for sure that the libero will be going in all of the time for the same two people every time, but you can change who they go in for. The reason why they can go in without using a substitution is because they are constantly going in and out so they would take up a ton of subs. This would be a problem because you get a limited amount of substitutions. Even though they can just run in without using a sub, that doesn't mean they can just do whatever they want. There are rules to being a libero, and there is even a designated ref called the libero tracker keeping track of when and who the libero for each team goes in for. One of the rules is that when the libero goes in for someone, that same person has to go back in for the libero when the libero comes out. Another rule is that the libero can only serve for one person, for example if she served for the first middle, she cannot also serve for the second middle. There is another rule about the libero setting, and it's kind of complicated. If the libero sets a hitter, she must be behind the ten foot line when she sets the ball, otherwise the hitter can't jump and hit it. If she does hit it when the libero sets in front of the ten foot line, then the ref calls, but if the hitter sees that the libero set in front of he ten foot line, the could stay down(not jump) and hit it over. Another option, and one that a lot of liberos do, is to just pass set the ball with their platform instead of actually setting, that way they don't have to worry about being in front of the ten foot line. The liberos are suppose to be the best passer on the team, which makes sense because they usually on the court all the time. They are the defensive leaders who also should be one of the ones who communicate the most on the court. 

Word count: 418

Volleyball vocab

In volleyball, just like any sport, there are certain words that only the people who play, or know the game, will know what it means. These words are a sort of "jargon" for volleyball, and if used by people who don't play, they probably wouldn't understand what it meant. Here is a list of some of these words:

Pancake- while most think of the breakfast food, to volleyball players it is a one handed dive where the ball to the floor, but you get one hand in between the floor and the ball.

Ace- instead of a card from a deck, this is when the server scores a point off of serve receive. 

Pepper- most people think of a spice or vegetable, but volleyball players think of passing, setting, and hitting back and forth to your partner. 

Joust- when I think of a joust(the non volleyball one) I think of a midieval game played on horses. When volleyball players hear it, they think of when the ball is falling on top of the net and two players go up and try to push the ball over at the same time.

Hut- no this is not a small house, but a low set to the outside hitter.

Pipe- not the metal pipe, but a back row set to the back middle. 

Six-pack- no this is not beer, this is when a defending player gets hit in the face by another hit or block. 

Roof- this is when the blockers block the ball right back down to the other side, not the top of your house. 

Tool- this is when a hitter hits the ball off of the blockers hands and scores a point off of it.
Like all the other sports, and really any group or club of any kind, volleyball has specific "jargon" and slang words that only pertain to that specific group, and only the people in it will understand. It is really quite interesting that things that are very familiar to you, a different person might have no idea what it is or what you mean when you say it.

Words: 352

Setters

How do the hitters know what to run? Who decides? This would be the setter. The setter is one of the leaders on the court who is constantly communicating with everyone on the court. They decide what plays the hitters run and when. The setters are the ones who take the second ball almost every time and "set" it up for the hitters to hit. The only times that the setter doesn't take the second ball is when the setter takes the first ball in defense, and when it is out of system. When the setter digs the ball on defense, they are trained to dig it to the middle of the court and the libero or left back takes the second ball. They usually will set a nice, high ball to the outside. Most teams have the libero take the second ball out of system, but some do it differently, for example they  would have the right front take the second ball instead of the libero. The other way to be out of system is to have a pass not to target. Setters can get to a lot of our of system balls, but they will not have all three hitting options, or they might not be able to run the tempo that they would on a good pass. If the pass is far enough away and the setter can not get to it, then a different player, usually who ever is the closest to the ball, will take it. 

In system passes, however, are different. You can run all three options, or two options if the setter is front row, plus any back row attacks. A lot of coaches teach tempo, which is setting at a faster pace. Tempo is harder for the other team to defend, and can fake the other team out if the setter sets something else. A team can run combination plays, where the hitters run different tempo sets. These plays are run on 3 passes(perfect/great passes) and on serve receive. They can throw another team off, and open up spots for certain hitter to score. For example if the middle runs a slide, they might pull the other middle blocker with them, leaving the outside hitter with only one blocker to hit around. The setters are the ones who come up with the plays that the hitters run. There are many things they take into consideration when deciding which plays to run and who to set: the other team's defense(open spots), their blockers(if they cheat one way or are weak or strong), hot hitter, match ups, setter back or front row, what plays work well together, and when to run them. It is important to have a smart setter who knows how to look at the match ups, the other team, and makes smart setting decisions. 

Word count: 477 

Middles

When a volleyball player talks about middles, they mean the middle in the front row, not the back row. They are usually some of the tallest players on the court along with the right side. Their main jobs on the court are to be a big blocker and run a fast offense, which helps out the other hitters. They have to be a big blocker because they block every hit- the other team's middle, left and right side hitters. They are always putting a block up to help the back row and to make it difficult on the other team's hitters. They also have to be quick to be a middle because they block every one. So when the setter sets the hitters they have to react fast and get there to block bridge the hitter hits the ball, which can be only a 1 or 2 second period of time. Their main responsibility is to stay on the other team's middle, so when the middle comes in for a fast set they go up with them, but if the setter sets a different hitter, the blocker has to land and try to get to that hitter and put up  a block before they hit as well. Another reason they have to be fast is to run a fast offense with the setter. Most of the sets that go to the middle are faster paced, or more tempo, than the pin (outside) hitters. Some of these tempo sets are quicks, which are low sets right in front of the setter, 31's, which are fast low sets that that are in a spot in between the middle spot and the outside spot, a six, which is just like a quick but behind the setter, and a slide, which is a fast low set behind the setter that goes all the way to the right pin. The middles have to be very fast to run these plays because during a play, or in transition, they have to come down from blocking and be fast enough to track the ball to the setter and already be taking their steps for an approach before the setter even touches the ball.

Defensively, however, they aren't as important, unless you have a middle that is also a stud at defense. Typically, they are taller so they don't move as fast when they are down low for defense. This is why the libero usually goes in for the middles so that they don't have to play defense.

Words: 420

Run Throughs (292)

There are a lot of ways to prepare for a match, and one of the Kennedy volleyball team's ways is to do a run through on gamedays. A run through is similar to a mini practice. It is always right after school on gamedays, and it gets done in enough time to go home or go get something to eat before the match. We try to make these run throughs game like, so the first thing we do is run out from the doors like we would at a game and do our warm up while listening to the CD that we will listen to that night. At these run throughs, we "run through" all of our rotations and the other teams rotations, hence the name "run throughs". We also look at all the match ups with what players in what spots would work the best against the other team's players. We get the information about the other teams through watching film, which we do a couple days before a match, and maybe even multiple times if it is a very important match. The run throughs are meant to get you warmed up a little and thinking about the rotations you are going to run in the game so that there is no confusion in the match about who goes where. It is also a chance to get mentally prepared for the match, which is very important because a large part of volleyball is mental. It is also important to have a routine, which this is a part of, before a game. It helps get you into the game time mindset. This helps us get focused, mentally prepared, physically prepared, and gets us thinking about the other team's offensive and defensive systems. 

Watching Film

Many teams watch film of their opponents. This is typically used in high school volleyball more than in club volleyball because in school volleyball you know who your opponent is way before you play them and have access to their game film. 

In club, it is much different. In club, you do not know who you are going to play in advance. For tournaments, you receive a tournament schedule, saying which teams are in your starting pools, but you still don't know which teams you would play later in the tournament. You receive this schedule about a week before the tournament, since they have to deal with teams dropping out of the tournament or adding on. And then you still don't know anything about these teams if it is a national tournament, like a qualifier, because they are from a different state than you. You may recognize some of the teams from previous years, but most of the teams there are ones you have never seen play before. The only exception might be in town tournaments, because you know how the local teams play, but you still don't watch any film on them. 

When we watch film for school volleyball, it is usually for important or difficult upcoming matches. Sometimes we just watch it first without talking about rotations, so we can just take notes on things we notice about the team. Other times, we will talk about rotations and certain players first so that we know what to look for when we watch it. We usually  look for team and player weaknesses, strengths, rotations, defense and offense systems, team tendencies, and anything else worth noting. We then take that and think of things that we can do or change to help us win against them. On very important matches, we watch film a couple of times before the match, so we can see them multiple times and maybe notice things we didn't before.  

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Cedar Falls vs Kennedy (381)

This is the match we've all waited the whole season for. All of our hard work and dedication leading up to that moment. On Tuesday, November 10th, at 10 AM, we have our state quarter final match. This is our first game of state and the first state game that Kennedy Volleyball has played in 4 years. This game is very important and we will be doing a lot of preparation leading up to the match. This weekend, we had a scrimmage against West Liberty at our gym, then a team dinner in the Kennedy cafeteria. Following that, we had some team bonding time. Coach Goodall had us split up into 4 teams to play team building games. On Monday, we will have practice then our end of the year banquet and Tuesday is our match! No one from the volleyball team will be in classes that day, but we will be at Kennedy. We will have a run through practice starting at 9 AM, followed by a short review of Cedar Falls. Since we've already played Cedar Falls, there are some things we already know about them. They beat us in a tournament earlier in the season, but we then beat them in our conference game. They are a young team, and we are not. This is good for us because we will be more likely to handle the pressure of being in the crowded US Cellular Center in the State Tournament. We also know about their offense and defense they run, so we can try to prepare for it. If there are any changes though, we can adjust accordingly. After the review, we have a send off in the foyer at about 10:48 AM. This will be similar to the state swimming send off we had on Friday. Right after the send off, we will be on our way to the US Cellular Center! We are going to arrive early to watch the 12 o'clock match to get use to the atmosphere and feel of the place we will be playing in. Then, before we know it, it will be time to warm up for our match! I think we can beat Cedar Falls, but they are a very good team and we cannot take them for granted!

Upcoming club season

One season is over, another begins. Everyone has just got over with their high school season. Some are sad, but some are ready for a change. For me, club is something I look forward to and it is a nice change from high school season, even though high school season was fun.   After everyone finished their high school season, they go to a tryout or tryouts. Tryouts are exciting because you get to play with some different players and it is a little preview of club before it starts! That is the same with camps; they are a good way of getting players excited for the season and maybe even to play for that club.
It is even more exciting to get that call or text from a coach saying that you have a spot and they want you on the team! Although this is very exciting, this can be one of the hardest decisions if you get multiple offers and you have to make a choice. This is sometimes stressful because this choice can affect your improvement that season depending on how much good coaching and playing experience you get on a certain team. Once you have decided and committed though, it is a great feeling, and you are very anxious to start your season with new, or old, teammates.
Once you get your team together and start practice, you really get to know your teammates and they become really good friends. The team bonding is one of the most fun parts about being a team and one thing that I have done almost every year of club volleyball is team sleepovers. It is a great way to get to know your teammates and become friends with them, and they are always really fun!
At the beginning of the season, you start off with smaller tournaments that are closer, or leagues, like the league that our club hosts for three weekends in January. These are tournaments to help kick start a season and figure out what line ups and systems work the best for your team before you go to the big tournaments and qualifiers later on. They also give the players a little taste of what's to come: the three day qualifiers. This is what a lot of players, including me, look forward to, and at the beginning of the season, we all just can't wait for them! Personally, I am super excited for this club season and I already really like my team!
Words: 416

Post Season (429)

Some high school teams' seasons are done in late October, but for others, like our volleyball team, are not finished until mid November. This is because of sub state. Sub state is a series of matches after the normal season. Only one of them is guaranteed, and the other two you have to earn. The way to earn them is by winning your previous games. So if you win the first one, you move on to regional semi finals,which was our game against Jefferson. Then if you win that game you continue on to regional finals, which was our game against Ankeny. If you win your regional final, then you qualify for State. If you lose any of these games, your season ends and you don't get to go to state unless you are watching other teams. State volleyball has been held at the Wells Fargo Center in the past, but recently it has been at the US Cellular Center in downtown Cedar Rapids. That explains the saying "to the cell." State volleyball is split into five different divisions, just like other sports. These divisions are 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A. Kennedy is 5A, the biggest division. Making state is a very big achievement because only eight teams from each class make it, and this is the first time in 4 years that Kennedy has made it to state, losing in the regional final for the past 3 years. The other schools who made it to state in the 5A division are IC West, who beat Linn Mar in the regional final, Dowling Catholic, who beat Valley, Cedar Falls, who beat Marshalltown, Dubuque Hempstead, who beat Prairie,  Bettendorf, who beat Pleasant Valley, Johnston, who beat Southeast Polk, and Ankeny Centennial, who beat Sioux City East. State works the same way that regionals do; only one game is guaranteed and you have to earn your other games by winning. If you end up making it all the way to finals, you will play a total of three matches at state. Our first game, the quarter finals, is against Cedar Falls, who we have played before in tournament and conference. They beat us in the tournament, but we beat them in the conference match. If we defeat them, then we move onto the semi finals and play the winner of IC West and Bettendorf. Then if we win that, we would move on to the finals against the semi final winner from the other side of the bracket. The winner of that match would then be the state champions!

US Cellular Center (436)

      The US Cellular Center. What is it you might ask? It's the end of the road for most volleyball teams, it's the sweet, sweet smell of victory. Only 8 teams, the best of the best, get the honor of playing on the perfectly laid down sport court in the middle of hundreds of cheering fans. The electrifying energy of the US Cellular Center is something you can't explain, you can only experience.
       The "Cell Center" as some call it, is the sanctuary of state volleyball. 5a, 4a, 3a, 2a, 1a, it doesn't matter how big or small the team is, as long as you win the regional games, you will have the honor to play at the Cell Center. In previous years, the State Volleyball tournament was played at the Ice Arena, down the street from the Cell Center, which was under construction, and when they made the announcement last year that the Tournament was being held at Cell Center again, everyone was excited that they once again will have the chance to play under the bright LED lights of the Cell Center.
     But don't get me wrong, even though playing at the Cell Center is such a magical experience, every team ends their season in heart break except for one, the State Champion. Only a handful of teams can describe the feeling of being State Champions. During the state tournament, there are two courts squeezed into the arena floor, but for the championship game, overnight the two courts are morphed into one and the real fun begins. Not only do family and friends come to support the championship game, but teams from all over Iowa, news stations, newspaper reporters, maybe even Ashton Kutcher or Chris Soules make an appearance to watch the battle of all battles.
       And this year, it is our year. Kennedy Highschool Volleyball. We have had three years of heartbreaking losses in the regional final, but this year we finally made it, and we are NOT letting our chance slide away from us. This year, we have all the weapons we need to finally snatch a state title for our school, we have the DRIVE. Something about the Kennedy Highschool Volleyball Team, we are like conductors of the electricity running through the air, we love it, we want more, we yearn to play for big crowds. We have been preparing for this Tuesday for years. This Tuesday we will make history, this Tuesday we will make The US Cellular Center our home. The Cell Center is calling our name, and we will come running, because this year, The Cell Center is ours.