JVA Hawkeye Cup(398)

The JVA Hawkeye Cup is a power league that is hosted at the Adrenaline gym (which is also a basketball facility). It is spread out over three weekends in a few separate months. The dates are January 9&10, February 20&21, and March 12&13. This league is set up so that the first day of each weekend is the pool play, where you play all the teams in your pool first. Then the second day is the tournament, or bracket play. That is where you play the teams that did similar to you the day before in their pools and if you lose a match you are moved down or done. Each weekend they take in the rankings from the previous weekend to create the new pools for the next weekend, similar to seeding at a regular tournament.
We have already had the first weekend of the power league and we won it. Since the gym is only 3 minutes away from my house, which is very nice for practices, some of the girls stayed at my house the night before we played the first day for convenience, especially for the girls who live really far away. Some of the girls live almost two hours away from where we practice every week! They make that drive two or more times a week for practices and tournaments.We also have a food schedule for all the tournaments that tells us who's turn it is to bring breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks. We do this every tournament to make it easier on the players and parents. This makes it so that the players or their parents don't have to leave the gym to get food during a tournament or buy food ahead of time, because the concession food is not that good. At the Adrenaline gym, it is really easy for us to have our food set up at our camp because we get to go into the upstairs level where there are tables and chairs just for us and not the other people there. We are looking forward to the rest of the tournament in the future, it will be fun and I think we will continue to do well.

 It is cool to host a tournament where lots of teams from around the state come and play, and it is a great way to get started for the season. 

Creighton Visit (364)

Out of town tournaments are very convenient for scheduling college visits. They are perfect for visits specific to volleyball too, since you are in traveling for volleyball in the first place. You can go to a college in the town you are traveling to for the tournament, or you can go to one on the way to the tournament. Although you will have to miss even more school for visits, it is still a good experience to see different campuses and can help you with your college decision. This weekend I visited Creighton on the way to the Nebraska Elite Invite in Omaha. The college was right next to Omaha and wasn't out of the way at all. I didn't go to school at all on Friday because we left at 7 am. I would've left at about lunch time or after school if I wasn't going to a visit. We got to the college at about noon and had lunch before we went to the visit. It was supposed to start at 1:15 but we got there a little early. First, I had a meeting with the admissions office where we talked about almost everything there is to talk about the college. Anything from class size to sports to applications. We talked for a long time and I didn't have many questions since this was one of the first visits I've had with an admissions office. After the meeting, we had a little time to look around the bookstore before the campus tour. The tours were led by one of the students, which was nice because they can tell you a more honest and true opinion about the campus life and classes. The campus tour was very good; the campus is nice and it seemed like averyone there was very friendly and there was a good sense of community there. I think that it would be a good choice for me if I were to chose either not to play volleyball in college or just to play club volleyball in college, which I don't think will happen but I think it is good to keep and open mind so I have many options.

Start of club season (471)

The start of club season is one of the most exciting times of the year. Everyone is happy to be on their new team and waiting with anticipation for the upcoming tournaments. The energy is high in the practice gym, preparing for the first tournament of the year, wanting to start off with a bang. The first tournament is important to most players because they want to show everyone else what their team's got. If a team does well at their first tournament it gets them really pumped for the next tournament and the rest of the season. However, if they did not do so well, or not as well as they expected, it can be good for indentifying what things they need to improve so that next time they can do well. The first few tournaments are good for setting goals for what they want to accomplish and improve on during the season. During the time of the first few tournaments everyone is waiting with anticipation for the big tournaments like qualifiers- out of town and at huge convention centers. Having success early on in the season is a good way to prepare for bigger tournaments later in the season. These tournaments are also where the team starts to bond and become close, which can be important for team chemistry while playing.

Our team has done well so far this season. We started off good and won our first tournament at the Six Pack Invite. Then, the next weekend we had the JVA Hawkeye Cup at our facility and won all our matches there too. We were playing great with each other on the court and getting along great off the court. After that we had a couple off weekends, so we just trained hard at practice is preparation for the next tournament. Then we had the Nebraska Elite Invite, and we won that tournament. There was tough competition there and we had good teamwork. With those tournaments, we have not yet lost a match this season, which I think is a great start to this season. This has us all very excited for the upcoming tournament, President's Day Challenge, our first tournament in a convention center, and also the rest of the season. This motivates us the work extra hard at practice so that we can be as prepared as we can be for these tournaments. We each have things we individually can work on, and there are also things that the team as a whole can improve on. I also feel like everyone on our team has the type of mentality that is motivated to work hard to improve and reach goals for themselves and the team. Our team chemistry is also pretty good, with no drama like some other teams I have been on or heard about. 

Qualifiers(486)

One of the best parts of the club season to me are the qualifiers. They aren't just regular tournaments, they are usually bigger and teams can earn bids to nationals. At qualifiers, you get the opportunity to play better competition and teams that you have never played before, unlike in state tournaments where you play the same teams from your state every year.
Qualifiers are always held in big cities with a lot of people and attractions, and the tournament is held in convention centers and sports facilities. These convention centers are huge, some have over 100 courts inside. It is really cool to play in these places because you are surrounded with tons of other courts all playing at the same time. It is also very loud so you have to play with the constant background noise of people yelling, whistles blowing, and crowds cheering. It is not only fun to play there, but to watch other teams playing as well. If there is a good match going on, other people that come to watch surround the court, making it even more intense of a match. Last year my team and I were watching the 18 Open boys finals match at President's Day Classic and it was such a great match that there were about 200 people surrounding the court to watch.
The tournament is divided into different divisions for skill level. The divisions from highest to lowest are Open, USA, and American. When teams register for the tournament they pick which division they want to play in based on their team's skill level. If a team wants to play really good competition, they might play in a harder division, and if they want to secure a bid to nationals, they might play in an easier division than they normally would. It is also possible to play in a higher age group for better competition. In each division there is a different number of bids given out, for example the top three teams in Open get bids, and only the winner of American gets a bid. All the teams there are competing to be on top for those bids. Also, if a team gets a bid through a qualifier and not their regionals, they will probably get a higher seed at nationals since qualifiers are harder than most of the regionals.
Qualifiers have so many teams that they are usually three day tournaments, which means getting out of one or two days of school! The tournaments are set up so that there are two days of pool play and one day of bracket play. The first two days of the tournament will determine where you are in the bracket play and if you are in the gold, silver, bronze, etc, bracket. So even though losing your pool play games won't send you home, they are just as important as the games on the last day.

Strength Training (407)

If you are serious about your sport, you want to be the strongest and fastest you can be, right? A way to do that is to strength train. Most athletes do some sort of lifting or strength training either one their own or with a program. Here at Kennedy High School we have several different PE options, one being Performance PE where you can do a combination of lifting and agility & core. If students do not take advantage of this class that might be  because they are in a strength program outside of school, or they do not care about getting stronger. Lifting weights and strength training help you be the best athlete you can be and the best player you can be in your sport because training will make you stronger and quicker, which helps with almost everything; jumping, hitting, kicking, swinging, throwing, running, changing direction, etc. Most coaches, whether it's highs school, club, or college, want their players to lift or do some sort of strength training because they can see that it helps them play better. A lot of the time when a player is being recruited to play in college, the coach wants to know what they are doing to strength train and might even ask how much they can lift. For most sports in high school, the coaches have the players lifting and training during the preseason, and lifting during the season. Some coaches even want their players lifting in the off season so that they are staying in shape, with the exception of players who are playing other sports.  In college, that will continue. During our school volleyball season, I had a zero hour lifting class and lifted, and everyone on the volleyball team had to lift during the season. Now that my lifting class is over, I decided to do workouts at Crossfit 2.2 to stay in shape and get stronger for my club season, which is in full swing in the spring. I want to continue this through my club season and continue it after club is over, which will be preseason time for school volleyball. Some players strive to be the best and set goals and break records. Others just want to better themselves and don't really worry about other people. For me, it is about my personal gain, and not being better than other people. I want to get stronger and stay in shape for volleyball. 

Better students(383)

One plus side to being an athlete or playing a sport is that it can make you a better student, and even a better person. Playing a sport teaches you quality things you will need later in life and to be a better student. You learn to be punctual because you have to be early to every practice and game that you have in your sport, which makes you hate being late anywhere you go. You learn to be accountable for your actions, or for your mistakes on the court or field. You learn to take criticism from your coaches without getting your feelings hurt which can be useful in school and work from your teacher or boss. You also constantly look for new things to improve on so that you can be the best you can be because you are competitive, which helps in your workplace as well. You learn to push yourself past your comfort zones to get better or be better than your competition. You understand that being part of a team isn't all about you; you have to think about what is best for the team and support your peers. You are willing to work hard for something you want instead of being too lazy. There is also motivation to get good grades, because for school sports you can't play when you have bad grades, in highschool and college. If you are on a travel team, you learn to be proactive and try to get things you will miss ahead of time and learn to use your time wisely and work on them when you can, instead of coming back from your trip and being behind. You learn discipline and having consequences for your actions, even when it wasn't you, but someone on your team. You also have great friendships with the people on your team and you can learn to get along with just about anyone. You learn to set your personal differences aside when you are on the court or field and work together for the same goal. Playing a sport also makes you louder, or less shy and more willing to talk or meet new people. All of these things will help you in high school, college, work, and many other life situations in the future.