Twenty-eight girls from sixth grade through 12th-grade came out for the 10th annual three-day Spike Frog Volleyball Camp at Lowry High School last week.
New LHS head volleyball coach Skylar Estes was there to help get her team on track for the upcoming season.
“This year I have a lot more players here because varsity was not mine last year and my role was more to develop the younger players,” Estes said. “We are trying to use this time since we have not had open gyms to be able to still help the girls with certain skills, because Spike Frog does a great job. Winnemucca does not start volleyball until the girls are in seventh-grade, and at that point they really do not know anything. This kind of camp is great because they do a great job of breaking down skills into the very basics. This is the only exposure for the most part for the younger girls.”
First time Spike Frog camper Kelly Zhelayed is going into the eighth grade at Winnemucca Junior High School this fall.
“I like the adrenaline rush that you get when you are about to spike a ball, or a ball is coming at you and you have to hit the floor," Zhelayed said. "I am trying to improve on my serving and my hitting.”
The camp was put on by the sister and brother team of Ashley Crossley and Josh Taylor from Spike Frog.
“This is a skills camp so we try to break down each individual skill and get technical — breaking it down to build a really good foundation for the girls before they get into their season," Crossley said. "A lot of times the coaches do not have the time during the season to break it down so slow; they have to work on all of the extra stuff, like team dynamics. It is good for the girls to come in and just clean up their skills. We have been coming here for a long time and we enjoy it. The girls always work hard and they have such a happy, fun attitude. We kind of feed off of their energy and it makes it fun for us. It is one of our favorite camps to do.”
LHS will have volleyball open gym for the next two weeks on Tuesday and Thursday from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. and tryouts will be held on Saturday, Aug. 10, starting at 8 a.m.
