Spike Camps

MVN: What advice would you give to high school freshmen who want to play in college?

Coach Starkey: “Listen to your coaches! And work hard on changing some of the things they feel like you need to change. I think that too many people get set in their ways of thinking, that the way that they’re doing it is ok when your coach is trying to make you do it great. So listen to them and try to make concerted efforts to make some changes, because usually it’s technique things that are going to haunt you for a long time if don’t change them at a young age. You get too many ingrained bad habits by not actually trying to follow what your coaches are teaching you.”

Coach Skoch: “Play aggressive, have a killer instinct, have fun with it, and the biggest thing is don’t ever think you know everything.”

Coach Condon: “Work hard. Focus on your fundamentals and your technique and try to play on the most competitive team you can.”

Coach Cherniss: “Find yourself a good club program where you can get good quality training. Don’t worry too much about your size, and play with a lot of heart because that always shows.”

MVN: What advice would you give to the high school player who is less than 5’9”?

Coach Starkey: “Work on being an intelligent player—actually being able to understand the game better than some of your big kids. I think that one of the advantages you have of being a short kid is that you are forced to do things differently than some of the other kids that maybe play higher (above the net) than you. Some of the kids that play higher than you have a tendency to develop some bad habits because they can dominate based purely on height, whereas you can actually learn to develop the correct techniques and play as big as them even though you are shorter. That’s kind of talking front row stuff, but it’s one of those things that if you can perfect your technique, you can still play with the big kids. Otherwise, if you’re vertically challenged, off the floor too as well, not being able to jump very well then I would say perfect your back row skills. Have something that you’re great at. One of the things that happens to that 5’8”, 5’9” kid—I call them ‘tweeners’—is they’re not incredibly great at hitting, they’re not incredibly great at blocking, but they’re also not incredibly great at back row stuff like actually playing defense and passing. If you’re going to be that kid, be great at one or two skills because it will get you on the court, and if you can be great at serve receive and defense you’re going to play. It may not be all three rotations, like a lot of people want, but you’re going to get on the court and those are the kind of kids we look for in terms of solidifying up a back row position. We want someone who’s great at serve receiving, great at defense, not somebody that has been an outside hitter and is a pretty decent hitter, pretty decent back row player, pretty decent stuff like that. We want them to be great at one or two skills, basically. And then we also look for the kid that is going to be a great all-around player. An example for us is Whitney (Meierotto) and that’s somebody that plays great defense, passes great, but then she also plays big because her technique’s so good.”

Coach Skoch: “Anything is possible. There are top 25 D1 programs that have 5’9” middles. Concordia has an All-American 5’9” outside and so do I. I have a 5’8” outside. My first team All-American who graduated two years ago is 5’8”. Anything is possible. You just have to quit making excuses and do what you’ve got to do.”

Coach Condon: “Well, for me, height isn’t as important as athletic ability and desire, so don’t think that just because you are below 5’9” that you can’t play at this level, because we have fun players who are below 5’9” and they’re doing very well.”

Coach Cherniss: “Watch the Division II national championship matches and notice the amount of players that play positions irrespective of their height. Our libero is 6’ tall and I think she is one of the best in the country. That little kid for Truman (State University) right there (pointing to Eli Medina), the outside hitter, number 9, she’s only 5’8”, she was awfully good this match. So I think the thing about Division II, Division III, NAIA, and in some cases, Division I is that it’s much more important that you’re really well skilled and you play with a lot of heart and you’re intelligent on the volleyball court. And then size is one of those benefits that sometimes plays into it.”

MVN: Is there a skill on which you think most high school players need to spend more time?

Coach Starkey: “Serve receive (said with no hesitation). Serve receive, without a doubt, across the board, from top to bottom, whether it’s high school, junior high, or college. I think that too many people think that they do serve receive, but I don’t think that people do it enough. And that’s at our level, too. It’s the most important skill that there is—serve receive. Being able to pass the ball is the key, because if you can pass the ball you have a shot to win any match. That’s kind of the M.O. of what we’ve had here is that we stress serve receive like there’s no tomorrow. I think that one of the things that bugs me is sort of the forgotten skill of actually moving your feet to pass the ball with the fact that kids can handle the ball overhead now, so what we do in our program is say that in an emergency situation you can handle the ball overhead, but for the most part no, you have to pass the ball with your forearms. Our kids have gotten really good at being able to move their feet to center themselves to pass the ball and I think that’s the biggest art that has been lost in volleyball. That’s what I’ve seen from the years of Walt Weaver’s Apple Valley teams being phenomenal every year with ok athletes, but they were a contender every single year because of how well they could pass the ball and play defense. Without a doubt, that’s the biggest thing.”

Coach Skoch: “I would say everything. I would just say do everything, get a general skill base and specialize at your position. You need to be able to do everything. A middle needs to be able to pass. Consider later that if you have aspirations of making the National Team, the middles pass. And if they can, they can sub in a DS for a power outside or something. We’ve had our middles stay and pass if the libero is struggling. I’m different than those two. I think you generalize and specialize at the same time.”

Coach Condon: “Passing (said with no hesitation). Passing, passing, passing. Passing is the one skill that no matter what level you are, if you’re a good passer, you’ll find a place to play.”

Coach Starkey: “There is a trend towards serving tougher and more aggressive, and that also equates to people having to be able to handle the ball better. People are using that as a point scoring opportunity. You’ll see teams in stats with three aces and thirteen service errors and still winning matches. It may seem puzzling, but it’s because they keep teams out-of-system so well, so I think that’s a big trend. Otherwise, the game’s sort of stayed the same—the team that handles the ball best is the team that’s usually going to win.”

Coach Skoch: “Everything is going more offensive and more just brute power. And the Division I style is coming into Division II, but I’ve noticed that—in my opinion—some people try ferrying that DI offensive philosophy into DII as far as pure power, but we still don’t have the overall type of athletes yet and so it’s not the same. The trend is that DII is getting more offensive, but we still have the good rallies and in DI, from what I’ve seen this year, it’s a serve receive game and good blocking.”

Coach Condon: “I think that a lot of teams are being a little more creative with their offense and the serving is getting a lot tougher. Those are probably the two biggest trends. And with the (change to) 25 point scoring, I think people are trying to figure out a way to score quick points. Those are probably the two easiest ways.”

Coach Cherniss: “I think there is a little too much emphasis on specialization. I think it’s rare anymore to find a kid who’s got a great volleyball IQ that understands the entire game from every aspect and is prepared to defend and attack and serve and receive. Yeah, specialization.”

MVN: Kelsey Kyro, a two-time All-American middle blocker from Minneapolis South HS played for you a couple years ago. Wasn’t she about 5’9”? Tell me about her.

Coach Starkey: “She was actually 5’7 ½” without shoes on (laughs). One of the biggest attributes for her is she was obviously physically gifted with her vertical in that she could jump out of the gym. She jumped and played just as high as a lot of tall kids. But her biggest attribute was how hard she worked every day, how intelligently she could transfer what she saw on the court into a physical act. She was a super-quick reactor to what was happening on the other side of the court and she knew the game really well in terms of what other teams were trying to do to exploit her and she stepped in front of them before they could actually do it to her. Does that make sense? When you’re that short it takes a while longer for you to get off the ground, so not only was she a quick jumper, she could also react and see what’s happening on the other side of the net faster than a kid who can just stand there and put her hands over the net. Her biggest attribute was that she was just such an intelligent player and could transfer what she was seeing on the court into a physical thing. It was a thing of beauty to watch her, actually. It was always amazing what she could do by being so small. She was cool. She was one of my all-time favorite players, too. Plus she just worked her ass off every day—never complained, never wanted. I think that’s the kind of M.O. we have with our kids in that they try to get better every day. That’s the key.”

Coach Condon: “I had a 5’7” middle player on my team last year at USC Aiken and she was very good.”

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