Power Surge Volleyball - Respect All, Fear None

Aloha Power Surge Ohana,

Congratulations to our Power Surge 12 Gold team, better known as “THE Babies,” for their outstanding season. They started with 9 committed players, and finished with the same 9 committed players. In our club this 2019 season, that is a very noteworthy and outstanding accomplishment. They were the only team this season that can proudly claim that honor.

I would like to thank my assistant coaches, Roland, Tana, & Lou for helping out with the babies this year. Without them, it would not have been possible for me to coach both the 17s and the babies. Coach Roland and Coach Lou took the babies to their Gig Harbor tournament Feb 24th while I was with our 18s at their PSR Bid tourney. And then on Apr 20th Coach Tana & Coach Roland took the Babies to their Cowlitz Tourney in Longview, WA, their first “travel” outside our region tournament, while I took our combined 17s & 18s team to the Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, WA. It’s very nice to have coaches who can swing from one team to another as needed. And the reason we can do that is because in our club, we teach the same system of defense, offense, rotations, and transitions for all age groups, with a few necessary age and skill-appropriate modifications for each team.

When our babies first started out, it was very evident that we would be having a rebuilding year; not from the ground up but from below the basement up. That was very evident at tryouts and even more evident when we scrimmaged PJ and Puget Sound in early Jan. But to be fair, rebuilding at the U12 level was not so unusual a few years ago. In the past, usually at U12 it is a rebuilding year for the majority of most U12 teams. But today, many players are starting their volleyball careers at 10 years old so by the time they are 11 or 12, they are already way ahead of the competition. And at the highest U12 levels in the nation, they are almost playing like high school varsity teams.

But that’s okay, I was happy to have a team at that age group no matter where their skill level was and if we have to start from the beginning so be it. I’m a strong believer in taking what walks through our doors, and make them the very best they can be. As long as they are committed, teachable, positive, and willing to work hard, I can work with that. However this is not a team I can hand over to anyone, and I’m already committed to our 17s. It so happens, however, our 17s play on different days in Power League than our 12s. There are some other conflicts but with help from my other coaches, I should be able to take the 12s as well. And so off we went.

I added extra practices, increased their practice time by 30 minutes, determined to whip them into shape before the tournaments started. There’s so much to do in such a short amount of time but we’re gonna get there, I was confident of that fact. In the beginning it was challenging but I kept reminding the parents (and myself) that this is what the beginning of greatness looks like.

Then the first tournament came along on Jan 6th, great opportunity to see where we are at before the all important Power League near the end of the month. A snow storm hits our area and the tournament is canceled, due to a Power Outage at Sunrise Courts, after we all show up . But a few die hards like us still want to play so we head to practice instead at Sprinker.

While we are at Sprinker, we get an invite to scrimmage Puget Sound’s two U12 teams at Bellarmine HS. It was a disaster, but only if you paid attention to silly little details like the scores. But for me it was a much needed scrimmage to get our players to see what a real game looks like and why it is very important that they all learn their lineups, rotations, serve-receive formations, and their transitions. If you are lost out there, you simply cannot be on the court. And in those two scrimmages, we made some great strides in learning our lineups, rotations, serve-receive formations, and transitions, enough so that we weren’t that lost out there by the end of the day. Unfortunately those accomplishments didn’t immediately translate into points for us that day.

What makes this team special, however, is the fact that they kept doing all the things we needed to do in practices at Sprinker, on the racket ball courts, where all the magic takes place. Every drill, every exercise, every push up, every muscle memory that needed to be developed, was developed. Evey hand-eye movement that needed to be coordinated, was coordinated, and practiced over and over again.

For more than a solid month we worked on all the basic individual skills, footwork, ready positions, arm swings (on the right and left sides), tosses, positioning, contact, platforms, 2-2 setting position, timing, techniques, tons of push ups and crunches, homework assignments, etc. At the same time we are also building cohesiveness and gaining knowledge and understanding of all the necessary team systems we need to learn and execute seamlessly in order to play like a team. As if this isn’t enough, we must also learn how to keep score, track the libero, line judge, and R2. I often take a team by myself, so even at this very young age, my 11 and 12 year olds must learn how to keep score by themselves at the score table. No matter how you look at it, we demand and expect a lot from our babies. But on the other hand, we get a lot too.

But the real test is about to come, Power League. In PL1, we win the first match, lose the 2nd, win the 3rd and lose the 4th and 5th matches, 2 and 5 is our record. Not bad for our first tournament of the season. We actually won 2 matches and not just a few games here and there. But Power League #2 is just around the corner, a mere 3 weeks later. Another storm hits our area and PL2 is canceled. We head to Gig Harbor for a local tournament and finish 2nd in Silver, we actually played for the Silver Championship. Something happened after Gig Harbor and the babies return to PLs 3 & 4 with a vengeance. They take PL3 by storm and win all 4 of their matches. A month later they come back for PL4 and do exactly the same thing, win all 4 matches.

They go on to the 2-day Regional Championships and win all their matches on Day 1. Lost just 1 match on Day 2 and finish 3rd in the Jade Division. They were just 1 match away from winning the Jade Championship.

Looking back at their beginning, it was indeed a beginning that was full of challenges, not very inspiring, nor promising. But it goes to show once again, that you can never put any player or team in a box, especially when they are this young. If you keep showing up, if you never quit or give up, and if you keep working hard and improving, wonderful things can happen. If you don’t show up, nothing will ever happen. I am so proud of our young ladies, Power Surge 12 Gold.

In the beginning I figured we would win a few sets here and there, and maybe a few matches here and there. For a first year team to club ball and a very young team also, that’s a good thing. But they exceeded all our expectations winning 16 matches and losing just 4 matches in Power League and the Regional Championships. The “babies” showed up in a huge way, they defied the imagination, and shocked us all.
Well done ladies, and keep doing your homework assignments over the summer. See you all next year.

Finally, none of this can happen without the support of our parents. So a big thank you to all our parents for their unwavering support. Our 12s’ parents also distinguished themselves at the tournaments too, by being the loudest in the gym. Actually, to be more accurate, they were the only ones cheering at all, usually. So after a while, everyone knew exactly when Power Surge was playing, just follow the roar.

A season to remember for sure, thank you all!

Coach Kama