Announcement
14 Gold - Gold Champions!
Well, well, well, they absolutely did it! Our 14 Gold team, thrown together the week of with just 2 practices under their belt, attend their first and only tournament as a U14 team, and bring home the coveted Gold Championship. And just who are these incredible young people, who have never played together as a team, who were pulled from our 12 Gold and our 16 Gold teams just for this one and only U14 tournament? Let’s meet them… From our 16 Gold team, Emily Beach, Noah Peredo, Aleijah Dulan, Ella Ragazzo, and Cinayah Avamalefono. And from our 12 Gold team, Ahjalle Patu, Adrianna Kaeka-Ajeko, Claire Prindle, and Breanna Lopez.
Learning the very complicated lineup where my setters set from the back row running a 6-2 offense, but became our middle blockers when in the front row, was the main challenge facing this team. Playing in one position in the back row and a different position in the front row causes all kinds of turmoil for the other positions in both the front and back rows, forcing players to really pay attention when playing a base position that they don’t normally play. To complicate things even more, their base positions can change from rotation to rotation, depending on who is in the front or back rows. The team had to adjust to this complexity quickly, and with lots of coaching and some very chaotic moments, they eventually adapted to the turmoil enough to calm the stress/nerves. So comfortable with the chaotic volatility that by the time they reached the championship match, our 14 Gold team hit their mighty stride and just crushed a good ball handling team from Vancouver, WA in two straight sets. I believe the scores were something like 25-8, 25-12, absolutely no contest.
Why all these complicated base reassignments for each rotation? Short answer, flexibility. When a team can do what we just did with these very young players, it gives us the power to place each player in their most effective and productive positions on offense and defense in every rotation, so that our very best combinations of players are always playing in their best and strongest positions possible. So when a team comes at us, they are facing the most powerful team we can be in every rotation. Most high school teams don’t even know how to do what our young players had to learn in just two practices.
At tryouts, this team was supposed to be our mighty 14 Gold team (most likely they would have been a 14 Black team), very possibly our 2nd national contending team with a great shot at going to Nationals. But things just did not work out and so some of them went to our 12s and some to our 16s to round out those teams instead. But just to see what could have been, I scheduled this one U14 tournament for this team to see what could have been. They did not disappoint. And as expected, this team showed up in a very big way, made a huge splash during their debut this past Saturday 22 Feb, winning the gold very handily.
Well done ladies and Noah, you all were without question, exemplary, performing chaotically at times but always striving to achieve above our highest expectations, always believing that anything less than the Gold Championship is failure. The thing I liked most is the fact that all 9 players played and contributed to the team’s inevitable success. Each player had an important role on the team and each player stepped up their game to come together as one cohesive team. We’re very proud of all of you. Keep up the great work, and for those playing tomorrow Sun 23 Feb, bring the same intensity and confidence.
Mahalo to our coaches, parents, family, and friends. Without your strong support, none of this would have been possible.
Go Power Surge!
Coach Kama
