The philosophy shared by coaches of the Cherry City Junior Volleyball Club is to develop strong skills and techniques in its players, while emphasizing teamwork, a positive attitude, dedication and encouragement to grow the athletes.
All four teams wrapped up their regular seasons in March and every group racked up several wins, shared team and individual growth and enjoyed top tournament finishes to its record overall during the spring.
“The coaches were very proud of the teamwork and hard work the girls demonstrated,” said coach Dawn Sallee-Justesen. “We received lots of positive feedback from other coaches about the level of sportsmanship and poise the team demonstrated during tournament play.”
Sallee-Justesen and Shawna Ortega coached a young and inexperienced 16U group that started off the year a little overwhelmed, but finished strong by the end of the regular season.
This team featured six underclassmen, four freshmen, along with three eighth-graders.
Sophomores Eliana Ortega and Lindsi Logue provided the most experience of the team.
Karla Hernandez, Brianna Birchfield, Audrey Synon, Anna Singhurst were the ninth-graders gaining court time to improve for next season, and the trio of Maggie Justesen, Makenna Wilcox, and Charlie May are athletes ready to contribute to the high school team starting in the fall.
“The team improved on several levels,” Sallee-Justesen said. “They moved from the bronze level to the silver level with an appearance in the gold bracket by the end of the season.”
Through tournament play early on, the 16U squad faced tough competition against 16U and 18U teams that had one-to-three years of varsity play under their belts, which makes a big difference in the heat of volleyball battle.
“However, the team came together with a plan to focus on both team and individual goals,” Sallee-Justesen said. “It took a few tournaments for the girls to gel and figure out the higher level of transition and play needed to compete.”
At the middle part of the year, things started clicking for the 16U team in tournament action in Hood River, where all facets of the game showed some promise and paved the way for third-place honors in the Gold bracket.
Ortega and Logue stepped up and led the charge, with Ortega putting forth an unstoppable performance at the net and on defense.
The eighth graders fed off that energy and were no longer intimidated by the speed and transition of the game.
“Our hitters, Karla Hernandez, Charlie May, Audrey Synon, Brianna Birchfield, Ellie Ortega and Maggie Justesen all showcased intense net play,” Sallee-Justesen said. “Coaches were impressed with the block timing of Audrey Synon and Charlie May.”
Justesen and Logue finished the season with strong setting, and Logue carried the team in successful set-to-hit plays with an occasional hit or tip to surprise the other team and Justesen added a strong hitting element, including two highlight-reel left-handed dumps to take the bracket play win.
The 16U coach also said that Wilcox and Synon covered the backcourt by digging up saves, and the trio of Singhurst, Ortega and Logue provided great serve-receive and backrow passing, and both Logue and Synon led the team with a 90-percent serving percentage.
After that successful tournament outcome, the 16U team continued its solid play in a tournament-finale at Prineville against a field of 12-to-18 highly-skilled programs.
“Cherry City’s efforts from the previous tournament carried over and the team ended up beating two varsity teams to place in the Silver bracket,” Sallee-Justesen said.
Coached by Teresa Morris and Niki Moleli, the 14U team posted a pair of first-place titles in White Salmon, Wash., notched top-3 efforts in mostly Gold and Silver brackets at Prineville.
On the team were Josie Quantrell, Kinley Mitchell, Madison Troutt, Delaney Kindler, Emily Adams, Hanna Biehn, Jayleen Hernandez, Olivia Thomas, Rochelle Tilton, Tiana Watson and Madison Malcolm.
This squad capped their season with a third-place output in Redmond, as Hernandez captured an all-tournament spot.
“The team did an amazing job overcoming some obstacles this season,” Morris said. “From having girls from different schools and learning to play as a team, they did very well. They all improved so much over the past few months and worked incredibly hard. All the 14U players did a great job and we look forward to watching them and seeing them in the future.”
Representing the youngest set of volleyball players in the program, the 12U group had enough players to make up two teams – Team Crushers and Team Chaos.
Patrolling the sidelines for Crushers were coaches Hayley Isaak and Linda Compton, and Tim Logue led Team Chaos.
Both groups attended tournaments in Prineville, White Salmon and Goldendale, with Team Crushers vaulting it to Gold bracket play for a fourth-place in one tournament and a second-place Silver bracket outcome in another.
“Overall, the team grew tremendously,” Isaak said of the team’s season-long progression.
At the start of the year, the three volleyball coaches set up a list of attainable goals for their teams of teaching the basic fundamentals to build a solid foundation of play, while teaching the language and the rules of volleyball.
“We wanted them to demonstrate and encourage teamwork, sportsmanship, dedication, and determination,” Isaak added. “We also aimed to teach the girls how to set goals and explain how their participation in practice each day contributes to their achievement of those goals.”
The program announced that it is holding an open gym from 6-7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays starting on April 5 and running until May 3.
These open gyms are available to boys and girls ages 4-7.
Open gym entry fees are set at $30 per person and includes a T-shirt.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.