Even with a coaching change mid season the Cougars persevere through their volleyball season.
“It was just really fun even though it wasn’t the highest level I’ve ever played at, and it helped me learn overall as a player,” 8th grader on the A team Ella Zahuranec said.
The season was a very fun and great experience for all of the players. There was a lot of growth over the season from not playing as a team to being a really big improvement and becoming a real team and playing together.
“I feel like at the beginning we were all tight,” Zahuranec said. “We didn’t play well even though we won more of our games. We also then had a really big downfall when we didn’t have a coach, but then at the end we went a little uphill and really played as a team.”
Both of the teams had to change coaches mid season. The players figured out how to make it a successful season.
“It was hard because at the beginning we were not too good and we were playing together but then when we changed coaches all of our momentum and progress seemed to drop,” Zahuranec said.” It was also kinda good we learned more drills we needed to do and what made us better.”
When the volleyball team didn’t have a coach, principal Kyron Harvell became the coach for the team. While Harvell didn’t have much coaching experience, he was really committed and cared a lot about the kids.
“It felt good also because he gave us a bunch of parties,” Zahuranec said. “Also he made us get some momentum back and even though he didn’t know much about coaching he was really invested in it and really fun.”
At Clague there are two volleyball teams. The top team is the A team. The second team is the B team. The A team had only 8th graders on it including Zahuranec. The B team had mostly 7th graders and 4 8th graders.
“It felt good but the A and B team practiced together but there wasn’t a really big skill difference. And it was just like fun,” Zahuranec said.
Out of everything that happens over the course of the season. Their best game was their last game against Tappan. Even though they lost, they only lost by one point.
“I think even though we lost the game our best game was the last game against Tappan,” Zahuranec said. “Tappan was the best team of all the schools and we played a really close game and made a big comeback from the last time we played them.”
