Summer camp helps prepare teams

Russellville’s Ashley Dunstan serves against Tharptown during Friday’s camp. | Scot Beard/FCT

With a long layoff between the end of the volleyball season in the fall and the start in late August of the following year, coaches look for any advantage they can get to prepare their squads.

The Russellville Middle School team and the two new squads at Tharptown got that advantage this week at a team camp at Russellville High School.

“(The players) get instruction first then are able to apply it with the help of experts,” said Bridgett Smith, coach of the Russellville Middle School squad. “This is more valuable than just playing games.”

The experts Smith referred to are former Mississippi State head coach Tina Seals and several current collegiate players including Cassie Montgomery, a former Russellville player and current member of the University of West Alabama volleyball team.

Tharptown coach Tracey Fretwell said the camp is beneficial to her players in a couple of ways.

“They haven’t played a game yet, so they get a visual of how it’s played,” Fretwell said. “They are also having fun and coming together as a team.”

Fretwell said it is also helpful that there are so many current players to help with different aspects of the game. She said her specialty during her playing days was setting, but the coaches at the camp are better equipped to instruct her team how to hit better than she can because they specialize in that discipline of the game.

Smith said the camp provides a high level of instruction and shows her what areas her team needs to work to improve when practice starts in the fall.

She said having college players as coaches drives the team to compete even more.

“It makes them work harder,” Smith said. “The college players and coaches tell them the same things we do, so they know it’s important.”