GREENVILLE – The Lady Wave volleyball program under the direction of head coach Michelle Hardesty brought in Matchpoint Volleyball, Inc., based out of Columbus, OH to instruct at the school’s three day instruction camp.
“We’re just getting started preparing for 2019 and look forward to another season of making huge strides in making the Greenville program one to be proud of,” said Hardesty. “The girls gave them everything they had this week. Super proud of them.”
The mission of Matchpoint volleyball is to provide a single source for volleyball-specific performance improvement for athletes and coaches alike. Matchpoint is unique because of its comprehensive offerings and the high level of experience and expertise of its staff.
Matchpoint’s Randy Schmidt of Bellefontaine and Cleveland’s Casey Marcelo were on hand to instruct each day at the camp.
“The camp went extremely well,” said Hardesty. “Bringing in Matchpoint instructors made a nice impact on our program, on our players. Randy and Casey did an excellent job. They brought some fresh ideas and added some twists to the things we were already doing.”
“We are trying to work with them as far as not only the fundamentals of the game but the strategy of the game, the mental side of the game, trying pull the whole thing as far as everything, the conditioning, the skills, then mental, the spirit of competitive situations,” said Schmidt. “Our goal – better volleyball, so wherever we go we hope that when we leave, the girls are better and therefore they enjoy the game more because it can be a tough game to get good at.”
“We show the girls how to play the game,” Marcelo added. “Just clean up their techniques in what we see. It may not be something they currently do. We get them to an uncomfortable state. Just want to teach them to learn, give it a try. If it works for them – great, and hopefully they accept the changes.”
The visiting Matchpoint coaches along with Coach Hardesty and staff also held three days of instructions with the junior high volleyball program prior to the high school’s time of instruction from 3 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. each day.
“It makes a tremendous help to have the junior high schools having a good feeder program,” Schmidt said of what builds a good high school program. “It doesn’t matter what the sport is.”
“We saw a tremendous improvement in our players in the three days – 15 hours of instructions they received,” said Coach Hardesty. “They were thirsty for it, the instruction and getting better. They left tired but better each day.”
