PITSBURG – The Franklin Monroe Jets Youth Volleyball Camp got off to a flying start this past week under the direction of second-year coach Amy Booher.
Coach Booher held the camp from 9 to 11 a.m. June 22 thru June 24 at the spacious Hangar.
“The number of participants were down by nine from last year due to the camp time being moved up and several on vacation,” Booher said. “However, the 11 elementary kids we did have worked very hard and listened to what the coaches had to say.”
The 11 ranged from fourth grade to sixth grade and all happened to be from the Pitsburg area. The fourth graders consisted of Hallie Aslinger, Lillie Shellabarger, Libby Fox, Paige Drew, Joycelyn Gray and Emma Denlinger. The fifth graders were composed of Layni Norris and Reanna Wright. The sixth graders were Erin Keihl, Olivia Graves and Skylar Baumen.
Helpers for Coach Booher were junior varsity coach Angie Filbruns and volunteer assistant varsity coach Kerry Feitshans. Junior high coaches were Brenda Oswalt and Mallory Gray.
High School players instructing were Morgan Booher, Carrie Baker, Sydney Bowser, Shania Baker, Audrey Aslinger, Kelly Fourman, Emilee Morris, Hannah Eley, Madison Schaar, Makenzie Kreitzer, Allie Armstrong, Cassidy Spatz, Brigette Filbrun, Kennedy Morris, Sierra Keller, Elisabeth Williams and Peyton Archer.
The cost was nominal at $30 per camper, which included instruction from the director herself, the four assistant coaches and the 17 varsity and junior varsity players. The campers received a new volleyball, a FM camp T-shirt and last but not least all the campers and helpers got the ultimate patriotic prize with a red, white and blue Popsicle before the Fourth of July.
Skills that the campers worked on were passing, setting, serving, hitting, rotations, rules and most importantly fundamentals. All the games they played were fun, but they had fundamentals thrown in also. The names of the games were Dead Fish, which consisted of serving over the net and the kids got to lie on the floor like dead fish; the communication drill, which involved talking to one another; and the animal’s drill in which the kids were paired with certain animal names and had to respond when their animal’s sound was made.
“All the campers did an awesome job, and I want all the campers to come back next year and bring a friend,” Coach Booher said. “I was amazed by the improvement shown by all the campers from day one to day three. I was also impressed that all 11 girls showed up every day.”
Coach Booher wants to improve on her record from last year, which was 9-13 overall but with a sixth place finish in the Cross County Conference. Coach Booher is very optimistic about the varsity team this year as she has six seniors coming back, including her own daughter, Morgan Booher.
Last week Franklin Monroe had its high school and junior high camp run by the Otterbein coaching staff.
“It is always good to get someone at the college level to give our players pointers,” Coach Booher said. “Also, the varsity and junior varsity is going to Bluffton University later on this summer for scrimmages with teams from all over Ohio. I was really pleased with the high school camp last week, which had 15 players turn out, and in the junior high camp where we had 25 seventh and eighth graders.”
