Jason Tanaka checks in from Tucson
7/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
July 24, 2008
TUCSON, Ariz. - Greetings from sunny and hot Tucson, Ariz.! I hope that all is well in Fort Worth. Thought I would give a little recap of my experience at the USA High Performance program, which started on July 17th when I departed for Tucson.
Upon arrival in Tucson, I was greeted by a USA High Performance representative and started my duties as a member of the USA High Performance staff. The first day was spent checking all of the players into the hotel and giving them their equipment for the camp. Our first meeting was with Shelton Collier, the lead coach for the Youth A2 age group. Shelton has been the head coach of the Youth and Junior National teams for years and is currently head coach at Wingate University. On our staff we have ten other coaches from all over the country. We have formed an excellent staff and are ready to coach the Youth group of 50 talented players.
Our first practice began the night we arrived. It was a nice hike to walk from our hotel to the convention center where we held practice. The hike was a great warm-up for the players. Our first practice was spent of getting to know the athletes as well as evaluating the talent level that we had within the Youth A2 group. After practice, the staff gathered to talk about our plan for the next day.
As a staff, we matched up with another coach for specific position training. I was matched up with Melissa Wolter, head coach at the University of West Florida, and given the task of coaching the middles. Melissa was the assistant coach for the Youth National Team, which won a gold medal at the NORCECA championship in Puerto Rico a few weeks ago.
For the first three days of camp, we were in full practice mode. Shelton put me in charge of grouping the players into seven different teams. We matched six of the teams against each other and had one group helping with the volleyballs. After a couple of rounds of play, we felt that we had a good look at most of the players and went back to position training.
The big night was on the 20th when we revealed the individual teams. As a staff, we spent hours deciding which players we thought should be on each team. It was a great experience because we all debated and gave our opinions as to which team we thought each player should play on. After we selected the teams, Shelton gave the coaches their team assignments. I was assigned to coach the USA Youth Blue team.
Check back in a few days for an update on how the camp is going. I am excited for the tournament to get under way. It's going to be a blast playing teams from around the US as well as international teams as well.
