MCS Boys Volleyball SY 2022-2023

     Throughout the month of December to the end of February, I had the opportunity of working and coaching for the Boys middle school volleyball team at Mount Carmel in Agat. I've started playing volleyball when I was 7th grade and played my first organized volleyball game as a student at Mount Carmel. Volleyball was something that I found myself being really good at. I played throughout high school under Coach Mike Rabago who has some of the highest certifications in the whole Oceania. I have played in tournaments and still continued to play volleyball. Coming back to my former middle school allowed me to work with kids who had very little knowledge about volleyball. To me, this was exciting because it allowed me to share my knowledge about the sport. It was a great couple months with this team. However, this season taught me a couple of things as well.

   When I arrived at the practice, I came to the school and saw that the net was set up from one pillar of the school to another. MCS did not have authorization to practice at the Agat gym. No court boundaries and only a net. Something else that I noticed was that we were very, very limited on balls. MCS did not have much equipment and barely had balls. The other coach had to fork out cash to buy good balls. That's when I realized that this season was going to be really tough. Throughout the season, I was very stern when it came to coaching. I emphasized the importance of conditioning, skill/technique, and rotations. In the beginning of the season, the kids had little to no knowledge when it came to the sport. I created a group chat to send the kids videos and lessons to understand rotations and plays that we would be running throughout the season. The team from last year placed at the very bottom. This season, we managed to get the team 4 wins this season. This team was full kids who were eager to learn and win and they absorbed a lot of information in a span of 3 months. It taught me that by giving the right tools and guidance, these kids can and could be something greater than they think. These kids came from other sports background, so the athleticism was there. The technique and IQ came really easy to them, and it took a few tweaks to perfect each player as complete volleyball players.

This season was also my very first look when it comes to being an educator. All these kids learn at a different pace and understand information differently. When it came to demonstrating plays, I used of a lot of tools that could explain things each differently. When it came to showing positioning of each player on the court, I drew out their bases, defense, and serve receive rotations. When it came to showing technique and plays, I would send videos on how to pass, set, spike or just demonstrate during practice. This was the great thing when it sports because the one equipment we did not lack was having a cellphone. It was very easy to send the kids announcements and things they should be going over for their games. Dealing with kids especially at that age also showed me how different each kid was. There were kids who were not as athletic as other kids, there were kids that you could tell things as is and there were kids who could not take criticism. It taught me that all the kids were different but had one goal. That was to play volleyball and win. Overall, it was a great experience for myself as it was something that I love to do and something that I will continue to do.