Let’s dive into the sport of volleyball at Eleanor Roosevelt High School and get to know the ins and outs of the sport and also the players. The team has a new head coach Michelle Blacks, and she has led a successful start to the volleyball season. So far this season has been looking good with a current record of 7-1.
Michelle Blacks, our new head coach of the volleyball team at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, expresses her goals regarding the new season, and says, “My goal is to have a winning season most importantly,” she adds, “but really to be able to execute some key plays.” She then explains how the execution of those keys plays is something she hasn’t really seen before in her past years of coaching. While winning a game is important, so are the plays within the game. Throughout the interview coach Blacks emphasizes skill, conditioning, and maintaining good spirits. “In practice, we try and focus on not only our skills, but also our conditioning.” Most of these practices start with conditioning warm ups, followed by drills and skilled based drills to lock down and prepare for games.
Coach Blacks loves her team and is very proud of her girls, throughout the interview she shows much passion and admiration. She is “constantly encouraging them, reminding them of the struggles that they went through to get here.” She encourages them “most importantly, just to have fun!”
When reflecting on the best part of her volleyball experience, junior Sophia Reynolds says, “I like that it’s not very combat oriented.” Reynolds shares how having communication with your teammates is tricky but necessary and it has its benefits off the court. In regards to a volleyball players life away from sports, Reynolds says that “I feel like I’ve become a little bit more outwardly spoken and more social.” From an academic angle, Reynolds claims that volleyball has a positive effect on her school life despite the sleep lost in season. “If anything I am more motivated to get my work done because I have to keep a GPA.”
On the opposite end of things, Reynolds recalls “the most challenging part about volleyball for me is keeping your hopes up, or keeping the same mindset.” To combat this she finds that both distancing herself from volleyball and watching volleyball to motivate herself to accomplish what other players have or even practicing more by herself is helpful. She also states that though she does not have this problem she understands that it can be struggle if you are on a team that “doesn’t really have supportive players or coaches.” In that case the volleyball team is lucky that they are set with a coach like Coach Blacks who is determined to encourage her team and lead them to a successful end of the season.
