Tampa United Tournament

Venetian Bay had an outstanding tournament with overall great results. It’s evident that teams are competing on a more consistent basis which is a tribute to the players and coaches hard work. Anything that is worth something takes time and it’s great to see our clubs spirit on the court. I also noticed many teams taking the time to watch other VBAY teams play. Good job on creating that family atmosphere!

Last week in Orlando, our Team of the week was the 13-1’s as they won the OVA Invite out of 28 teams. The duo of Hannah Richards and Courtney Krause seemed unstoppable.

Team to watch is our 14s. They have been extremely competitive over the past two weekends playing in the Open division. Last week, they fell out of the gold bracket by a 2 point loss and this week they came back to beat the same team to go to Gold in a playoff match. Then on the 2nd day, they had to win a crossover match to get back to the final gold ladder and make a top 5 finish which they did. Their success has been a total team effort. I was also really impressed with this teams determination, especially on defense.

Another Team to watch is the 17s. They went undefeated all 3 days in the Open division and did not even drop a game until they lost in the Semifinals of Gold and placed 3rd in maybe the toughest division of all. Autumn Duyn’s shoulders must be tired from taking this team and putting them on her back but it definitely takes a full strong team effort to do what they did over the weekend .

This week’s Team of the week goes to the 16 Lions. Our 16s had some breakthroughs winning 5 of 8 Open matches against some very stiff competition. 4 of their 5 wins was in 3 games. Many of those games were won by 2 pts. Keep up the fighting spirit. Holly Mattmuller emerged as that teams’ leader and everyone else got in line and fought til the end as it showed on the scoreboard. Congratulations Lions!

Sincerely, Coach Wheatley

Try New Things

Club season is very much under way as we head into the final weekend of Power Leagues. Over the last 2 weeks, I have gotten around to most of our teams practices and observed. Our coaches are working hard to train their teams and getting them to fit into their mold. It's so interesting to watch each practice and the players interacting with each other because its very obvious to me those players who are "sponges" and soaking up information and taking that information and applying it to their game and those who are not. Coaches have so much valuable information to share and the only way for our players to get better is to continue to push themselves, stay focused and positive in practice, and take what their coach is saying and apply it. For example, I was watching the 14s practice just the other day working on emergency floor moves and it was great to see fear of the floor turn into freedom to be more agile and get more balls up. These are things that will help continue rallys and win those extra points. Good job 14's!.
Watching people better then us makes us better in what we are tying to do. After 17 years of coaching, I continue to be a student of the game by attending coaching clinics, reading literature, and watching other coaches. It is also the same for players to be able to watch someone we admire to help elevate our players game to the next step but you have to take a pro active approach in doing this. A great time for this is at tournaments to go and watch the 18 open courts and see how those kids move for the ball, aggressively pursue the ball and see how vocal they are. I have never seen a team who does not communicate well be successful in the game of volleyball. To be competitive, our teams must be extra vocal.
Lastly, please support our other venetian bay teams at club tournaments. I know players love to have others watch and it means so much when especially other VBAY teams take the time to go to another court and cheer on their fellow club members.