Monday, July 28, 2008

Scooter's contact info

Hey team...since I am no longer with IVA I don't have an IVA email address so if you need to get me please email me at skeister33@hotmail.com. Thank you ALL for one of my favorite HP years so far. I had a blast. I am working on evaluations for all the players and as soon as Martha and I are done with those they will be sent to you.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Select Coaches Final Thoughts

Lindsay
I know, I know, I have been absent from this blog. I just wanted to save everything 'til the end so I could collect my thoughts and figure out how to say everything in my mind and heart. This has been one of my favorite teams to have ever coached. I have to admit, I was a little hesitant to have the "little kids," as I consider myself a better tactical coach than skill coach, but wow were my eyes opened!

These kids have been so amazing to coach. I know I was a little hard on them at times, but they all took it in stride and responded immediately, which is a very mature characteristic to display at such a young age. Yes, we may not have won as many matches as we would have liked, but I do know that in the matches we lost, they each gained a greater knowledge of the game and will grow tremendously from the experience.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with this group, and will not soon forget all the "rock out" moments in the van and the fun experiences outside the gym as well as the lessons I learned from them.

Thanks to all the parents who allowed us to borrow their amazing children for a short time. It has impacted me forever.


Josh
This whole experience was quite an adventure for me. Getting to work with this group and along side Lindsay was great for me. From the first day in the gym until right now sitting at the airport, I have enjoyed every moment. All of the kids worked hard and did everything we asked of them.

We did an excellent job at the tournament of working to get better. Every match we saw great improvement in each player. They also learned a lot of lessons off the court that they can take into their personal lives. I am so impressed with this group of players and can't thank them enough for all of their hard work over the past 10 days.

Team Awards (Based on stats)
Best Spiker: Rachel Enloe (.255 hitting efficiency)
Best Passer: Rachel Enloe (1.68 passing average)
Best Server: Rachel Enloe (2.78 serving average)
Best Setter: Jessika Long (133 assists)
Best Digger: Brittyn Niemi (120 digs)
Best Blocker: Carley Rasmussen (26 total blocks)
MVP (Most Points): Challie Mitchell (96.0 points)

Coaches at the airport


Coaches at the Airport

THE GRAND FINALE!!!!

Hey, this is Jessika and Challie for the FINAL BLOG! Today we started off bright and early with a match at 8:00 a.m. and man was that early!!!!!!!!!!!!! We ended up losing in four games against a team from New York. It was a disappointing loss, but after we looked back on the entire experience we realized that we had learned so much. We all grew in our own personal ways.

After our match we went and watched the first 2 games of the youth's team match (they lost in 5 sets). Later we went to In and Out Burger for lunch, and we almost witnessed an arrest. Then, we went to Target for a scavenger hunt. The teams were Jessika, Lyndie, Tipper, and Hannah then, Challie, Carley, Crystal, and Brittyn. (Rachel and Jackie had already left with their families to drive home) The teams had to find items from left handed golf club to polydenture cream. We finished with a tie breaker so to find the winners we went into a bonus round. As we were running threw the building a police officer stopped us and almost kicked us out for taking pictures in the store. Eventually the team including Jessika, Lyndie, Tipper, and Hannah won and their prize was pink party hats while the other team had to wear pirate patches over their eye, and a fake earring.

Now we are at the airport about to leave for our flight home. The whole experience of High Performance was exciting and lots of fun, and as we said before a great learning experience. We are excited to see our family and friends, but at the same time were all sad the trip is almost done. We would like to say thank you so much to the coaches, and everyone who has made this trip possible for us, and we will see you all soon!!!!!!

Youth Team Match #8 vs. Oklahoma (Bronze Medal Match) Recap

Intermountain Youth defeated by Oklahoma 2-3 (23-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-20, 15-11)

Statistical Leaders
Digs - Jenna (15)
Blocks - Bailey (8)
Aces - Rae (5)
Passing - Jenna/Nikki/Cortney (all had a 2.18)
Kill % - Turia (1.000)
Kills - Bailey (13)

Thoughts from Scooter:
Today was another hard fought match but yet another where we lost in 5 games. It was very similar to last night but none of the girls really seemed to have the "fire" today...more of a going through the motions kind of thing and almost seemed to be afraid to lose. Martha and I just kept trying to tell them the tactical information as to where to hit, serve and defend but rarely were those items excecuted. We talked after the match and talked about how losing is not fun but it does make you better so long as you take what you experience and learn from it by applying the lesson next time so that you are better. We are about to go to lunch at the place of choosing by the girls so I will let someone right their thoughts and then we are off.

Thoughts from Martha:
It is hard to loss three 5 game matches! As we circled up after our last match today, I thought about what needs to be addressed. You players need to be better. You need to play more, risk more, touch more balls, be around volleyball more! You need more more more! There are no small things and we lost because of small things. We lost because we need to be better. Better in skills and technique, better in our minds, better in our hearts. I feel I can write this because you did get better. This team wants to get better. This team needs to get better simply because you can. If we get better, we will crave 5 game situations. We will crave to serve the last game point ball. Crave to pass, set, KILL! There is something inside you players that needs to awaken, and do not be afraid of the beast you may awaken. Never settle. Never Quit. Never let yourself beat you. I challenge all you players to reflect upon how you felt when it came down to the wire, were you scared, were you nervous, were you unhappy? If you were...something is wrong. Something needs to change. I say all this because I love you. I believe you can be more. You all can become more! Thank you for your time, effort and love. Volleyball is an amazing sport and I am proud to be a part of it. I hope you leave this experience with joy in your heart and an overwhelming desire to become more!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Skudoosh (word of the day)

Hey this is Carley and Jackie aka Shrimp (Carley) and The Green Giant (Jackie). Today we played Gulf Coast...again. We almost won the first game but we killed them the next three games and we won the match. We passed a 1.56 (and reached our goal) and we served really well in the match.

After the match we went back to the hotel and showered and then we went to the mall!! We ate lunch at the mall and we bought stuff...pretty exciting!! Guh!

Some of us swam when we got back to the hotel and then some of us went with Lindsay and Josh to watch Scooter's team play.

Today I, Carley, was an idiot and stood up on my bed after swimming and the fan turning full speed whacked me in the head and gave me a lump and a cut on my head and that I guess was the funniest thing that happened today...but it really wasn't.

For dinner we went with the parents that are here and the team to Sweet Tomatoes. It was superb.

And thats about it, tomorrow we will play to win our bracket...so wish us luck and skudoosh!!

Youth Team Match #7 vs. Iowa Recap

Intermountain Youth defeated by Iowa 2-3 (25-22, 20-25, 25-19, 19-25, 13-15)

Statistical Leaders
Digs - Jenna (16)
Blocks - Tasi (9)
Aces - Kaitlyn (3)
Passing - Jenna (2.09)
Kill % - Tasi (.285)
Kills - Kaitlyn/Maline (7 each)

Thoughts from Scooter:
Tonight was a tough one. We came out strong which is something that we have not done this whole tournament and won the first game. Then it became a see saw battle. Game 2 went to Iowa, Game 3 to us, Game 4 to Iowa and then Game 5.......we did not start all that well and never could quite regain our composure. We finally made a run at the end and then I made a bonehead coaching move and made an illegal substitution. I was in the heat of the moment, went to put in Cortney for her incredible serving and had forgotten about the "international rule" that says only 1 player can sub for the other. I had already subbed Bailey in for Maline which meant I could not sub Cortney then for Bailey (it would have to be Maline)...this is not the rule in club volleyball but that is no excuse. I blew it and so rather than the score being 10-12 for Iowa, we were down 10-13. The girld fought hard and scored three straight to tie it up but we were over powered in the next two points and lost the match. I will always wonder, had I not made that mistake, would we be playing in the finals tomorrow? We'll never know and I'm sure that I will not sleep much tonight as I try and keep from throwing up over my mistake. These girls have earned the right to play for a championship and I am sick and feel so sad for them knowing that we won't be playing for it. We do, however, get a chance to gain a little revenge on the Oklahoma team that we lost to last night as we will be playing them for the third place title.

I have been so proud of all these girls and I really enjoyed our team party tonight. All of the family members came. We ordered these great sandwiches from a local eatery here and they sure were tasty. The parents brough drinks and desserts. After we ate us coaches made a little presentation. We had each of the girls come up one by one and tell us about their favorite moments, things they have learned and anything else they wanted to share. As they came up we gave them each a journal that they could write down their experiences, write notes to each other in, collect addresses and anything else they wanted to put in them. They seemed to really like that. We then gave out individual statistical awards. In International volleyball, they give out 7 individual awards as they relate to statistics. Our winners were:

Best Spiker (Tasi)
Best Blocker (Tasi)
Best Server (Dannen)
Best Digger (Jenna)
Best Setter (Rae)
Best Receiver (Jenna)
Best Scorer/MVP (Maline)

I shared my thoughts with the family members and expressed my desire and hope that all the girls have learned something that they can not only take with them to their next team but something that they can apply to their everyday life.

We hope to end tomorrow with a win before we come back to Salt Lake tomorrow night. Hopefully we will be able to blog before we get on the plane but not sure if we will have internet access. If not, then i will give a full recap once we return to Salt Lake.

Thoughts from Jenna and Kaitlyn (nobody else seems to want to write):
This morning we got to sleep in a little later again! AHHHH....wasn't that great! Then we went miniature golfing...and who was it that said they were gonna demolish us?...scooter...but did he back that up...NO!! Rae totally beat him out!! For the rest of us...we should just stick to volleyball....let's leave it at that. :) Now about volleyball....today we played against Iowa. They were a good team but we had them the first game and the third. And we took them to a fifth game, where we only lost by two points. It was a close game we just needed to give a little more to finish it off. Now the best we can do is place third. We will play the team that we played yesterday and lost to, so we're gonna come out even stronger and push even harder! That's all we have to say for today. Keep it real!!! PEACE! :)

Youth Team Pre Game


Hey all you fans! Just a couple of brief pre game notes. We had breakfast this morning at 9 and then we went to play 18 holes of miniature golf. Rae was the big winner and will recieve her award at our team dinner this evening. Right now the girls are in their nice cool rooms, then lunch at 1:00 and off to the gym at 2:15. We play Iowa at 3:30 for the right to play in the championship match tomorrow. Tonight after the match we will have a team dinner where all the family members are invited. We are pretty sure it will start at 7:30 in the hotel conference room.



and a hello to Ari who is keeping track of us :).........p.s.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Youth Team Match #5 & #6 vs. Chesapeake and Oklahoma Recap


WHAT'S THE 4-1-1?




Intermountain Youth go 1-1 for the day but make the top 4 and the Semi-Finals

Defeated Chesapeake 3-2 (23-25, 20-25, 25-15, 25-22, 15-10)
Lost to Oklahoma 2-3 (22-25, 25-23, 25-16, 19-25, 12-15)

Statistical Leaders (vs. Chesapeake)
Digs - Jenna (19)
Blocks - Tasi (8)
Aces - Rae (4)
Passing - Jenna (2.41)
Kill % - Kaitlyn (.461)
Kills - Maline (13)

Statistcal Leaders (vs. Oklahoma)
Digs - Jenna (12)
Blocks - Bailey (8)
Aces - Rae (3)
Passing - Nikki (2.1)
Kill % - Bailey (.454)
Kills - Maline (13)

Thoughts from Scooter:
I am so sorry for the delay everyone. We have spent the entire day in the gym, got back to the hotel, ate dinner, had a team meeting and I have been doing stats the rest of the time in preparation for our battle tomorrow in the semi finals of the tournament. As you can see above we won 1 match and lost 1 match today. Both matches were very hard fought.

I will start with our first match which was against Chesapeake (Maryland). We came out a little slow in the match and fought ourselves more than anything in trying to get our fire back. We had a game plan in place for the team we were playing but could not execute that game plan until we were all working together as one unit. We lost the first two games without much of a fight. Between games 2 and 3 we talked about learning from our opponents and we talked about Puget Sound and our match with them on day 1 where we went up 2-0 on them and they came back to take us to 5. We talked about what they did in order to do that. They came out with no fear, lots of intensity and lots of teamwork. So, that is what the girls did along with following the game plan that the coaches laid out for them and we were able to push it to a fifth game winning games 3 and 4 both pretty easily. Game 5 was more of the same as we controlled the entire game from start to finish. The match lasted about 2 hours and 15 minutes and we were very excited at the accomplishment that we had just made. Unfortunately the other team's players were very disrespectful to ours after the match...half of them not even shaking hands with our players but our girls won with pride and won with class and I was proud of them.

We had about 2 hours to kill before our next match. Typically we have been coming back to the hotel, relaxing, eating lunch and then going back but the girls wanted to stay at the gym today and watch the boys volleyball matches. They are amazing players (I think the girls just wanted to flirt) but they really do play incredible volleyball and we saw a couple of very good matches between our USA team and Puerto Rico.

We started our match with Oklahoma at 5:45 and this time we had the help of Josh and Lindsay (coaches of the Select team). It was great to have more sets of eyes on the bench helping Martha and I pick apart the other team. We started the match play just a little bit better than average but the other team was about 5 notches higher than us and we lost game 1. Our girls held their composure and fought hard to take the next two games fairly easily. Game 4 saw the momentum swing back to Oklahoma and they took us to game 5. Game 5 was a see saw battle as no team made more than a 2 point run any point throughout the match except for the very end. Unfortunately we were not able to pull the game 5 out and we lost 12-15. Our downfall was a few things. 1) Serving errors (15 in the match) 2) Our blockers really struggled with finding their hitters and lining up with them correctly and 3)our passing struggled at key points during the match. The nice part is that we took 2nd in our pool and have made it to the top 4 of the event and will play Iowa (who is undefeated) tomorrow at 3:30 in the semi-finals. The winner of that match will play on Sunday at 10:00am in the finals and the loser will play at the same time for 3rd. The MOST important thing that I was proud of these girls, is that even though they lost, they ALL showed a lot of respect to the other team and sincerely congratulated them on a well played and hard fought match (as opposed to how the Chesapeake region reacted after we beat them). We have a group of very classy and mature young women and that makes me prouder than any victory we have on the court.

I am so very proud of all these girls and their performances. They have grown and learned so much in the past few days. I only wish I could have them for more time than that. They are so much fun as well as all the family members who are here supporting not only their own daughter but everyone!!!! The energy that creates is wonderful to be a part of. In our team meeting tonight we re-enforced the fact that our goal (even though we have a good shot of winning the tournament) is NOT winning...our goal is solely our performance level and working together as a team. I am very excited to see what tomorrow brings.

Thoughts from Jenna and Kaitlyn:
Hey ya’ll!! It’s us again! Today we got to sleep in a little later than usual, which was nice. We then ate breakfast and drove over to the convention center. Our car ride over definitely got us pumped up! Our first game we played Chesapeake, it started off slow but we picked it up in the third game. We beat them in five games, and the last three games we brought the Tucson heat! We had a long break before our next game. During our break we ate lunch and watched the men’s volleyball, which was amazing! We also picked up on some guys while we were waiting to play! Can I just say that men volleyball players are just FINE! But uh….VOLLEYBALL…. our next game we played Oklahoma . We took them to five games, and with a fight, we only lost by three. It was a tough game, but close. We still get to go to the semi-finals and fight for the championship! On our ride home, we stopped at target…it was a race to get back to the van. We had exactly ten minutes to get back or else they’d leave. We’re still not sure exactly why we went… but we scored some candy, magazines, and headphones! That is pretty much the day for ya and we’ll talk to ya tomorrow! Nighty-night, sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite. By the way, there are some pretty scary and weird bugs in Arizona!!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Youth Team Match #4 vs. Delta Recap

Intermountain Youth defeat Delta 3-1 (21-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-20)

Statistical Leaders:
Digs - Jenna (7)
Blocks - Tasi (9.5)
Aces - Maline/Rae (3 each)
Passing - Jenna (2.41)
Kill % - Tasi (.916)
Kills - Tasi (11)

Thoughts from Scooter:
Talk about a complete 180. The girls between matches were able to do something very difficult in putting away (mentally) our previous match where we were so bad and got re-focused and re-dedicated to the next match to start our Round 2 Gold Division Pool. We left for the gym and went to watch our Select team who is on a roll. We were able to watch their first two games and then the girls, without being asked, were responsible and left to go get ready for our match. Martha and I soon joined and arrived to the court seeing our players doing some team bonding and having "fun" together which was a great thing to see. We had a great warm up and even had "virtal warm up" with no balls as they were fixing the net. The entire crowd was laughing and joining in the fun. The match began against Delta (from Arkansas area) and we tried a brand new line up which had 2 outside hitters, 2 right side hitters, 1 middle and our setter setting from the middle position. The new line up was a bit of a challenged and just created a lot of chaos and stress that was not needed and we lost a very close game 21-25. Betweeen games we talked to the girls letting them know that all was well...we played very solid in all aspects of the game except passing. We encouraged them to pass just a little better and gave them a very specific game plan to follow in order to get their best player frustrated (#5 for them was REALLY good). The girls stepped up to the challenge and over the next three games, controlled every aspect of the match even though it was close and a hard fought match. The fans were great (we have a WONDERFUL cheering section that really helps our intensity) and the girls really worked as a team and they started to have that "ah ha" moment. The win felt great not only because we played really well but because we beat a very good team. Tonight we came back to the hotel, had pulled pork sandwiches and then we all went to ice cream. This group of girls is wonderful to be around and all good kids, each with a different personality which makes it so fun to watch them all mesh into one unit. They are really learning and growing so much.

Tomorrow we play at 12:15 (Chesapeake) and 5:45 (Oklahoma). Both should be tough matches but for sure will be a lot of fun.

Thoughts from Tasi:
This afternoon we played Delta. We started off losing the first game of the match, but we ended the night with a win! We took Delta to four games winning the last three. This is their first loss of the tournament. We all played with high intensity and showed team unity. Overall we are looking pretty good and can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. It will be another intense day, and we will have to bring it again to show ‘em what we got. TODAY WAS A WONDERFUL DAY! :]
Wise words from Kaitlyn: "My parents are older than me!"

Tipper's and Lyndi's Blog!!!

Hi, this is Tipper and Lyndie (just incase you missed you missed our title thingy). On the way back from our first WIN!! we jammed out to some serious tunes. Haha. Ae rocked the van and got some weird looks from some soccer moms in mini vans. During our second match of the day nobody knew what position they were playing and neither did the coaches. Crystal finished off our match with an overpass kill straight down on the girl's head. Lyndie was tired and passed out during dinner so she isn't going to write about it anymore than that because she knows nothing about it. Although on the way into Paula's room for dinner we managed to find a moth laying eggs on her curtains. After our team meeting the chick behind the counter was hitting on Josh. Then Ms. Leigh, the old grandma at the dinner place who apparently likes our team and this is her last night with us because she is off the next three days was also hitting on josh and giving him hugs after her last nights tormentation of him.

Kiss, kiss, loves! haha.
Tipper and Lyndie

(Lyndie)peace and i love you Wade, Parker, and Kenzie + Kim

Youth Team Match #3 vs. Ohio Valley Recap

Intermountain Youth defeated by Ohio Valley 3-0 (21-25, 20-25, 21-25)

Statistical Leaders
Digs - Cortney (12)
Blocks - Turia/Bailey (2 each)
Aces - Maline/Kaitlyn (2 each)
Passing - Jenna (2.67)
Kill % - Nikki (1.000)
Kills - Jenna (5)

Thoughts from Scooter:
Wow...this morning was a tough one. We had a hiccup and failed to prepare ourselves properly for our match and we could never recover. There was no teamwork, no passion and no competitiveness and we were beaten in three straight games by Ohio Valley. To their credit, Ohio played very well but we gave them 68 of their 75 points in the match due to our errors. That is a situation that is impossible to win. The good news is that we took 2nd in our pool and still move to the top 8. We begin a new pool of 4 tonight at 5:45. We will not know our opponent until we get there but we think that it will most likely be Delta. If it is not Delta it will be either Sun Country or Iowa.

After our match we came back to the hotel, ate lunch, took a nap and we just got done meeting as a team. We talked about our previous match VERY briefly and then moved on and talked about our upcoming match. All the girls have a much higher energy level now and so far look good to go. We will be leaving for the gym to watch our Select team at 3:45 and cheer them on prior to our match. We will update again tonight on that match.

Thoughts from Bailey and Nikki:
Hola! Our thoughts on the match today were that we could've done a lot better. Our team didn't have much energy this morning and we didn't play so well together. But i think that if we would've relaxed and shook off our mistakes than we would have done much better in the match than we planned.

iN AnD oUt

Hi my name is Hannah and her name is Jackie!!!!! Today we played the Gulf Coast and we were the WINNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What we did today was get up at 7:00 am ya and then we went to breakfast then we left for the gym. Got our ankles taped. Then we started to play. We went 4 games AND WE WON!!!!!!!! Then we went to In And Out Burgers. DANG IT WAS GOOD!!! And we rocked out to some music. And that was about it. GO CHONCHOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday After Lunch

Hey this is Crystal and Carley. At our next match, we lost in three games but we did make some improvements when we looked at our stats that night. Our passing was 2X better and we felt like since we played a harder team so we played better and harder than the last match.

After our match we went over to watch Scooter's team play and we cheered them on. They won their first two and the last. We were cheering them on while they were playing their 5th game. As we cheered Lindsay taught us a cheer that the Puerto Rican parents do every time they score a point: " Ooh ahh ooh ahh ooh ahh...yes!"

When we came back, Paula made delicious spaghetti for us. While eating, Challie dumped her spaghetti on her chair HA HA HA HA. After dinner we had a team meeting at nine and we went over the good and bad things we did that day and what we could improve on. We also went over responsibility and to remind ourselves who we are representing.

So now were going to play this morning at 10:15 and hopefully after all we talked about as a team, we can do better and improve today.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Youth Team Match #2 vs. Puget Sound Recap


Intermountain Youth defeat Puget Sound 3-2 (25-22, 25-13, 19-25, 18-25, 15-10)

Statistical Leaders
Digs - Jenna (21)
Blocks - Kaitlyn (8)
Ace - Maline (4)
Passing - Cortney (2.4)
Kill % - Turia (.800) - (4 kills/0 errors/1 attempt)
Kills - Bailey (11)

Thoughts from Scooter:
I was personally REALLY excited for this match since this was the team that we lost to last year in the Championship Match in Salt Lake. It was a hard fought match last year that was full of excitement, energy and extremely high level of play. The coaches of the teams are the same, however ALL of the players are different but you know coaches...once a rivalry is born it sticks and becomes a match that all look forward to. The Puget Sound coaches and their players are high class people and athletes and even though we have hard fought battles on the court, we are great friends off the court. So, that being said, this match did not disappoint. We came out in game 1 and game 2 with lots of energy, lots of teamwork and we won fairly easily. Then we entered game 3 and Puget Sound came out on fire, digging every ball we sent, serving us very tough and really rattled our cage a bit. We lost game three and game four and entered game 5 with a big and LOUD crowd watching us, cheering for us and feeling MUCH more stress than the players and coaches were I'm sure. Our Select team was also there watching so we had a crowd of about 40 people or so and they were rocking the gym...best fans here. The players gave every once of energy both physcially and emotionally that they had and us coaches gave them everything we had too. The energy on our court went from an 8 out of 10 to a 15 out of 10 in a matter of minutes and went to a 20 when we came out and scored the first 3 points of the game very quickly. We fought hard through a very tough game and pulled it out in the end. It was such a great match played with lots of heart and passion while at the same time learning how to take tactical information and apply it to the match (following a game plan), which most of the girls have not really experienced full on yet. I am so excited about this team, unfortunately we only have them for 10 days but Martha and I will do the best we can in teaching them all we can in that time. So far they are doing great and you can literally see the improvement play by play.

Tonight we are just resting after a hard fought day and getting our minds off of volleyball. The girls are cooking dinner along with Paula Mitchell (who is AWESOME) and just hanging out and enjoying the new friendships. We will have a team meeting at 9:00 tonight to talk about our next opponent and to go over the scouting report. We play Ohio Valley at 10:15am. If we win then we are 3-0 and win our pool and move to the top 8.


Thoughts from Kaitlyn and Jenna:
The match against Puget Sound was very intense. The first two games...we sure did bring it!! And when we bring it...we bring it HARD!! Then the third game, the other team raised their level of play and beat us. The fourth game was our own fault by making stupid mistakes. THEN CAME THE FIFTH............lets just say....we turned up the tucson heat baby!! We went out there with the attitude of winning and playing our best! We were so determined, and every point was like game point. Our coaches gave us all the energy they had, as well as the crowd. In return, we gave it back! We won the fifth game and left everything on the floor! It was an amazingly fun game and we're out! PEACE!!

The Choncho Blog

Hi this is Brittyn and Challie. Today was our first full day in Tuscon. We started of early with waffles and pancakes. On the way to the convention center, we decided to call our team The Chonchos. We then went of to play our first match against the Aloha region. They gave us post-it notes that say Hawaii on them. When we started the match we were really timid and had trouble with passing. In the second game we started off with bad passing and then we ended strong and focused,but still lost. The third game we had confidence in ourselves and played with intensity! We ended up loosing all the sets in the morning but we are glad that we had finished of strong. Afterwards we came back to the hotel to eat lunch and now we are relaxing until we play again. We would like to give a shout out to our families and our training buddies Kaylie and Kelsey. We love you all and we miss you.

Josh's View
So we lost to the Aloha Region 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-15). The situation kind of overwhelmed us this morning. The kids were a little scared to start and their youth and inexperience came out. It took us a little bit to clam down and get any sort of momentum. Although they didn't pass real well, they did do some really nice things. Our defense was solid and our serving and blocking were better than us coaches expected. As the match went on you could see a lot of the kids start to figure out what we are looking for and that is exciting. We face the Northern California Region at 3:45 this afternoon and are excited about it.

Youth Team Match #1 vs. Carolina Recap

Intermountain Youth defeat Carolina 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-20)

Statistical Leaders
Digs - Jenna (9)
Blocks - Kaitlyn (2)
Aces - Maline (3)
Passing - Jenna (2.0)
Attacking % - Maline (.750) - WOW! (7 kills/1 error/no attempts)
Kills - Bailey (9)

Thoughts from Scooter:
The team came well prepared to the gym today. You could tell they were ready to play from the second they walked in the gym, very focused. A nice solid warm up where we found a good rythym and then we started the match very strong. We served VERY well making the other team work hard and move, however our passing struggled although not horrible. We passed a 1.7 as a team but only had 3 zero passes (shanks). Both of our outsides did very well hitting a .750 (Maline) and a .375 (Bailey). We had wonderful serving from everyone but especially Cortney/Dannen/Tasi/Maline. Rae ran the floor very well keeping everyone involved and the other team guessing. Kaitlyn had a wonderful performance in the middle and all around we had a good team effort. Next up is Puget Sound (the team that we lost to in the finals last year in Salt Lake). We play at 3:45.

Thoughts from Cortney and Dannen:
well we woke up bright and early to the cloudy, rainy day. our hotel had pretty much the best hotel-breakfast we have ever seen/consumed... the chocolate waffles were especially delicious. yummy. martha delivered us safely to the convention center... she has a surprising ability to drive huge 12-passenger vans really fast. for our first match as a team, we played exceptionally well together and we kicked some butt. on the way home scooter almost killed us... he was disapointed that nobody screamed. while in the car we were eating lunch.. but our sandwiches were squished. :) once we got back to the hotel, we watched step up 2. again. after that.. well it pretty much brings us up to this minute.. so toodaloo. thanks for reading.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Rachel and Jessika's BLOGASTRON :)


Hi everyone, Rachel and Jessika here to tell you about our team's first day in Tucson. It started off EARLY but exciting............we met up at the Salt Lake City airport at 7:15 (talk about early!). Anyways, our flight was just grand other then the part where Rachel left her wallet in the plane (but she got it back after several minutes of intense running through the very large Las Vegas airport- what a cardio workout!!). After the relaxing flights we pulled into our hotel in the 12 passenger van (talk about claustrophobia) The hotel includes a pool/hot tub, and a tennis court. The hotel is nice although our tennis skills could use some work!!!!!!!!!!!! After we checked in we went out to a Mexican restaurant where Biscottie (a.k.a. Josh) busted some STRANGE moves while Challie swallowed a fly!!!!!!(long story) As you can see our day was very relaxing but tomorrow will be much more intense!!!!!!!!!! We will start our tournament tomorrow at 10:15 when we play team Aloha........ We will keep you posted on how our week goes, and if anyone else swallows a fly!!!!!)

AriZonA....we are here :]


Hello everyone, this is Rae and Jenna reporting to you about our adventurous day. It started with an early flight to las vegas. While on this airplane...some of us had the chance to meet some very interesting people. One of them, being underage decided to have a few. It was also his first flight...that sure was an expierence. During the layover in Las Vegas coach told a few of us to find our way to the next gate. Some wondered off in there own little world. I don't think this will be happening again, although it was a good learning experience. Then, to top it off, our team went crazy and made a music video, which was inspired by us watching Step Up 2. Our first team meeting went well, although the coaches walked in with shocked and with faces of "what in the world are ya'll doing." Soon, we are off to sleep to get ready for our first game tomorow morning at 10:15. NiGht :] Buenos noches

Arrival into Tucson

Hey everyone, this is Scooter. I hope this blog is finding it's way to all of you who are wondering how we are doing. Thanks to Josh for getting this all set up and looking nice!

It is 4:15 local time right now and all we have safely arrived in Tucson and all the girls are resting in their hotel rooms. We had an early morning but had a couple of adventures along the way (mostly in Las Vegas on our layover) that we will let the girls talk about in their nightly journal entry on here later this evening.

Lindsay and I checked our teams in and the facility is all set up. We saw teams from all over the nation as well as Chile, Puerto Rico, Canada and Peru. We met the coaches from Chile and in their broken English and our broken Spanish said hello and good luck.

The girls are really excited for our week here in the deep southwestern U.S. and have the goal of having our best "performance" level that we can. We have recieved our schedule for the tournament...you can see all the tournament info and schedule at: http://volleyball.teamusa.org/event/event/244

Youth Team - Wed 10:15 vs. Carolina and 3:45 vs. Puget Sound
Select Team - Wed 10:15 vs. Aloho and 3:45 vs. Northern California

Both teams will play on Thursday at 10:15am vs. Gulf Coast (Select) and Ohio Valley (Youth). They will both play another match on Thursday afternoon but that match time will not be decided until after the 10:15am match on Thursday. The format is that we will play a Pool of 4 over 1.5 days...top 2 move up to Gold, bottom 2 move to Silver and start another pool of 4 on Thursday evening. We will play 2 matches per day except for Sunday when we play just 1 match.

For those of you interested, you can also follow how our teams are doing in Brazil at www.imhpbrazil.blogspot.com

GO INTERMOUNTAIN

Monday, July 21, 2008

First Day Schedule

The schedule for the first day of play has been announced by USA Volleyball. You can find the schedule by clicking here. On the schedule we are the Intermountain Region Youth (Scooter's team, page 3) and Intermountain Region Select (Lindsay's team, page 4).

The Youth team will begin against the Carolina Region at 10:15 am. The Select team opens with the Aloha Region at 10:15 am.

Hello

This blog was created to keep everyone up-to-date with the Intermountain Region High Performance volleyball teams that are traveling to Tucson, Arizona. We will update this at least once a day and hopefully more.

Everyday we will have some of the kids make posts so the story of our trip will be told from their perspective. We will keep you informed of our results along with all of the fun things we are doing.

Please check back often and stay involved with all of our progress.