Boston Herald Volleyball All-Scholastics

The Boston Herald reports its volleyball all-scholastics today. Props to Brooke and Sarah for their inclusion.

Banquet Photos

Courtesy of Don Norris

I'm a bit partial to the ones of the 'futures'.

Final Rankings

I don't have to agree with the Globe final rankings.

You decide for yourself. We saw Marlboro, Central, Longmeadow, L-S, Reading, Newton North, Lynnfield, North Reading, and Westborough. Westborough deserved better, probably in the top 10. Just saying.

Globe Fall All-Scholastics

Fall Boston Globe All-Scholastics are out.

Banquet Video

Great work from Jeff Mate'.  I'm still struggling with the 'dog thing'.

Full House

Montvale Plaza hosted the volleyball banquet this year.

Photo by Don Norris

Captains

Incoming and outgoing captains, left to right

Amanda Commito, Sarah McGowan, Brooke Bell, Alyssa DiRaffaele, and Jill Slabacheski

Photo courtesy of Don Norris

Who Let the Dogs Out...and More

Melrose held its annual volleyball banquet, a celebration of the present, but also of the past and the future.

The players received their letters and certificates as well as a variety of special awards. Some awards and selections come from the coaching staff, and others (e.g. MVP) come from team voting.

Coaches Scott Celli, Steve Wall, and Andrea Basteri presented and also shared a little information about what each girl contributed. I apologize in advance for any errors.

Varsity Awards:

MVP: Sarah McGowan
Coaches' Award: Brooke Bell
Unsung Hero: Rachel Johnson
Top Defender: Alyssa DiRaffaele
Top Serve Percentage: Brooke Bell
Most Improved: Jen Cain

MGVCA Division 2 All-State: Brooke Bell, Sarah McGowan
Boston Globe All-Scholastic: Brooke Bell
Boston Herald All-Scholastic: Brooke Bell, Sarah McGowan
Middlesex League All-Star: Alyssa DiRaffaele, Brooke Bell, Sarah McGowan, Jen Cain

Junior Varsity:

MVP: Shannon Tarpey
Most Improved: Kaitlin Carson

Brooke Bell rendered poetic tribute to the seniors.


I serious recommend NOT watching the whole video.

The team handed down a variety of traditions, including:

• The pre-game coordinate clap, to Kayla Wyland
• The post-game brownies, remain with Sydney Doherty
• "The Lollipops", to Jill "J-Mac" MacInnes
• The "Who Let the Dogs Out" cheer to Shannon Tarpey

Jeff Mate' produced a stunning tribute video (will probably appear on YouTube.com in the near future). 

Coach Scott Celli announced the open competition for all positions, AND named the new tri-captains based on team vote:

The 2012 captains include returnee Brooke Bell, Sarah McGowan, and Amanda Commito. 

Banquet Tonight

The end of the year breakup dinner happens tonight at the Montvale Plaza for the 2011 version of Melrose Volleyball.

General Program:

• Meet and greet
• Coaches introduction
• Buffet dinner
• Awarding of letters and certificates
• Special recognition awards to players
• Highlight video
• Naming of captains for 2012 season 

Special thanks to the 2011 senior class (Alyssa, Brittany, Jill, Maggie, Rachael), which had four consecutive 20 win seasons, three consecutive Division 2 North championships, and the most wins (88) of any four year period.  

The Big Game

Dan Krechmer's NCAA D1 observations.

More Honors for Lady Raiders

Melrose standouts Brooke Bell and Sarah McGowan both achieve All-Scholastic recognition by the Boston Herald. Congratulations on well-deserved honors.

Dreams

It's never going to look like this, but the offensive attack will continue to improve.

Making It Real

Kids are pretty sophisticated these days, far more than we were when I grew up. The communication revolution via the Internet and also the realities of political and economic divisiveness give young people a lot of information and a lot to think about.

What has this got to do with sports? Success doesn't occur in a vacuum. Achievement follows leadership, energy, integrity, and honesty. The chance to be part of something special draws people who want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

The success of the volleyball program is well-documented. If your players trust you and your message, AND that message is both genuine and durable, they will walk through fire for you. Does that guarantee indefinite and unlimited success? I don't know any recipe that does. But it does give you a great launching pad for achievement.

Conversely, if the message becomes stale, or inconsistent, or the process lacks quality, then the sustainability of the program falters and the ultimate outcome suffers.

Volleyball isn't life or death, but supporting the program and the young people involved offers ultimate benefit to the community through development of the next generation of leaders.

Advanced Serving Techniques from Portland Clinic

Specific drills, mechanics, and varied types of serves.

Just Dumb Enough

You've seen the videos; here's the introduction. "I'm just dumb enough to keep trying". A great coach acknowledges his ignorance and flexibility.

When you begin as a player or evolve as a coach, you develop a philosophy and refine or change it according to your growth, success, or setbacks.

Six Skills, Blocking

By way of review, my concept of volleyball skills as a NON-EXPERT is:

• Exchanges (serving and initial passing)
• Offense (setting and attacking)
• Defense (digging and blocking)

Today's video from the Art of Coaching Volleyball series (some of the elite college volleyball coaches) reviews blocking. One coach says that the least taught skills are serving and blocking. To me, Melrose's best skill through the years has been blocking. 

I watch every video to see if it seems easily understandable (setting a low bar for myself). 

Art of Coaching Series, Setting

More from the Art of Coaching series...learning about volleyball...really phenomenal the quantitative study of performance.











From a learning perspective...terrific.

Happy Thanksgiving

A site for the Melrose volleyball community. The site has no affiliation with Melrose High School, the City of Melrose, or the Melrose School Department.

The Art of Volleyball Coaching series has a lot of great information. Here's a drill from their site; obviously, absent a 'permanent' volleyball facility, developing off-season skills gets tougher.

Six Skills, Clinic, Defense

The more I watch volleyball, the more the appreciation. The Art of Volleyball Coaching series has some intriguing video vignettes.

Here are a couple of "technical" videos where leading coaches give their thoughts on footwork, handwork, and coordination of movement in digging.




The coaches emphasize both similarities and differences, and the series is designed to promote variation in coaching philosophy.

Division 2 All-State Team

The MGVCA published their Division 2 All-state team.

Local volleyball fans have seen many of these players over the past couple of years, including Brooke Bell and Sarah McGowan, Charette and Perron-Sovik of Fairhaven, Fearing and Scott of Marlborough, Murphy of Canton, Houff of Longmeadow, and Melvin and Olson of Westborough.

Faces in the Crowd

Don Norris sends over some photographs of the atmosphere at the volleyball state championship last weekend. Captions are intentionally limited.

Future Lady Raiders.
_____________________________________

Former Lady Raider Athena Ziavras, goddess of volleyball?

Who's Crying Now?

Few local athletes ever get to compete in state sectional championships. Fewer have won them. Even fewer have won three consecutive sectional titles. And only a select few have had the chance to compete for a state championship in the past decade.

Photograph from the Melrose Free Press.

The players can wear defeat as a thorny crown or a badge of honor. But if I were an underclassman, I'd have the photograph framed and on my desk, where I'd look at it each day, reminding myself that I'm not going back for a ribbon with a silver medal on it next year. Congratulations on a great season!

Six Skills, Continued

I am NOT an expert on volleyball...in fact, outside of Melrose volleyball history over a decade, I'm still trying to understand the game.

But from an organizational standpoint, volleyball has three somewhat distinct phases:

Serving and receiving (exchanges)
Offense: setting and attacking (spiking, hitting)
Defense: blocking and digging

Naturally, as a team, you want to be as strong as possible in every area. The Internet may not always have much context, but it has absolutely phenomenal content.

With the long offseason, perhaps we can go on a meandering volleyball journey into the "six skills".

For the incurably scientific, the physics of volleyball serving and quantitative time impact discussed. Everybody hates a know-it-all, so please don't ask me to explain the physics. The simple answer is that a higher take-off (jump serve), flatter arc, and topspin all impact the 'hang time'.

For the Girls

Congratulations on a wonderful season and a ticket to the Big Dance.

Congratulations to the departing seniors who gave so much to the program.

Congratulations to the coaches who worked tirelessly to achieve success.

You never know from where your next great players will emerge. (Don Norris photos from summer volleyball instructional camp)

Hardware

Photographs courtesy Don Norris

Self-Scouting and the Reality of Perception

Melrose has enjoyed tremendous volleyball success during the past decade with a legion of accomplishments. It is entirely fair to say that along with Central Catholic and Andover, Melrose has been one of the top three teams in the region. Within the athletic community, the volleyball program could legitimately claim to be the number one local 'brand'.

Here's the Tale of the Tape

• 10 consecutive playoff appearances
• 9 consecutive D2 North finals
• 7 All-State Players
• 6 D2 North Championships
• 3 Consecutive D2 North Championships
• 2 State Championship appearances
• 1 MIAA Sportsmanship Award
• 1 Division 2 Coach of the Year Award

All that being said, what is the perception of how Melrose plays amidst the six critical skills of volleyball: serve, dig, pass, set, attack, and block?.

Ultimately, you have to play to your personnel and the extent of offense you can generate...and a team like Marlboro had three superior hitters in Fearing, Silverman, and Scott, particularly with the versatile Fearing bringing a quality back row attack as well. 

Coach Celli has made a commitment to tough non-league games (possibly to include Bishop Fenwick, Central Catholic, Lincoln-Sudbury, and at Westborough next year) to make the team tournament ready. 

Melrose's coaching staff will work with the players to the extent permissible to improve the offense especially via self-scouting. Self-scouting allows teams to determine their tendencies (strong versus middle or weak attacks), role for back row hitting and the quick set, and so forth. Melrose returns eight players with extensive varsity playing experience and should be a favorite next year.

But as for the State Championship game, a terrific and deserving team, with great coaching, executing at critical times, clearly deserved to win. 

States Pics Group 2

From Don Norris. Click photos to enlarge.

Make no mistake about it, losing brings disappointment. But there's a huge difference between disappointment and discouragement.
_______________________________________________