The Valders Volleyball team is short on seniors with only two returning varsity players this season, but it won’t affect them as much as you may think.
While speaking with Valder’s head Volleyball coach Pamela Erickson, she explained, “I have one senior and four juniors. It’s been great. They all get along. They push each other. They’re okay taking feedback from their teammates so it’s been really good.”
With many of their players being so young, many would expect the team to not compete well, but for having an almost entirely new varsity team, it seems Valders is confident in their abilities, and is sure to improve once they get further into the season.
“They exceeded my expectations, going into the first match not knowing what to expect being so young,” Coach Erickson noted. “I mean our blocking was awesome. Yeah, we always have things we got to work on, but overall, I was very happy with where we started out for the season.”
Erickson has been coaching for a long time, but she still seeks out inspiration to improve her coaching style as well as helping the team get a better understanding of themselves.
“I do a lot of reading in the summertime. My latest read has been Twin Thieves by Steve Jones and I take a lot of stuff from him, he was successful at Kimberly,” she revealed. “Trying to make the girls believe that this is their team, and that I am only there to help and serve them versus be coming in and saying this is what we’re going to do.”
The Vikings sit at 6-4 and are on a four-match win streak following their latest win against Kohler last Friday.
Their next match will be on September 5th at Roncalli.
