Congratulations to all our Starlings Players, for making their school teams:

St. Ann Middle School - Katie
Monroe Middle School - Macey
Murray Middle School - Aryn, Laurie, Elise
Burroughs High School - Brittany, Cielo, Rebecca, Michelle, Abbie, Kristel, Metzli, Brittney, Victoria, Ashley, Michaela, Alllie, Savannah, Jessica, Lindsey
Cal City High School - Ellyse, Hannah
Trona High School - Liz

Chris (Geeter) McGee is a former college player, an announcer for the AVP, and he is a co-director and 18s coach for Sports Shack Volleyball Club.  He has coached his 18s to a 5th place finish in the 2009 National Championship in the 18s Open division and to the Gold Medal in the 18s Open Division in 2010 and 2011.  He is also a cohost to the podcast The Net Live.  A caller to the show asked Chris “What mental strategies do you preach to your girls during the season and do you revisit them as the season goes on?”

His answer was:

“A lot of coaching is the technical part and the game part.  For me, my style  - a lot of it is the mental strategies, a lot of it is about the journey and the process.  Too much now in club sports and when kids are young - people are always wanting the end result so early.  They want to see the gold medal, they want to see the championships and they don’t remember that there is a process that goes into it, it is a growing and learning process.

I think personally, this is why I believe in it, this is why I preach it to my teams.  The season and the team you are on, it is what you make of it, and if it was easy and all rosy and perfect, then everyone would do it and it wouldn’t be that fun and you wouldn’t learn that much.

I think in a season you are always going to have some adversity, you are gonna have injuries, you’re gonna have sickness, you’re gonna have some kids who aren’t playing who are unhappy, you are going to go through some bad spells where maybe you are not playing well, all that, I think makes you better.  And how you handle that situation, that is what defines you at the end of the season.

I always use two years ago as an example, that team that won the gold medal in 2010 we ended up using a lineup at JOs (Junior National

Championships) that we had never used before.  We just had a thought that we needed to do something.  We went with it, played really well, we stuck with it for the next 6 matches.  So we kind of do that during the season.  We’ll throw different things out.  We’ll see how they respond, its almost like Phil Jackson type style of coaching, when sometimes he won’t call time out, he’ll maybe even lose a game because he wants to them to try and figure it out.  So you wanna see how the kids react. Maybe I’ll bring a kid in to serve in a pressure situation because I want to know if she can do it later in the year as well.  So I think those kinds of mental aspects of coaching are vital for a team’s success.

So we definitely preach that and teach it and the big words we use are “the process and the journey of being a team” because if you think you are going to come out in December and January in the club season and be great and win championships its just not going to happen that way.

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I hope everyone remembers that being on a club volleyball team is an eight month journey.  What we learn, what we teach, and the relationships we build and how we handle obstacles along the way are what is important.

For each individual in this club - playing volleyball is an even longer journey and a much more complex and involved process.  For some girls their journey may only last a few years.  For others it may last a lifetime.  So enjoy the journey, embrace the process of growing, learning and playing.  In the immortal words of Seals and Crofts - “We may never pass this way again.”  So enjoy it while we are here now.

“Volleyball is the ultimate team sport, you only get one contact before you have to give the ball off to a team mate,”

“It’s not about six people and a ball, it’s about the team coming together, working together,”

“It’s the synergy of the group that eventually wins the match not just the all-stars you have lined up there,”

“Every player that plays in the USA gym is a phenomenal player,”

“There isn’t a player that puts on the USA jersey that doesn’t deserve it and can’t beat any team in the world when they have it on.”

Quotes from Cynthia Barboza - USA Volleyball Captain at the Pan-Am Games

Parents,

If you take pictures of your daughter and her team while they are playing at tournaments I would appreciate a copy of any pictures you take.  I would like to be able to include pictures of each team at each tournament.  But since I can’t travel to all the tournaments I need help.

If you are willing to give me a disc of your pictures I will use them to update the scrapbook page on the club website.

Thank you for your help and assistance.

Each season I seem to end up with hundreds if not thousands of pictures of our volleyball teams.  Each year I like to dig through all the different pictures and pick my favorites.  Here they are for the 2010 season.

Hands down, my favorite picture from this last season is this one.  This is our 14s Purple team, pretty much just being themselves.  Sure they are posing for a picture, but no one told them to bunch up and climb on each other the way they did.  They just did what any good team will do.  They were all just being themselves, and doing it together as a team. 

The rest of my favorites pretty much all tie for second place.  So they are in no particular order.  They are all pictures that I just liked the way it turned out.  I don’t know if it is the expression on the players face, the lighting, or both.  Like everything else in life - you either like it, or you don’t - these pictures I just liked.

Three of these players were founding members of our club.  The fourth when she joned a year later fit in so well is just seems like she had been here from the beginning.  This picture was taken mid-season when they were all still having fun and enjoying playing volleyball.  I liked this picture because it reminds me that there was a time when they were having fun being together on a club volleyball team.

 I looked through a lot of pictures trying to find one where Bridget is not smiling.  I don’t have very many. 

Rebecca has a beautiful smile that she often trys to hide.  Personally I think she is afraid that if she lets on how much she enjoys playing volleyball we will make her stop.  Don’t tell her, but no matter how she tries to hide that smile - her eyes give her away, everytime.

Ashley Flying!

Something is wrong with our volleyballs…

On the volleyball court, Candace is as intense as they come.  Off the court, she spends most of her time with either an outragous laugh or a covergirl smile on her face.   I loved this picture because it seemed to catch her somewhere in between the three.

I was very delinquent at making sure that last season’s players turned
in their jerseys.  Several jerseys were turned in at the end of last
season.  But many were not.  If you still have your jerseys please
bring them to the kick off meeting with you.  If you do not intend to
play Starlings Volleyball this season, but still have your jerseys
please give them to one of your teammates to bring to the kick off
meeting for you.  The gym bag, sweat pants, sweat shirts, and any tee
shirts given you during the season are yours to keep.  But the jerseys
belong to the club and need to be turned back in.  Thank You.

Tonight was the big middle school basketball game between Murray Middle School and Monroe Middle School. I don’t normally go to these games. But I had two players involved in tonight’s game so to support them, I went to the game.

As basketball games go it was actually pretty entertaining. Unfortunately half of the girls I was cheering for lost. But the other half won. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a lot of good pictures. The lighting was dim in the CCCC gym. That and there was a pretty much constant flow of people walking past in front of my camera.

Candace and Joanna - Teammates with Different Uniforms.

Candace Running the Show

Going Strong to the Hoop

Conferring with Alyssa at half time

Joanna’s Championship Moment

All of our Starlings Coaches do not allow our athletes to have out or use their cell phones during practice.  So far we have not had any troubles with cell phone usage at Starlings Events.  But I have heard several parents talking about how their daughter’s cell phone usage seems to be getting out of control.  Especially concerning text messaging.  I have hear parents complain about 2000 to 3000 text messages a month.  So I wanted to let you know that things are not all that bad.  How about an Orange County teen who racked up over 14,000 text messages in a single month.

From the KTLA.com

LAKE FOREST — OMG! An Orange County teenager has taken texting to a whole new level, sending over 14,000 text messages in one month.

The teen’s dad, Greg Hardesty, a reporter with the Orange County Register, said he was “speechless” after he received the 440 page bill.

Hardesty says his daughter, 13-year-old Reina, sent the messages between November 27th and December 26th.

Luckily, Hardesty has unlimited texting on his AT&T plan. Without the special feature, his daughter’s bill would be a whopping $2,905.60.

Reina admits 14,528 text messages could be described as “excessive” but she says they weren’t all hers.

“I get a lot of annoying forwards and multimedia messages that I just delete.” Incoming messages and outgoing messages both count toward the total.

Hardesty’s two other daughters, 22-year-old Hana, and 24-year-old Marina, had texting marathons of their own.

Hana sent out 7,100 texts during the same time and Marina sent a modest 700, by comparison.

“Texting has become more and more popular, growing at a spectacular rate.

Text messaging is now hard-wired into our culture. It’s in our DNA, particularly among young people,” according to AT&T spokesperson Katie Keating.

According to a 2008 Nielsen study, teenagers between the ages of 13 to 17 “text more than any other demographic group” clocking up an average of 1,742 texts a month.

The study of 50,000 cell phone users showed that on-average, “each user sends 357 texts a month versus 204 voice calls a month.”

To be fair, Reina’s dad says he also loves text messaging, admitting to sending about 900 texts a month — that’s 700 more than the average for people his age.

Reina, by the way, has been banned from texting after dinner.

While I don’t understand the texting craze myself, apparently our kids aren’t that unusual, if about 1700 texts a month is average. I know my daughter is definitely dragging down the average. But I’m not complaining mind you.

By the Way - I do not have a texting plan on my phone, so don’t send me any text messages.  I would rather just talk to you.  Or, there is always - email.