The Thursday January 22 Practice for the u14 team that was listed as TBD on the schedule has been canceled.

Instead we will meet at Coach’s house for dinner and watching some volleyball.  I have the 2008 CIF SS Division 1 high school finals to watch.  This is a great match between Mira Costa High School and Santa Margaretta High School that you do not want to miss.

Dinner will be provided.  I hope you like BBQed hotdogs, hamburgers, smoked sausages and potato salad. (no, we’re not BBQing the potato salad.)  Plus some treats or dessert.

Meet at Coach’s house at 5:45 on Thursday.  Plan on staying until around 8:15.  The volleyball match takes a little over two hours.

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.

My 14s team traveled to the American Sports Center on Sunday Jan 11 for this season’s first SCVA tournament.

We were originally slated to play at Rolling Hills Prep and we were ranked as the second highest seeded team in the Copper group.  This meant that we would have been playing against teams that would have been preseason ranked lower than us.  Then they moved us up a couple spots in the rankings and suddenly we were ranked as the third lowest team in the Bronze group and will be playing against teams that are all ranked a head of us.

Our first match of the day was against another 14s team from the Elite Volleyball Club. This team seemed to have a lot of younger players on it. In fact they looked a lot like the mix of players that I had on my 14s team last year. They turned out to be a good starter game for us. Fortunately my team was not awed by the American Sports Center with the 22 volleyball games that were going on simultaneously. They got a little confused with the rotations and substitutions. But worked through it and won the match 25-15 and 25-16.

Our second match was against the number one seeded team in our pool, a team from the California Heat Volleyball Club. We played them close in the first game but pulled away in the end and won 25-21. However in the second game the team seemed to relax a bit too much and they got a little complacent. We lost that game 20-25. The third game of the match was more of the same. We were down 3-8 at the side change and eventually lost the game and the match 8-15.

Our tird and final match of the day was against a 13s team from the TCA volleyball club. This was definately a younger smaller team and Alyssa and Ashley physically overwhelmed them with their serves and spiking. We won that match 25-5 and 25-15. Near the end of the second game our team started relaxing again and gave up several garbage points - something we will be working on in practice the next few weeks.

After taking our turn scorekeeping we loaded up and headed for home. Several of the players and their parents all stopped at the Brea Mall, for dinner at the food court. It was nice to see the girls all sitting together eating. It also gave me a chance to visit with some of the parents - something we we don’t get to do very often.

Highlights for the day were long service runs by Alyssa, Ashley, Emma and Samantha. We got good defensive and offensive performances from everyone on the team. Allie who is still settling into the libero position made several great defensive stops and chased down several mishit balls that I didn’t think she was going to get to.

As a team we turned in an 84.6 serving percentage with a 40.1 ace percentage. Top serving percentages of the day were Alyssa - 94.55, Samantha - 91.7% and Ashley - 90.5%. Every player on the team who got more than one attempt to serve turned in more than 10 serves, and they all recorded more aces than errors.

Team hitting was only a 13.1 percent. Our biggest problem hitting was that we didn’t do it enough, only recording 61 attacks in 7 games. This is something else we will be working on in practice. Top attackers for the day were: Alyssa - 40%, Rebecca - 33% and Candace - 28.6%.

On Sunday we took our 13s and our 14s teams to the High Desert Starlings U14s Tournament in Apple Valley.

Our 13s team was probably the youngest team in the tournament. Six of the nine players on that team are young enough to play on a U12 team and the other three are just barely too old to play 12s. There were four teams in the 14s tournament - our two teams a team from Tehachapi and the host High Desert team.

Our 13s started out the day against the Tehachapi Team. They won the first game close but then lost the next two. Their second game was against our 14s team. This was the game that our 13s had been looking forward to all week. Our 14s were not taking this match very seriously and the 13s were pumped up and ready to pull off an upset. Which they almost did, but their upset hopes faded in the face of two close losses - 23-25 and 22-25. Regardless of the scores, both teams enjoyed playing against each other.

Our 13s third match was against the host team from High Desert and the won the first game 25-22 and then cruised to a 25-13 victory in the second. This win was enough to earn them a 3rd place finish. But more importantly it showed them that they could play and compete with 14 year old teams. It also showed ever one at the tournament that they were a great team to watch as they really enjoyed themselves on the court.

Our 14s team started the day with a close 2 game match win over the host High Desert Starlings team 25-23, 25-22. In this match our 14s team struggled with their rotations and getting their offense on track. This confusion continued into our second match with our sister 13s. Our 14s managed to win this match by the scores.

The 14s last match of pool play was against the 2-0 Tehachapi team. Our team managed to get their rotations straightened out and they played a lot better in the first game winning 25-22. But they stuggled through the second game to a 19-25 loss. This loss was the first of this young teams playing career and they didn’t like it. This drove them to a third and final game victory 15-9.

This gave our 14s a 3-0 lead and first place in the tournament. However the tournament officials had decided before hand to have the first two teams in the pool play each other again in a championship match. So we took to the court again for a best of three playoff match.

Our team struggled again through the first game losing it 18-25. They were down in the second game when Ashley stepped up to the serving line and started pounding service aces at our opponents. After turning our four point deficet into a five point lead Ashley decided to throw in a few jump serves. After three more aces she suddenly grabbed her side and doubled over in pain. Since the team was on a roll and feeling good I didn’t want to call a time out. So I subbed her out for our libero, and yelled to the players to swtich our offense to a 4-2 since Ashley had been the active setter in our lineup. The team handled the change well and after a few minutes on the bench Ashley was feeling much better and able to return to the game. which we won.

In the third and last game of the tournament our team let Tehachapi run up an early lead then they slowly started taking back points. Fueled by Alyssa’s mini serving streak and Ashley’s hitting and some great digs by our libero Allie our 14s closed to game to 13-14 when our opponents bumped up and overpass and our outside hitter trying to put the ball away got a little over powerful and caught the net with her wrist ending the game and match in Tehachapi’s favor.

All in all is was a great day. Our 13s discovered that they could play with the older 14s. Our 14s found a few things they have to work on. But they had some wonderful discoveries also. The best of which is a few defensive players. Samantha made some great plays on defense. But the best of the day was Allie who was playing libero for the first time. She covered the court well on offense and defense. She was strong, fast and made several great passes. However her substantial accomplishments were overshadowed by Ashley’s hitting and serving and she was awarded the tournament MVP honors for the tournament.

Our 16s team played in their first tournament of the year on Saturday.  We entered all three teams in a Starlings only tournament being hosted by the High Desert Starlings of Victorville.

We left town around 10 AM which was a pleasant departure from our normal 4:30 AM starts. Arriving at the tournament site around noon we were ready for the 16s tournament to start right after the 18s tournament finished. Unfortuately the 18s tournament didn’t finish until almost 3 PM. So we got off to a late start.

Eventually we got on the court and got around to playing some volleyball. The first match of the day was against a team from Tehachapi. Our 16s players had some normal early season jitters but they rolled to an easy first game win 25-20. Unfortunately the Tehachapi team came roaring back to win the second game 16-25. The third game was a close one with Tehachapi finally winning 13-15.

The second match of the day was against the host team High Desert 1. Our team was a little flat following their first game loss and High Desert rolled to an easy 7-25 win. The second game looked to be more of the same with the High Desert team seemingly scoring at will. However when the got a 13-24 lead, Sarah our middle blocker rotated back to serve. Since the endline of the court we were playing on was so close to the back wall the players were allowed to step over the endline to serve. Sarah however wanted to take a couple steps leading into her serves. So she started her serves about 5 feet deep into the hallway that lead to the men’s bathroom. Sarah discovered that exploding out of this hallway with her serve was working very well. So well in fact that she served 10 service aces, and her team won 3 rally points off her serves to cap off a fantastic comeback with a win 26-24. Unfortunately the third game was a repeat of the first with the High Desert team winning 6-15.

Finally our 16s seemed to get their tournament legs under them and they started playing in the third match. Playing against a team from the City of Los Angeles the cruised to two straight wins 25-6 and 25-10.

Saturday was a good warm-up for our 16s team. We could have hoped for a better finish than a tie for third. But the players learned a lot and now have a list of things to work on before our first SCVA tournament in three weeks.

12th ANNUAL STARLINGS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

San Diego - June 18-21, 2009

The 2009 event will celebrate its 12th year. Despite challenges of a troubled economy, preliminary response has been impressive. Continued emphasis on participation in the Opening Ceremony, Sister Cities exchange and annual Literary/Art Contest is expected to take the unique level of fun and friendship to an even higher level in 2009.

The 12-court facility at Alliant University and 6-court facility at Balboa Park Activity Center will host the tournament. If additional courts are needed, venues will be announced.

We will have four age divisions: 12s, 14s, 16s, and 18s.

REGISTRATION

Teams must register by May 15, 2009 with a $250 entry fee per team (non-refundable) and $300 for San Diego teams. The deadline will be enforced since allowing teams after the deadline causes serious bracket problems.

LODGING

Lodging is currently being arranged with exceptional rates at hotels in the Poway and Mission Valley area with a maximum distance of 15 miles to playing sites. Information to follow.

TRANSPORTATION

Starlings has a corporate account with Budget that is available to all clubs.

OPENING CEREMONY

There will be an opening ceremony on Wednesday night at 7:00 PM (venue to be announced). .

PLAYING SCHEDULE

Pool play will be held Thursday, Friday (8:30 AM to 9:00 PM) with playoff pools on Saturday and Sunday mornings (8:30 AM to 3:00 PM).

FINALS

Finals of the 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s Divisions will be held on Sunday (1:00 PM to 8:00 PM) at a venue to be announced. All participants are expected to attend the finals.

LITERARY/ART CONTEST

The contest will continue with cash and other prizes. Please encourage girls to participate. Winners will be announced at the Finals on Sunday afternoon.