Desiree DeCoste
Beaver Staff
After a break through COVID, the Greater Napanee Youth Volleyball League is back running this year starting in late February.
Registration for the league, which is open to students in Grade 4-8, will be Feb. 16 at NDSS from 6-8 p.m. with the league getting underway Feb. 23 and running on Thursday nights.
“It’s kind of a multi-purpose league,” said Todd Collard, teacher at NDSS and helping run the league. “We use high school students as coaches so they’re getting community service hours and coaching experience. It gives them leadership opportunities, they have the opportunity to do problem solving in kind of controlled scenarios, it also lets them see another side of sport so not just the athletic side but also the coaching perspective. It also helps develop the volleyball skills in the community and we hope it helps feed into the high school teams going forward.”
For the Grade 7-8 kids they will be playing volleyball and for the younger kids from Grades 4-6 will be playing smash ball.
“Smash ball is an introductory activity that builds volleyball skills and strategies in age appropriate ways,” Collard told The Beaver. “Spiking the ball is potentially the most fun thing to do in volleyball, the other name for spiking in smashing, so the net is very low and it gives all participants an opportunity to spike the ball as hard as they want and so it builds those skills first. And because it’s part of the Volleyball Canada Long Term Athlete Development Model, it has progressions. Smash ball has five levels, level one is meant for the very young and then as their motor skills and volleyball skills improve then they progress through levels two, three, four and five. Five looks very much like a volleyball game but it’s played with either three or four players on a badminton sized court with a badminton sized net so there’s a lot of spiking in a game. The other thing about smash ball is, if you think about a Grade 4 student who would be nine years old, they can’t really spike in any traditional volleyball setting and so this lets them do things they see the older kids do so it’s good for the hook to get them into the sport.”
Cost for registration is $50. All league members will receive a league t-shirt.
For more information please contact Mr. T. Collard at collardt@limestone.on.ca or Ms. J. Ardern at ardernj@limestone.on.ca