Alabama volleyball camp imparts lasting athletic skills, builds fanbase

By enrolling their young athletes in day camps, parents may be able to instill a lifelong love of volleyball in their children.

For many young people, youth athletic camps are a way they can not only improve their general health and athletic prowess, but build interest in sports they may not have been exposed to beforehand. As such, certain sports may benefit greatly from increased youth involvement.

The benefits of youth camps were recently showcased in an article published by the Press-Register, a local Alabama news source. In his piece, writer Robert Ladnier visited Spanish Fort high school to profile the kind of mentoring that takes place at the Spanish Fort Gives Back Volleyball Camp.

While at the camp, Ladnier spoke to Molly McVay, an 11-year-old volleyball player. McVay says she enjoys the camp because she gets hands-on mentoring from coaches and experts, and can improve her fundamentals with varsity and junior varsity players from the local high school.

So far at the camp, McVay says she has improved her ability to set, serve and spike with the help of her new mentors. Still, for the area coaches, experiences like McVay's are crucial to increasing interest in their sports.

Spanish Fort high school's volleyball coach, Barclay Kercher, said that her sport can benefit greatly from the camp, as volleyball isn't typically taught to students until late middle school.

"We are trying to increase our fan base," Kercher told the report. "We feel like if we contact our youth we can get more people to come in and watch the high school games, which in turn would create a love for the game."

And while dedicated players like McVay may be hard to find, with the help of volleyball nets and other training aids, the parents of athletes can easily obtain all the supplies they need for their son or daughter to practice at home.

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