The Malibu High girls’ volleyball team held practices from 12 to 2:30 p.m throughout its summer camp, primarily to prepare for the Queen’s Court Tournament in Anaheim this past weekend, on Aug. 11.
The summer volleyball camp helped to combat this change and bring the girls closer together as a team entering the 2018 season.
“Summer camp was huge for the girls and coaches to meet each other and get quality reps in before season,” Coach Derek Saenz explained. “For the girls who only played in the fall, they’ve had a chance to recapture some skills and expand on them way ahead of where they were a year ago.”
Through it all though, Saenz and the rest of his staff preach the fun side of sports, as well as the life lessons that being a part of a team can bring and teach you.
“Connecting with your teammates is what sports is all about,” Saenz stated emphatically. “At the end of the day, if [the girls] didn’t learn how to work with others, fully commit to something, believe in themselves and challenge themselves, then they still missed out on what being in sports is really all about.”
The Malibu High School women’s volleyball team is entering the 2018 season 11 years removed from their magical 2007 season where they were able to win the Frontier League. However, with the upstart and fresh culture that Saenz is beginning to implement into the squad, the hopes of another league title are not so out of reach.
The team will play its first match of the season on Tuesday, Aug. 21 at Chaminade. Later, the volleyball squad will be hosting a “Red, White and Bu” scrimmage on Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 7 p.m.