Team leadership overflows at Weatherly

The minute the Weatherly girls' volleyball team walked off the court last October against Nativity it knew darn well it just witnessed missing out on making school history.

It only took a few seconds to forget about those visions of watching their district playoff hopes diminish thanks to finishing with a 9-11 overall record.

It was much better than experiencing what they have had done in years before - averaging three or four wins each season.

"It just totally boosted our enthusiasm stealing a game from the number one team in the Schuylkill League," Weatherly head coach Nicole Selert said. "With that, we gained a lot of respect from Nativity for beating them once in a match."

The Wreckers knew they had close to a year to get another chance at the record-breaking moment so they weren't about to walk away from the sport completely.

So, they weren't going to pass on the option of "conditioning" towards a second chance at writing a potential record-breaking page.

Despite some issues in December and January because other extra-curricular activities were going on at that time, Selert said there was no way in stopping these Wreckers from getting into the gym whenever they had a chance to do so.

They were on a mission to remain in true volleyball form. In fact, they even put the sport ahead of anything else once the summer had rolled around.

"They actually didn't go any family vacations," Selert said. "They actually wanted to be with me and do the conditioning every day, which is something that totally blew my mind."

Rather than heading to the beach, the Wreckers jumped rope, worked out on trampolines, and used agility ladders with the sole purpose of strengthening their legs, which was important to do so with a front-line that has been lacking some height.

It didn't stop there.

Selert even added what she called a "beautiful weight room" that the school had just put in the girls are excited to get in there to continue their workouts off the floor.

"We're hoping to get over there next week so we can start working out on the treadmills and ellipticals and doing cardio to get a little bit stronger," Selert said.

During the off-season however, the Wreckers didn't focus solely on "conditioning" they also were concerned with the well-being of the program as well.

Alyssa Kephart and Rachel Heiser also decided to put their senior projects to good use. They wanted to start building a stronger foundation for the future. They ran a three-week volleyball camp for seventh and eighth graders during the summer.

Regardless of losing out on the gym due to some minor renovations, the camp was forced to move to a nearby park. However, Selertstill believes the project was a complete success.

"It was actually a good thing," Selert said. "We now have nine freshmen starting this year on junior varsity team. Coach (Susquehanna University coach John "Kuuipo") Tom was surprised how well these freshmen knew how to play volleyball because of the two seniors, who did this for our program.

"Next year, I'm hoping to do the same thing - continue on with the camp. Maybe, even start a youth volleyball league for the girls."

The conditioning and the summer camp became a glimpse of the past two weeks ago though as pre-season practices began, which allowed the Wreckers to immediately prime themselves for attaining their goal real soon.

Selert is blessed to see her entire lineup - Heiser, Kephart, Brittany Hinkle, Jess Adamcyzk, Sarah Dolinsky and Samantha Strizak - and liberio Alicia Panzarella, who will sub in a lot with Adamcyzk, back without losing anyone to graduation. It definitely helps matters, but the Wreckers' second-year coach stated her players are set to handle the brunt of the storm during the 2010 season, especially with the likes of the Schuylkill League front once again.

"They know what it takes," Selert said. "They have worked hard every day since last season. But, a lot of it is communication, that's something that is very important to us. They're doing a lot of yelling and a lot of talking on the floor."

Selert pointed out the fact that the Wreckers are already one step ahead of the schedule compared to last season.

"Last year, we started off on a rough path," said Selert, who never even played varsity volleyball herself. Selert served as a scorekeeper for seven years prior to taking on the position. "I didn't have enough experience as a first year coach because I was kind of thrown into the position at the last second. It was like, boom, you're the coach.

"I didn't know what I was doing until I got the team together and we finally figured out where everybody played good enough and the spots that we needed to be at. We had problems during the season covering the floor. But, I don't think we're going to have an issue with that this year as we really stepped up our game. We have extremely intense practices to prepare ourselves for the competition. What we're trying to here is build a championship on team leadership - and we got a lot of team leadership going on here."