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FROM THE DIRECTOR'S DESK
It
seems like just yesterday that the season began,
but in fact, for all but four of our teams, the
culminating Regional tournaments signal the end
of the 2002 season. The season begins in October
for the staff of the Club, who organize upcoming
events, order equipment, and uniforms, and
prepare for the whirlwind that is the Regional
season.
It
has been an interesting season to date.
Scheduling has been more difficult than ever, as
fewer, and fewer Clubs run tournaments of their
own. Several years ago the Region went away from
requiring all Clubs to run at least one
tournament per age group that they have teams
in. It is more and more of a struggle to find
tournaments for our teams to compete. It is a
growing problem that our region is struggling to
deal with.
The
Cowlitz Club has run more tournaments than any
other Club in the Region, and have been rewarded
by having several Power League tournaments
relocated to our facilities. We are grateful to
the Longview School District, and administrators
Rod McHattie at Mark Morris, Jay Opgrande at
Cascade, Debbie Morgan at Olympic, Ty Morris at
R.A. Long and Scott Moultine at Robert Gray, who
have provided us practice and tournament sites.
It has also been a huge lift to be able to use
the LCC gym again.
We
have been blessed with a very patient,
hard-working, and committed group of volunteer
coaches, who have turned individuals from
several different school programs into
functioning cohesive teams, in a short amount of
time. We are an interesting group of experience
and youth on the coaching staff this year, and
appreciate the patience of parents as coaches
and athletes learn the ropes of competing in our
highly competitive region. It was not that long
ago that a majority of our coaches were new. We
now have a majority of our staff that are now
women with eight of them former Cowlitz players.
TRAVEL
TALK IIIIII
We
have had to travel more in the past two seasons
than at any other time in Club history. Phoenix,
Colorado, Hawaii, California and Bend have shown
up on our travel itinerary's for reasons of
national exposure, and necessity, as the Regions
extends itself to find available facilities.
The
EMERALD CITY CLASSIC
Four
teams will be competing in the Emerald City
Classic in the Seattle/Bellevue area on the
weekend of May for the 14's, and May 25-27 for
the 16's and 18's as we have for years. It has
been upgraded to a three day tournament. It will
now be played in the new indoor practice
facility at the UW as well as Hec Edmudson
Pavillion.
Cowlitz
has been a charter member of the Emerald City
tournament since its inception some eight years
ago, and will continue its commitment to the
tournament. It is run by the Washington
Volleyball Academy (formerly Seattle Juniors).
See their website link through our web page.
The
"PUSH TO DAVIS"
You
will note that we will take two weeks off in May
before getting back in the gym to give kids a
chance to finish up their schooling, wrap up
athletic competitions for their school teams,
and get a break from the gym. We will push for
final preparation for Davis in June, host our
own pre-festival tournaments, and finish the
2002 season in Davis during late June.
The
Davis tournament is now in its 19th season. We
will be taking four teams to this year's
activities (18 Asics, 16 Black, 14 Black and for
the first time ever 12's Black). All teams will
be staying in air conditioned comfort, (12, 16
& 18's at U C Sacramento, and the 14's at U
C Davis), and enjoying the guaranteed sunshine
of Northern California. We have been treated
very well by Festival tournament organizers to
ensure our continued participation. Most of the
playing sites are now air conditioned, and at
the request of coaches the opening ceremonies
are now an afternoon affair. This is a
"must see" tournament with some 10,000
athletes participating.
SCHOLARSHIP
SIGNINGS
Tara
Andrews ~ After much consideration Tara has
signed with Clackamas Community College where
she will join last year's Club teammate Abby
Pond. Tara is a gifted athlete who moved from
her career position as setter to libero this
past Winter to help solidify our defense. Tara
will return to her setter position next Fall.
Jessica
Buck ~ Jessica came to our Club from the Camas
Ohana Club team and Camas High School where she
teamed with Lisa Langmade to make one of the top
hitter/setter duo's in the state 3A ranks.
Jessica has committed to Northwest College in
Kirkland where she will set to none other than
Lisa Langmade. That deadly duo staying together
is certainly not good news for opponents to be
sure.
Lisa
Langmade ~ Lisa will join friend and high school
teammate Jessica Buck at Northwest College in
Kirkland where I predict a record breaking
career. Lisa is a very dynamic middle blocker
who like Jessica is a product of the Camas High
School volleyball program. Lisa can bring the
heat as well as anyone to ever play for a
Cowlitz team.
Kate
Sorenson ~ Kate will be taking her show on the
road to Massachusetts where she will continue
her education and volleyball career at Smith
College at North Ampton, Massachusetts. Kate
sorted through several offers on the East Coast.
She is sporting a 3.96 accumulative high school
GPA and takes with her her amazing defensive
instincts and athletic ability.
Congratulations
to all seven of our athletes who have committed
so far. They all have achieved in the classroom
as well as on the court and have represented
their family, school and community with real
class. Our former student-athletes have made
major contributions to their collegiate teams,
and I predict the same from this stellar group.
A fantastic collection of student athletes who
have truly made a difference in their high
school careers.
*Turning
in Gear*
All
athletes are required to turn in all gear at the
completion of their final competition for the
Club for the year. This includes bags, all
uniforms (except shirt won at competitions),
warm-ups, etc. Athletes are reminded to bring a
change of clothes on the last day of
competition. The coaches will accept the
"dirty gear", and get it washed. The
alternatives always result in someone losing
something, and having to pay incredible
replacement costs, for a single item, properly
marked. One athlete lost a bag with warm-ups in
it last year - replacements costs were almost
$500.00. Please turn in at the final competition
site.
WEBSITES
Our
web page under the direction of Rick Woodruff
has been a fantastic addition to our Club. It is
a great communication tool between our Club, and
interested patrons. Rick continues to update
daily, and for those that are interested in
following teams during the Festival, and maybe
even the Emerald City classic, there will be
daily updates. Other web pages are available
through our site, and information on camps are
now entered.
TEAM
REPORTS
Your
coaches have been very good at writing their own
reports on games through our newsletter and more
recently through our team web pages. Their
write-ups are far more timely, accurate and
complete than the feeble hit and miss
"efforts" of The Daily News. It has
been decided that continuing to write articles
for the monthly newsletter has become redundant,
therefore please refer to your team's web page
for up-to-the-minute information.
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