Junior high girls from around the area have come to Eastern this week to learn volleyball techniques and skills that they would otherwise be unable to learn at home.

“We are trying to get kids from the community involved in volleyball,” camp counselor and assistant volleyball coach Cheryl Astrauskas said. “This isn’t a historically big volleyball area, so we’re trying to get kids more interested in the sport.”

The camp started again this year after not running last year because of the Eastern volleyball coaching change.

This year the coaches are hoping to make up for the year off by giving the campers as much coaching and information on volleyball as possible. By the end of camp Astrauskas hopes that each girl will leave with a greater love for volleyball.

“I came to get better at passing and learn from the councilors, and the most important thing I’ve learned is to keep the ball in my mid-line,” camper Taylor Rhodes said.

The girls would go through several drills and afterwards the counselors would pull them aside and tell them what they could do to make it better the next time they tried. Coaching can be had at all levels of volleyball, but at Eastern the girls received a much more in depth coaching than they had ever received at school.

“The coaches here explain things more than at school,” camper Kayce Patton said. “I’ve learned a lot here, everything the coaches tell me is something important for me to learn.”

Many of the techniques the girls had already learned through school, they have improved upon since coming to Eastern’s volleyball camp.

“I’m not really that good at passing and setting, and I just wanted to get better at it, since I came here I learned to keep my hands high while setting,” camper Shannon Boone said.

Astrauskas said that it is fun to teach these girls because she gets to be around them when some of them make their first serve.

She also does not think that their young ages will make it hard to teach them, she said it just makes it more rewarding for her. The hardest part for her has not been teaching the kids, its been setting up the camp and getting everything organized for the first time.

Jordan Poulter, 9-year-old from Colorado, sets up one of her teamates during a scrimage that was held at Lantz arena for an Eastern sponsored girl’s volleyball camp.

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