When Siloam Springs athletic director Kevin Downing informed volleyball coaches Rose Cheek-Willis and Joellen Wright that the school district was looking into starting seventh-grade volleyball, the coaches were more than a little excited.
"Oh gosh," said Cheek-Willis, the Lady Panthers' longtime head coach, "when coach Wright and I heard, we were doing back flips. It's exciting stuff, that's for sure."
It became official last Thursday when the school board voted to add seventh-grade volleyball to the district's athletics program. The sport will begin competition this fall, according to Downing.
"The biggest thing for us," Downing said, "is it gets our kids in our program a year earlier."
The district had other seventh-grade sports, including football, basketball, cross country and track and field, but it was only able to compete with smaller school districts or districts that were too far away to travel to on a regular basis, like Mountain Home. None of the smaller schools had seventh-grade volleyball though, which prevented Siloam Springs from adding it to its program.
But Springdale Public Schools recently announced it was starting seventh-grade athletics, including volleyball, and suddenly an opportunity became available to add seventh-grade volleyball at Siloam Springs.
"I feel like it's going to build our program," said Cheek-Willis, who has led Siloam Springs to seven state championships, including six straight from 2004 to 2009.
Cheek-Willis said she appreciates the support of Downing, district superintendent Ken Ramey and the Siloam Springs School Board for making seventh-grade volleyball a reality.
"We've needed seventh-grade volleyball to get them introduced to it a year earlier," Cheek-Willis said. "It's going to make our program so much better."
Siloam Springs will also be able to compete against the Springdale schools in other seventh-grade sports as well.
The volleyball program will host tryouts on Tuesday, June 9 and June 11, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Panther Activity Center at Siloam Springs High School. Prospective players are encouraged to come to both tryouts. The program will keep enough players to field two teams.
Seventh-graders had been able to play volleyball locally at the Boys and Girls Club of Western Benton County, and that will still be an option for players who aren't selected for the team after tryouts. Boys and Girls Club Chief Professional Officer Chris Shimer said the club is supportive of the school district adding seventh-grade volleyball.
As of presstime, a head coach had not been named, but several important pieces of information about the program were available.
• For players interested in participating in cross country and volleyball, the volleyball program will work together with those sports to avoid missing any meets. Basketball is not a conflict because volleyball season ends by Oct. 15 and basketball games start in November.
• Volleyball practice will be during first period classes, beginning at 7:30 a.m. and will run through the end of the first hour.
• It's school policy to have a sports physical to try out. Physicals are $20 and available by appointment this summer at Community Physicians Group. Call 524-3141 for more information.
• Tryouts will consist of tests that measure volleyball skills and athleticism -- serving, passing, setting, hitting, quickness, vertical jump and agility. The coaching staff will also be watching for good attitudes, aggressiveness, teamwork, and if a player can apply coaching.
For more information on seventh-grade volleyball, contact Joellen Wright at 479-790-6693 or email [email protected].
Sports on 06/03/2015