Team camp a success

n The Lady Panthers played three days of volleyball in Branson, Mo.

Photo submitted The Siloam Springs junior varsity volleyball players won their bracket at the Licking Summer Volleyball Camp in Branson, Mo.
Photo submitted The Siloam Springs junior varsity volleyball players won their bracket at the Licking Summer Volleyball Camp in Branson, Mo.

The start of fall practice is just around the corner for the Siloam Springs volleyball team, but before the grind of every day drills and the season begins, the Lady Panthers took part in a pair of team camps.

Siloam Springs participated in the Licking Summer Camp held in Branson, Mo., on July 14-16. The Lady Panthers then spent a couple of days in Russellville on Monday and Tuesday of this week at a team camp at Arkansas Tech. Results from the Arkansas Tech team camp earlier this week were not available at presstime.

Siloam Springs went up to Branson on July 13 and spent the day at Silver Dollar City before settling in for three days of volleyball.

Head coach Rose Cheek-Willis said around 30 volleyball players attended for Siloam Springs, which were split up into varsity and two junior varsity teams.

"Really, we did pretty decent," she said. "We split most of the time, and there were really good teams. They were all very competitive teams. On the last day (July 16), the wheels fell off a little bit, but I think they were just tired."

Siloam Springs was also playing without top outside hitter Shaylon Sharp, who missed the camp because of a family vacation. However that gave an opportunity for less experienced players to get playing time at outside hitter, which was a good thing, the coach said.

"We needed to learn to play without her and compete without her," Cheek-Willis said. "It's making other girls learn to step up and take care of the stiuation and take care of things. It helps us gel and learn a little better and find our weaknesses."

Teams from Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas competed in the camp. Siloam Springs advanced to the semifinals of bracket play on its last day where it was defeated by Class 6A Jonesboro.

Another bright spot in Branson was the play of the junior varsity teams, which won their bracket on the final day, defeating Class 6A Benton.

"It was great," Cheek-Willis said. "They played really well together as a team. They did really well."

One major emphasis of the trip was team bonding, Cheek-Willis said.

"Every time we went to dinner, we assigned them a date with one of their teammates," she said. "We put them in groups and had them do a series of different things, and they were different groups from who they normally hang out with. It was really good. The kids have been great."

The Lady Panthers -- who also played in a summer volleyball league in Catoosa, Okla., in June -- will take the rest of this week and Monday and Tuesday of next week off before fall practice starts at 8 a.m. on July 27.

Siloam Springs will practice July 27-28 and then head over to Rogers Heritage on July 29 for a team camp.

The Lady Panthers open the 2016 season at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 22 at home against Springdale Har-Ber.

Sports on 07/19/2016