Malta Spikers Host 57 at M-ette Volleyball Camp

The Malta High School volleyball team held their annual M-ette Volleyball Camp last week at the MHS Gymnasium.

The camp that worked with students from 4th grade to 9th grade was hosted by Malta's volleyball coaches and athletes on Thursday, June 13, and Friday, June 14.

"We did switch it up. We used to be a three day camp that had nine hours of instruction over those three days," Malta High School Head Coach Tasha Hines said. "Then we thought, let's go for two days and do two four-hour sessions."

She said that this year's group of 57 was the largest that they have ever hosted.

"That has brought a challenge of its own," Coach Hines said. "Trying to coordinate that many bodies in one gym, on two nets."

Another thing that was new for this season was the addition of ninth graders to the camp.

"We invited them into camp, just to prepare them for the high school season," Coach Hines said. "The girls that we have seen, I am thoroughly impressed with. Their natural abilities, coachability and the great mindsets that they are bringing, I am pretty excited for that."

The camp had plenty of familiar games and some new wrinkles including a game called dead fish, a serving elimination game.

"They thought of it on their own," Coach Hines said. "When you miss a serve or serve out of bounds, you go lay on the other side of the court and pretend that you are a dead fish."

The athlete has to lay on the ground until someone from their team hits them and makes them "alive" again.

"You have girls that like it and girls that don't because you are a human target," Coach Hines said.

When asked what the camp favorite was, Coach Hines brought up Pile Up, a game that seems to be amongst the favorites every year.

"Three girls lay on the floor in a pile, we hit the ball off of the floor and one by one they get out of this pile and have to have three touches and send the ball over the net," Coach Hines said. "It is just coordinated chaos, giggling, screaming, calling the ball, missing the ball, and they are all laughing."

She said every year the kids ask if they are playing Pile Up.

"Yes, we are playing Pile Up," Coach Hines said.

Another new thing for camp was the use of inflatable beach volleyballs for the younger campers.

Since they had so many campers, they were able to split groups up from 4th grade to 6th grade, and 7th grade to ninth grade.

"The younger girls get really sore arms from the real volleyballs, so we used the beach volleyballs to work on the younger kids' fundamentals, so that their arms didn't get so sore," Coach Hines said.

The inflatable balls also help to slow the passing action down, allowing the coaches to help with form before each hit.

"Camp has gone very smooth," Coach Hines said. "This is a great group of kids. They are coachable and funny. You had girls that were pretty shy about doing things and on the second day they are more willing and ready."

Assisting Coach Hines were MHS Volleyball assistant coaches Kalli Rummel, Emma Oyler, and Kate Indreland, as well as Malta Junior High coach Katie Smith.

A majority of the Malta M-ette volleyball team were present as student coaches for the camp.

"They are honestly the true beacons of the day," Coach Hines said of the M-ettes. "They each had a team when we did 3-on-3. You talk about encouragement and cheering these kids on and just being great teammates for them."

She said that the camp would not be possible without the high schoolers because they do a majority of the footwork and the coaches are in the background trying to keep things rolling.