Colquitt County High School Lady Packer volleyball program hosts youth summer camp

Jun. 6—MOULTRIE — Forty-seven Colquitt County girls registered for the youth volleyball camp hosted by the Lady Packer volleyball program, held Monday thru Wednesday at Colquitt County High School.

The program was for rising first thru sixth graders, and both the varsity and JV Lady Packer teams were there to help coach.

"The girls were really excited to teach the youth," said Lady Packers volleyball varsity head coach Jess Cohen.

Because of the range of ages at the camp, Cohen split the group up into the different grades — first and second, third and fourth, fifth and then sixth graders — to keep similar ages learning together.

The middle school team was also able to be in attendance to give them some extra practice before the season begins.

"In the beginning I started with some team bonding," said Cohen. "It can be nerve wracking to learn a new sport in front of strangers. We did some 'get to know you' games."

But, it wasn't all dancing and silly games, no matter how much fun that might be.

Cohen brought several important skills needed to properly play volleyball into the summer camp, including passing, setting, hitting, serving, fitness and ball control.

"Ball control is really the only odd one I've thrown in there," said Cohen. "It's really all about knowing how to make contact between yourself and the wall. Bringing everything back down to the basics. But, that's what you need when you don't know how to play yet."

Cohen hoped the girls participating in the summer camp would leave knowing more about volleyball then they knew at the beginning of the camp and they would leave wanting to come back to the sport.

"The whole point is to build those connections," said Cohen. "I want these youth to come to the varsity and JV games in the fall and be excited to see their coaches from this summer camp out there playing."