Cyclone Elementary Volleyball League set for Jan. 8
Published 9:50 am Thursday, December 28, 2017
In action for the last 15 years, the annual Cyclone Elementary Volleyball League has played a role in introducing volleyball to girls in the area.
Elizabethton High School volleyball coach Leslee Bradley started the league years after restarting the volleyball program at the high school in 1994. And since its beginning, the league has been used as a way to get area girls interested in the sport at a young age.
“We just want to introduce volleyball to as many young girls in this area as we can,” said Bradley. “It is a sport that we love. It can be a lifelong sport. We just want an opportunity for young girls to get to experience and learn the sport.
“We kind of expect that the girls coming in don’t know much about the game, so we start from scratch and teach them everything that they need to know,” added Bradley.
The league is led by members of the Elizabethton High School volleyball team, which has made two trips to the TSSAA Class AA state sectionals over the past three years.
“Myself and my staff act as supervisors, and we turn it over to the girls on the high school team,” said Bradley. “We divide girls up into teams, and the high school girls will be their coaches.”
According to Bradley, it is good for athletes to begin the sport of their choice at an early age so by the time they reach the middle school and high school level, they will have a solid foundation of skills to grow from.
“It can be hard to try something new, and the younger you are, the more likely you are to try something new,” said Bradley. “So it is good to get that introduction early. It is also great when they get to the age of being competitive at the at the middle school level, and they already have a foundation in the sport. When you get to coach a kid that comes in with already a little bit of a foundation in the sport, it just makes your job so much easier and there is so much more you can do to develop the skills that they have. We have definitely seen it help our program over the years that girls just come in with a better foundation.
This year’s league, which is for area girls in third through fifth grades, will begin on Jan. 8 and run for six to eight weeks on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The cost is $50 and $30 for additional siblings. A walk-in registration will be held on Jan. 4 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 inside the Harold McCormick Gym. Online registration is available on the Elizabethton High School website. For more information, Bradley can be emailed at leslee.bradley@ecschools.net.
