Congratulations to Raechel Jones on becoming Southwestern League 2007 Volleyball Player of the Year. The Viper family is so proud of you and congratulate you on all your hard work!! Good Luck this season on 18 Elite!!
Temecula Viper Volleyball Club
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Volleyball Player of the Year Awarded
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College Commitment
Michelle Thornhill currently on 18 Vemma has accepted a scholarship to Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Director's Notes
The Viper 2007-2008 season resulted in one of the most exciting seasons in our 10-year history. We had the privilege to work with more players (see the photo of our big support team live in Reno) than ever before and had three teams qualify for the Junior Olympics. We made substantial progress with our system play this year and feel as though our players really understand the fundamentals of the sport. We also had a great coaching addition with Dana Burkholder and look forward to having her on board full time.
This summer was busy with hosting summer camps in July and the beginning of fall training in August. We are continually excited by the amount of talent in our gym and the ability of our young players to learn such sophisticated skills at a young age.
As you might have seen in the Olympics, volleyball is a precision sport and we are thankful to have the level of training and the coaches that we do to help our young players learn the very same things our National Team is taught. With a Gold medal for the men and a Silver medal for the women, we feel even more committed to the system of training that we use and it's effectiveness at all levels of competition.
As a staff, we'd like to wish all of our high school coaches and kids good luck this fall. In particular, we'd like to wish long time Viper coach Rochelle Short good luck in her first college season as head coach of Point Loma Nazarene University. We'd also like to wish our other college coaches, Rob Machan and Chris Keife, good luck.
As the director, I am looking forward to our best club season yet! I feel confident that our coaches and our training are on track and that we are helping each of our young players to develop the skills necessary to succeed on and off the court. I look forward to seeing everyone soon.
Ed Morel
BE PART OF THE EXCITEMENT!!
The 2008 Olympics in Beijing were full of surprises. For volleyball fans, the biggest surprise was getting the opportunity to watch every match the USA volleyball played this Olympics - that includes both the men and women's indoor teams, as well as our 4 beach volleyball teams. The level of competition for the indoor teams was at such a high level that most matches went 5 games and really showed what an incredible sport volleyball is at the highest level.
The indoor women's team demonstrated incredible mental toughness and teamwork throughout the tournament by winning most of their matches with an ever changing line up on the floor. This type of team success only comes from coming together and playing for each other. To win the Olympic SILVER MEDAL, these girls executed high level technical skills and disciplined system play against talented opponents like Cuba, China and gold medal winner Brazil! Perhaps most impressive was the overall balance of their team. There wasn't any big stand out. Everyone played their role and stood out at different times throughout the tournament. (Photo credit: fivb.org)
The undefeated GOLD MEDAL winning indoor men's team was a force that couldn't be challenged by even the best teams of Brazil and Russia. Led by 4 time Olympian setter Lloy Ball and 1st time Olympian libero Rich Lambourne, team USA could not be stopped on offense out of serve receive. With powerful and dynamic attackers like Stanley, Priddy, and Salmon it was difficult to get the U.S. out of rhythm. On the defensive side, middle blockers Millar and Lee were simply HUGE! They blocked ball after ball after ball and gave the U.S. the lead at critical moments throughout the tournament. As coach McCutcheon tried to explain though, this team won because they played with their heart and they played as a team. And perhaps most surprising was that this team wasn't even considered very strong just one year ago. I guess that goes to show that anything can happen when you put your mind to it!
The famous team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh was in GOLD MEDAL form as usual. Though what they do is not easy to achieve, they certainly make it look easy. And this comes from a real love for the game and wanting to perfect it to the highest level, which of course, takes hours of skill training and many long hot days of volleyball. More than anything, Misty and Kerri have a winning combination of talent and mental toughness. Not only are they great players, but they are mentally stronger than any other opponent. They demonstrated this when they faced 5 set points against the Belgian team. Kerri said after the match in an interview that they just "kept it simple with their side out game - get back and pass, get a good set and swing smart. The simpler the better." (Photo credit: fivb.org)
After losing their opening match to a pumped-up and confident Lithuanian team, GOLD MEDAL champions Rogers and Dalhausser woke up and brought their "A" game to the rest of the tournament. As usual, they presented a huge block and scrappy tenacious defense that scored big points at big moments. Like the women, they showed both incredible volleyball skill and mental toughness, often coming back from being down in a game like in the first set against Brazil.
So, it's congrats to the USA Volleyball teams who won 3 Gold medals and 1 Silver. And congrats also to our other two beach teams who had a great tournament but lost in the quarterfinals. This kind of dominance may never been seen again at one Olympics, but we sure hope so!
***You too can begin to learn the game of Volleyball. We offer classes for many different levels of the game. From beginning young athletes to advanced Collegiate bound players. Get involved now!!! Call Rochelle Short at 265-4695 to become part of Viper Volleyball.