10 Red - The First of Many

The IAm 10 Red Team had a great season. We played in six tournaments starting

in January with our last tournament in April. This was a super fun team to coach, and everyone contributed and made really great progress from our first practice to our last tournament. One thing to keep in mind is that most of the tournaments we play in are 11s, which means we are playing girls that are older and often more experienced. This team showed a great deal of resilience against all of our opponents.

Our first tournament was the Junior Kickoff at the RecPlex. We won our first two matches but then lost our third to RVA. This still put us in the GOLD bracket with our first match against OVBC. We beat them in two close sets but then had to face RVA once again. We lost the first

set but came roaring back and won the next two, making us the GOLD Champions.

We also played in all three Adidas Tournaments at the Sting Center. These were tough tournaments, but we got better and better after each one. Ultimately, our best finish was at the last Adidas Tournament where we finished First in Copper!

On March 13th we traveled South again to the RecPlex and played in the March Madness tournament. This was a really fun tournament to play in and the girls played so well! We split in our pool, losing in three sets to OVBC – bummer – but then won in three sets against MWP 11s – yeah!!! This put us in the bronze bracket where we had an exciting match against EVP 11s, 25-13, 29-27 – IAm WINS!! Finally, we went on to play and beat Falls Focus 11s making us Bronze WINNERS!

The best memories I have with this team came from the weekend of the Badger Region Tour-

nament. It is always fun to see the 10s team play here because it’s such an exciting venue and the energy is always high. We started our day on Saturday comparing our team to a forest of Redwood Trees. ;) To get the whole story you’ll have to ask one of the girls, but the moral of the story was that, “Our Connection Makes Us Stronger”. Teamwork is key. From

there we hit the court and had two days of really great play. Day one we started off strong winning our first match but dropped the other three which, although was disappointing, everyone played so well and truly gave 100%. Day two was a day to remember. We were facing two other 10s teams in the Bronze bracket. The first match again Tempo went well. We stuck to our fundamentals and got the job done handily 25-13, 25-14. Next came Sting 10 Black and although some teams may cower to Sting, not our team. We came out firing right from the start and it was a battle to remember. We won set one 25-18 but set two was proving to be much tougher. We went back and forth for quite a while ultimately coming out victorious 29-27 with everyone - players, parents and coaches - celebrating on the court.

It is always remarkable to me to see the progress of young players. They are like sponges and take in everything you can dish out. I can’t say enough about the character and commitment of these athletes and I can’t wait to watch them grow even more.