A quartet of local youth volleyball squads saw competition at the Northwest Junior’s President’s Day Tournament, held Feb. 18-20 at several locations in the Seattle area.
The teams were with the Momentum One Volleyball Academy, an organization serving boys and girls of ages 10-18 on the Olympic Peninsula
Team 18U Tsunami went 4-3 for the weekend. This team, comprised of several varsity athletes in the area, played competitively against the top two teams in their division, including the tourney champions from Canada. On the second day, the squad went 3-0, noted coach Christine Halberg.
Team 16U Tsunami, coached by Eric Palenik, finished 13th out of 32 teams at the tournament and competed against accomplished teams from Washington state, Oregon, Alaska and California. They played a total of 16 sets during the three-day tourney.
Team 14U Tsunami went 3-6 on the weekend. Coach Kendra Abrams said the team started off with a lot of errors and were not communicating, but that “each day their stats as a team improved as far as minimizing serving/passing errors and getting more kills per game.”
The first-ever boys volleyball team in the area, 18U Boys Typhoon, went 0-5 at the tournament. “We have focused primarily on growth this season,” coach Merissa Koller-Williams said. “None of the boys have played on a formal team prior to this year. We have come such a long way — unfortunately, our win/loss record does not reflect that.”
Momentum One is experiencing exponential growth in participation, but playing options are very limited because of a lack of available gym space, coaches said.
“We compete with every other indoor sport during the winter; we are cutting kids from our program every year because we either can’t book enough time in a gym with the right equipment or can’t afford to rent a space,” Koller-Williams said. “It’s our mission to grow the sport of volleyball and our staff is doing all the can to support that, we are hoping to find a space large enough to house at least two volleyball courts some day.”
Abrams said, ‘’We play against some teams with an obvious athleticism advantage. If there was more opportunity for gym space on the peninsula, we could create an off-season workout program to help our youth develop physically and provide more healthy indoor activities for youth during the winter.”
Momentum One is a federally-recognized nonprofit. Those interested in making a donation or knows of an appropriate warehouse-like space are encouraged to email the organization at merissa.koller@gmail.com.
For more information about programs, including tryout information, email to cmgrunch@gmail.com.
