Aurora volleyball takes on college camps

College camps are something that many athletes attend to help get noticed by coaches and improve their play performance. Not many teams in Aurora Athletics go to these camps, but Aurora Volleyball signs up for them every year.

Julia Robinson and Katie Fisher are both members of the Aurora Volleyball Varsity Team. I got a chance to sit down and talk with them on their experiences at these camps.

Fisher states, “They helped us to clean things up before the season and get a new perspective from different coaches. We got to go through new drills and get a lot of touches. Along with playing, the camps improved the chemistry of the program and brought all levels together.”

In the past three years Coach Tyler Price has taken his team to Toledo, Ohio State and Baldwin Wallace to participate in the high school team camps. Here is where they can learn team culture and how to play as a unit. The team has the chance to see college level play and interact with the players.

Robinson says, “We learned many new drills we had not learned before and challenged ourselves to become closer teammates and friends. Scrimmaging other teams from all over Ohio before the season started also helped us get a feel for how we played together and what our team chemistry would consist of.”

In the following years of 2017 and 2018 Price had the girls go to the OSU overnight camp. They got a chance to stay in the dorms and be on campus. The Ohio State players worked with the team and taught them how to conduct themselves on and off the court. The girls got a chance to see the intensity of Big 10 volleyball and how players of this level operate.

Robinson said, “Bia, our coach at OSU helped create team culture and communication throughout our team. Seeing the OSU team scrimmage together and play helped us to get an idea of what a college level volleyball team looks like, and how close knit all the players are.”

Finally, Price had the Baldwin Wallace coach come to Aurora where he ran a 4 day camp, 6 hours each day. The team worked on both their defensive and offensive skills. The camp was long and intense but really helped with the culture in the gym and within the whole program.

Fisher states, “College coaches gave a new perspective on how we play and created a different environment. They brought in new drills and techniques which was very beneficial. The college players helped run drills, make corrections, and demonstrate drills for us. They kept the camp moving.”

I talked to Price about hi thought on the college camps and if they helped the team. He attended all the camps with the girls and had a chance to sit in and watch what they did and how everything was ran.

Price states, "I do feel like they help your team depending on the type of camp you go to. I prefer a camp where they work with the girls and teach them new things and work more on technique and drills compared to a place where you go and just play. I like to sit back and observe. I think that it does help when they take the things they learned during the camp and perform them during the season. "

These high level and intense camps really prepared the Lady Greenmen for a tough season. They really got to compete as a team before the season and build a strong foundation for the Suburban League conference play.