2019 Varsity Tryouts: What to Expect

CVU’s Girls Varsity Volleyball is an exceptional program in the state of Vermont because it is comprised of players and coaches who want to work hard and improve. We have no interest in taking on players who believe they are already good enough. These are tryouts for everyone—every spot will be earned.

When making decisions about team rosters, coaches will consider the following criteria:

• Player behavior
  • Demonstrates positive body language and interactions with other players and coaches and kindness to herself
  • Helps others and takes initiative, especially during drills, net setup/takedown, collecting balls, and keeping others focused and engaged
  • Asks clarifying questions when needed; demonstrates active listening
  • Regularly goes out of comfort zone to try new skills, movements, or positions; shows openness to work on weaknesses
  • Shows eagerness to play and be involved
  • Communicates on the court (calls for balls, help, alerts teammates, etc.)
  • Supports other players on court through positive talk, good communication, and by providing opportunities for others to improve and demonstrate skills
  • Possess poise and resilience, especially after a mistake
• Player preparedness & awareness
  • Hustles from start to finish of a practice, including running to shag balls, grab water, getting onto the court, setting up/taking down equipment, etc.
  • Demonstrates drive to work harder
  • Understands her individual barriers and works to find ways around them while still challenging herself and increasing her capacity
  • Moves to ball without hesitation
  • Tracks ball with body and shows fluency in mechanics and approaches
  • Improves relationship and awareness of body, court, and ball movements and timing
  • Adjusts technique or actions after being advised by a coach
  • Prioritizes needs of the team and program over a personal agenda
  • Engages with play when off the court
  • Comes to sessions on-time and ready to play
• Player knowledge
  • Understands rules of the game
  • Demonstrates ability to correctly keep scorebook, libero track, and lines judge
  • Has working knowledge of offensive/defensive positioning and transitions
  • Sets up/takes down equipment safely and correctly

What to bring to tryouts:

• Sneakers, preferably court shoes (for indoor practices only)
• Knee pads
• Water
• Physical form (if not already on file)

Sand court sessions:

These sessions will be conditioning-oriented. We are interested in seeing individual’s best efforts: drills and activities during these sessions are about competing with yourself and not the people next to you.

Please make sure to bring the following for sand practices:

• Sneakers/Running shoes
• Extra shirt
• Plenty of water
• Towel
• Sunglasses

2022 Tryouts

In order to participate in tryouts, ALL PLAYERS must:

1. Have an up-to-date physical on file with the school OR have a completed physical form in-hand
2. Be registered for the 2022 Volleyball season in FormReLeaf.

Varsity & JV Tryouts

The first three days are tryouts for the varsity team. 11th & 12th graders must try out for varsity, 9th & 10th graders may try out for Varsity and/or JV. 9th & 10th graders who do not wish to try out for varsity come to JV tryouts. Any 9th and 10th graders who do not make varsity will be invited back to JV tryouts. 

Placement on a team in a previous year does not dictate or guarantee placement the next year. We expect all members of our Varsity team to demonstrate skills, drive, and commitment every day. Learn more about our expectations for the Varsity Program.

Schedule

All tryouts will be held in the CVU gym.

Thurs 8/18: Varsity Tryouts 3:30-5:30

Fri 8/19: Varsity Tryouts 3:30-5:30

Sat 8/20: Varsity Tryouts 10:00-12:00 , JV Tryouts 1:00-3:00

Mon 8/22: JV Tryouts 3:30-5:30

Team Expectations

If you would like an electronic copy of the Team Expectations document from the parent and coaches meeting: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d5uZ45UnVbnG7qlzMiuyO_qqJY9k1_RPJQrn4tdURwk/edit?usp=drivesdk

Important Tryout Information!

Hello, all!

As you know, school is just around the corner, which means fall sports are about to begin! Hopefully this is just a reminder, but here is what our tryouts will look like this week:

Thursday, August 16

5:30-7:30pm

Friday, August 17

11am-1pm AND 5:30-7:30pm

In order to participate, all players MUST be registered for the 2018-2019 school year in FormReLeaf and have a current physical either on file or in-hand. I have reached out to a handful of players already after discovering they were not registered for this school year. Please double check that you are registered for volleyball and for 2018-2019! If either you do not have a current physical or you are not properly registered, you cannot practice.

Additionally, I would appreciate if players would fill out a general information survey. Thank you to the 20+ of you who already have! This quick survey (it’s been taking players about 10 min to fill it out) will help me and the other coaches get a better understanding of who you are, your background, and your volleyball interests. This is not mandatory, but it would be very helpful for us as we try to get to know you during tryouts and will help us with goal setting throughout the season.

After 8/17, some 9th and 10th graders may be invited to continue tryouts with the upperclassmen (11th and 12th graders) for the Varsity team. Tryouts for Varsity will continue into next week, starting on Monday from 5:30-7pm. For the rest of the 9th and 10th graders, once we have a better idea of how many girls are interested in playing this season, we will let you know our next steps.

I know a lot of players are nervous about tryouts. The purpose of our first three practices is to get an idea of where you are as players, and where we are as a program. Come ready to play, and don’t be afraid to ask questions and make mistakes! I don’t know a single volleyball player who has ever gotten better by being quiet or trying to avoid contacting a ball in fear of messing up. I truly believe volleyball is for everyone–if this year a CVU team isn’t the best fit for you, I’ll help you find some place that is.

I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday!

Coach Nauheimer

Meet the Coaches Night Tonight! Tryouts Next Week!

Friends, where did the summer go!?

This is a reminder that tonight from 6-7:30pm. I hope to see as many interested players and parents there as can be!

Tryouts also start next week. Here are the details:

• Thursday, August 16th from 5:30-7:30pm
• Friday, August 17th 11am-1pm and again at 5:30-7:30pm

In order to try out, players must:

• be registered on Form ReLeaf
• have a current physical on record or in-hand

Additionally, I’m requesting that players fill out a quick volleyball survey so that I can get a little more information about the students who are trying out. It should only take about five minutes to fill out.

See you tonight!

Coach Jeanne

How to Prepare for the Season

Photo by Aman Jakhar on Pexels.com

Summer is a great time to relax and recharge after a busy school year, but in Vermont, it’s also the best time to be outside! Staying active this summer will help players with their transition onto the court in August. If you’re not sure what to do this summer or where to start, here are some ideas!

Play!

Play volleyball as often as you can! Set up a court in the grass or play in the sand. Play doubles and get aced 17 points in a row. Play with people who have been playing longer than you’ve been alive. Play on a Men’s height net. Play with your great aunt Bernice and little cousin Kevin on a sagging net at a family picnic. These situations may be less than ideal, intimidating, and totally different than what you can expect playing sixes in a gym, but they all have the potential to make you a better volleyball player. As sluggish as the sand can make you feel, it will help with your endurance and agility. Playing doubles will benefit your reaction time and ability to read your opponents. Playing on nets that are higher will help you play a more calculated game, and playing on a lower net will help you understand the mechanics of an aggressive swing. Plus, all of these types of volleyball are really fun!

You can check out the Where to Play page to find out when and where there is scheduled volleyball in the area. Don’t be afraid to text your friends or Great Aunt Bernice to join or to find another time to play. The biggest mistake you can make this summer is to let a fear of making mistakes keep you from playing.

Watch

Outdoor games have been known to get rained out every once in a while during Vermont summers. If the rain is keeping you indoors (or if we have heat indexes in the triple digits again!), try swapping some of the time you’d spend watching tv or scrolling through social media for watching some volleyball instead. YouTube some high school, college, or Olympic championship matches. Pick a player and watch how she plays in every rotation. Watch her defense. Watch her approach–is she going even when she wasn’t set? What do her transitions look like?

Unlike sports like soccer, football, basketball, or hockey, there aren’t many opportunities for volleyball players to see a lot of volleyball. We will watch our teammates or maybe the JV game, but our exposure to the sport in Vermont is pretty limited. Watching sports matches, especially those performed by elite athletes, can help develop your own skills as a player.

Train

Doing activities like cross-training, weight-lifting, or body weight workouts can help improve your endurance, speed, and vertical jump while also reducing your risk of injury. I will be posting workouts and movements you can try this summer. Remember that when doing any sort of training, you don’t want to push yourself too hard or too fast. Overtraining can quickly cause new injuries or exacerbate old ones. You wouldn’t go out and to run a marathon without building up to it first!

Repeat

So much of volleyball is muscle memory. A good serve starts with a consistent toss, an incredible dig is possible because your body knows how to transition from your base position for a hit, and a kill comes from the power and placement of an approach. Set up cones in your driveway, move the coffee table in your living room, or go to the sand courts when you think it’ll be quiet and practice, practice, practice your transitions and approaches. Make it into a cardio workout by doing transitions for a certain amount of time (30-60 seconds is plenty–there are very few rallies that will extend beyond that interval), resting, and going again. Make sure when you practice these, you are going through the full movements! Use your arms on your hitting approach, make sure you’re taking a cross step when you drop back for defense–how you practice is how you play!

Questions

If you have questions about any of the content covered here, please reach out to Jeanne for more information.

Meet Coach Nauheimer

Thank you for visiting the CVU Girls’ Volleyball website! My name is Jeanne Nauheimer, and I am very excited to be coaching this year’s varsity team. While this is my first year coaching at CVU, I am no stranger to volleyball in Vermont. It’s been such a pleasure watching volleyball bloom in our high schools, and I am so excited to have the opportunity to coach and to help develop a program that will benefit students for years to come.

Volleyball Background

I grew up in the suburbs of New York City and took an interest in volleyball when my older sister started playing in middle school. I learned to play watching back-to-back State Championship players and was proud to play on a Sectional Championship team and be a captain my senior year. During high school I participated in club volleyball in addition to playing basketball and competing in track and field. I came to Vermont to attend Saint Michael’s College and played volleyball three of my four years. Due to persistent injuries, I decided to manage the team my senior year. At the time I wished I was able to spend more time on the court and less time with the athletic trainer or watching from the sidelines, I know my injuries gave me the opportunity to learn the game from a different perspective. I was able to help my team through keen observation and support, which has helped me grow into a better coach.

More recently, I have coached club volleyball and worked as a volleyball official for JV, Varsity, and college matches. My years between playing in college and reffing for high school were spent playing as much volleyball as I could, doing statistics for my alma mater’s home matches, and volunteering with schools whenever possible to get more students to play the sport I adore.

Coaching Philosophy

I was drawn to coaching at CVU upon hearing that it is a school that values sportsmanship and personal development. At the varsity level, I believe it is important to be competitive, but not at the expense of one’s integrity or a player’s well being. While achievement can be measured in wins and losses, I prefer to measure it by seeing how a player has progressed in skill and character. I value hard work and respect, and these will always be the highest expectations I have for my players.

Fun Facts

• I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English Literature
• I have seven (!) nieces and nephews
• My favorite movie is Hook
• I can play the ukulele
• My first job after college was tutoring for the SATs and ACTs
• I live with a cat named Ninja
• My favorite serve is a jump float

 

Welcome to CVU Volleyball!

Hello! I’m Jeanne Nauheimer, varsity coach for the girls’ volleyball team at CVU! I’m thrilled to be joining a great team of coaches and players and am so excited to get to help build skills and share my passion for volleyball.

I’ll share information on this site for tryouts, practices, and other opportunities in the area to play and develop your volleyball skills. I’ll also post some ideas on how you can get ready this summer for the season!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jnauheimer@gmail.com.

Thank you!