STARS; volleyball for life

Times Reporter 

 

In 1995, the STARS basketball program began in Okotoks and spread throughout Western Canada, teaching the fundamentals of the game to kids who normally wouldn’t learn until much later. Eventually interest grew for badminton and volleyball as well. 

STARS volleyball is now in their 10 year in Strathmore, with Pat Fule organizing sessions on Monday nights at Wheatland Elementary. 

“We teach them the rules of the play, how to hit, and how to serve,” Fule said. “Then we get them into mini volleyball games with coaches on their teams, and because they’re Grade 1, 2, and 3, we have them play on the height of the badminton net.”

Fule hopes programs like this will encourage the children to like the sport at a younger age.

“Because the badminton net is the right height for them, they can actually jump and hit the ball down. So they learn the footwork, the arm swing, and then they learn how to play some volleyball,” Fule said. “We teach them how to spike right away in the first lesson; they love doing that, especially if they can hit a coach.”

The volunteer coaches – junior and senior high students – were once STARS volleyball kids themselves. 

“What they’ve done is they’ve stayed with us, normally until they start playing junior high. Then they play on the junior high teams, and from there they sometimes go onto club volleyball, and then obviously high school volleyball,” Fule said. “We try to give them the right foot in the door so they know how to do the basics early on.”

A perfect example is 15-year-old Ciara Ennis, who played for five years with Fule. She credits her passion for volleyball from the program; she’ll be playing club volleyball next season with the Spruce Grove Ravens.

“I really enjoy helping out, and volunteering; it’s a lot of fun,” she said.

Visit www.jetsathletics.com for more information. There are three different sessions available: 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for Grades 1 to 2, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30p.m. for the Grade 3 to 5 students, and 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for Grades 6 to 9. The cost is $150 for 10 hours of instruction, a t-shirt, and “a lot of fun…I hope,” said Fule.