We headed off to The Dells, Adidas Youth Cup League and Wisconsin State Fair Grounds!
11 BLACK
We ended our season at the Adidas Youth Cup Tournament at the Sting Center. We started out great and met some amazing milestones. We started off really strong, playing Sting Silver and beating them one game 25-21. We continued the day with strong serving and put together many three-hit combos with some great hitting by Kaitlin. For our final match we faced our own 11 Red team and it was a battle. We lost set one 25-22 but came back and won set two 25-18. Although we dropped set three and 11 Red won the match, it was a great accomplishment to beat them in at least one set. All in all, it was a very fun season and great to see how much progress was made from day 1 up until our last tournament. Hoping to see all these girls back again next season!
11 RED
Coming Soon!
12 BLACK
Coming Soon!
12 RED
The I AM 12 Red team finished their season this past Saturday by going 4-1 overall. That 1 loss cost us a chance to play in the Gold Bracket as we finished 2nd in our pool. Regardless of this setback, we rallied and took 5th in the 16 team event. Our setting was outstanding, we scrambled more consistently than ever, and continued to serve aggressively.
Prior to this event, our team worked hard on adding the middle quick set to our offense and we were able to run that several times during the day. In order to run something like this, precise ball control is required at the 12's level, and it was so cool to see the girls work on this challenge in practice and watch it happen in real action. This group welcomed every challenge thrown their way in practice, they were pushed like a high school team, and they flourished in the environment. They were disappointed when things didn't go as planned on the court, but they gained an understanding of the fact that the line between winning and losing is thin and that it is the risk athletes take when they push themselves and play against the best. This makes players work harder to minimize the risk, but also accepting of it. I truly love that aspect of sports; that's where the lessons for real life are learned. These girls are adored by their coaches almost as much as they are by their parents.
As a coach who has a daughter on the team, I try not to bring too much attention to her in an effort to not seem to play favorites. In this final summary, it is finally time to mention Hannah Heitzkey and her ability to have a demanding father as a coach. I admit that I hold her to a high standard, probably correct her more, and do get frustrated with her at times. But, through all of this, she couldn't wait to get back in the gym. She truly loves her teammates and recognizes immediately when they improve; she makes sure to let me know. I am proud of the player she is becoming and already proud of the person and teammate she is. I'd like to keep coaching her for as long as she'll let me. I know the time will come when she'll be on someone else's team and they'll be getting a good one.
I'd like to also take the opportunity to thank the parents for their unwavering support. They knew their daughters were being pushed every time we were together and they encouraged it. They became the best "cheerers" even if there were only 4 of them at times, and ended up being the best volunteer game workers in the area! Thanks to the parents for trusting the coaches.
Overall, we won a whole lot more than we lost, we were a highly seeded team in every event, won a few, and we grew and played like a team. It was an amazing and rewarding season for the coaches and I hope that the girls feel part of the larger IAM Volleyball Club culture.
13 BLACK
Coming Soon!
13 RED
The 13’s Red team had an outstanding weekend! They finished 1st in Gold in a combined 13’s/14’s tournament at the Wisconsin State Fair Park! One reason that they were successful is everyone’s tough serving, hitting their zones with great floating movement. They got many aces from precise, short serves that no other team was able to pick up.
#Shoutout to Delaney and Emy on their awesome serving and OH attacking thought each set!
14 RED
Fresh off a well deserved spring break 14 Red made the trek up to Ashwaubenon to play in the Bay Bash. After two weeks off, and only 1 practice, I was concerned we'd come out rusty and flat this weekend. I'm happy to report the girls played very solid clean volleyball this weekend. We started out with a 1Wisconsin 13s team. They were our easiest match of the day. Unfortunately, early in the second set, Sophia injured her knee and was not able to return. We already shuffled some players around for this tournament, so we just made more adjustments and pushed on. Our next opponent was a team similar to us. We dropped the first set getting adjusted to our changes, but were able to win in 3 without too much trouble. The win put us into the gold bracket where we would get to play 2 of the best teams we've played this season. We started out aggressive against Wisconsin Ice, got them out of system early and came away with a 25-17 win. They regrouped and basically did the same to us in game 2. Going to game 3 the plan was the same as always: play hard, aggressive, smart ball and go win the game, not wait for Ice to lose it. We did just that, rolling steadily to a 15-8 victory. Unfortunately, we fell short in our final match against Eclipse. They played relatively error free and it was a little more than we could handle. We may have come up just short of winning the tournament, but it was an all around solid performance from 14 Red this weekend. Despite our share of errors and letting the other team go on runs we were always able to find a way back to playing our game. It was a good way to get us ready for the Power League finale next week.
15 BLACK
It was such a fun filled weekend for our team. They had a blast mini golfing, laser tag and swimming.
Day 1: They knew we were playing in a 16s tournament again, but that didn’t stop them from hangin with the big girl’s competitively. We lost our first match to Hammerhead 16-1 who was top ranked in our pool, but we held our own coming very close to winning set 1 (23-25, we hate the # 23) 😁. Second set was not bad but couldn’t get back in the groove to lose 17-25. Next up was MWP 16 Black who we lost to 25-12 and 25-15 they ended up taking 1st in gold. EC Slam losing 23-25 and 8-25. Had we won the first set I think we would of gained some confidence for the 2nd set. Finally ending on a win with DBQ 25-22, 10-25 and 15-9. We were happy with how we played and excited to start again Sunday
Day 2: We won our Bracket!!!! It’s so exciting to say that and I can see definite improvement. To say we won the bracket no matter the color is a super goal especially against 16s. We took 1W Madison 16 to 3 sets. Losing set 1 21-25, we didn’t play our best but just needed a warm up for set 2, down by 11 coming back to win 25-21 and set 3 15-12 we were on fire 🔥. Our last game was against Victory 16U losing set 1 (is there a pattern?!?) lol 23-25 winning set 2 and 3 to win our bracket.
We had 2 girls on vacation and 1 injured player so again some had new positions. They all worked it out and meshed well
Shoutout to Emma (we will miss you) for being a magnet in the back row as Libero. Juhi for playing middle for us again because we were short players. Addi for serving great and running our points up. Abby for playing all around and never complaining. Also, hitting like a machine. Jade and Natalie for setting great as usual and playing great defense. Ella for playing Outside and all around, never letting your guard down when things got tough and Hailey for playing right side and counting on your hits when other options were a struggle. #ProudOfThisTeam
15 RED
After some time off the court because of spring break the 15 Red team got back after their season at Diggin' in the Dells 16 division. On day 1 the team ripped through their competition. Besides one lost set in the third match the team set the tone and pace all day to go 3-0 in pool play. In a very competitive tournament they needed to go through a quick turnaround and win a challenge match the next morning to advance to gold. The next morning they once again controlled the pace of play and handled another 16's team with confidence and poise. Getting to the Gold Bracket guaranteed them a finish in the top 8 for the tournament. In the quarters of gold they played a tough and controlled 262 ATTACK team. The team came out on fire beating them by 9 points in the first set. Unfortunately the momentum they built up didn't carry into the final two sets losing by 3 and 2 points. The girls were happy with another solid tournament but knew that was a match they let get away. Having to settle with a tie for 5th place out of 33 teams is nothing to be disappointed about and the girls are ready to take the lessons learned into their final weekend of power league also being their final tournament of the season. Time to see all the work we have done this season stack up in the final big test!
Plus, we got some awesome I AM Volleyball Cookies!
16 BLACK
The 16Black team competed in the ‘Diggin’ in the Dells’ tournament up at the Woodside Center in the Dells. It was a great time for the team to get away and have some fun together, and play some pretty incredible volleyball as well!! We started the day out Saturday with some really strong play, winning out first 2 matched pretty handily. In our final match on Saturday – we came out and played the absolute best we have ever played in our first set. We completely overpowered the 262 team with fantastic defense, great blocking, and some incredible kills! It was so much fun to watch it all come together. We continued to play well, but ended up losing a very close third game, but it was exciting to see just how high our ceiling is! On Sunday, we had a rough early start to the day, but gathered ourselves to play well later in the day. We ended up losing in the semifinals – but put together some great play at times. Shoutout to Grace for leading the team in kills, Macey and Becca for leading in aces. Oh… and we believe Molly has a future as a government agent based on her sharpshooting in laser tag! Special thanks to all the parents (especially Mrs. Patty) for arranging all the fun and food. It was a great time!