New Month Right Around the Corner

 

September is Right Around the Corner.

Making the Cut Camp Image winner - Theme- How would you look if you won the Olympics.. A Great Four Days The Making the Cut camp was so fun for me, and I hope it was the same for my coaches and the involved athletes. This group was so positive, energetic and put effort into all the challenges that I was sad to see the camp come to an end.    The feedback was positive of the 12 feedback; 10 athletes gave 5 stars, 2 athletes gave 4 stars. Thank you to all the parents and guardians for sharing your athletes with the Academy. My daughter's coach at the Making the Cut Camp, was absolutely amazing!  Chie had all participants moving at all times, with so many touches, and she never stopped working with them.  Even though the games, she would be encouraging them and giving them constructive criticism in order to improve.  Chie started at the level all kids were at and moved onto the next level when they were ready instead of just jumping into a game, day one.  My daughter learned so much, and I am so thankful Chie was her coach!  Was my daughter's first time playing volleyball, and she had an AMAZING experience! Thank you  Well organized and efficient. My daughter loved it. Fun and challenging.  Excellent camp and Great communication  Positive and constructive feedback to the athletes. Highly recommended.  Thanks, Darren and coaches, for another great camp!! The new month is on the way.  This month will be interesting as School, and school volleyball gets started.  The School day Academy is a twice-a-week Volleybal skill training session with a weekly Friday gameplay session. This month-long session is broken into a basic group and an advanced group. The suggestion is new or relatively new athletes to volleyball should attend the basic session. In contrast, more experienced athletes should attend the advanced.   The Academy understands that busy September and October schedules will make it difficult to attend if you make a school team or play another sport. Adding flexibility to the night the athletes can attend will make it easier for athletes to work around the School's volleyball practise times and games. The flexibility will be simple. The basic skill sessions are Monday and Wednesday, 5-6 pm, and games will be 5-6 pm Friday. The advanced sessions are Tuesday and Thursday, 5-6 pm, and games will be 5-6 pm on Friday.   The flexibility for September will be that athletes can attend any day that fits into their schedule.For example, if athletes who registered for the basic sessions find that they can only participate on Monday and Tuesday in the first week, they can.All athletes who register for either the basic or advanced can attend any two days between Monday and Thursday.The gamedays only happen on Friday from 5-6, so there is no flexibility there.   The best use of an hour for Volleyball Players  The jump training happens right after the School Day skills training session on Monday and Wednesday for the basic from 6-7 pm. The Tuesday and Thursday for the advanced from 6-7 pm. The same flexibility will be applied to these sessions. You can attend any two sessions each week that fits into your busy practise and game schedule in school volleyball.   Refund for September. The Academy will refund any sessions that athletes will not be able to attend due to conflicts, which removes the concern about school volleyball schedules that are different in each School and different each week.Participating in any two of the four skill day sessions each week should allow athletes to make more of them.If an athlete has a hectic week and can only attend one session in a week, the athlete can attend three sessions the following week.Flexibility is the goal, and we are open to suggestions.   The September-October Thursday Skill Sessions The other sessions are the September- October Skills sessions; we are offering training in Passing, Setting, Blocking, Digging, Hitting, Serving. The flexibility built into these sessions is that you can sign up for all six or each of the sessions individually as you find out your school volleyball schedule.   The Academy is here to help. We hope the Academy can help fit some of your volleyball training skills in September, and we look forward to seeing you on the court. Every year at the Making the Cut camp, we get the athletes to complete an electronic daily athlete's journal survey. The journal survey collects data about the athlete's view of volleyball and life. Here is a little glimpse into what we found.

2022 Youth Nationals

 

 

September is right around the corner.

Our Premier Camp The Making the Cut camp, is right around the corner. We have many athletes attending and look forward to meeting them all. The camp runs from August 23 -26. The Elementary and Junior sessions are 8-10 pm, 12-2 pm and 4-6 pm. The Rookie and Returning High School sessions are 10-12 pm, 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm All the sessions will be at the Sasktel Sports Center at 150 Nelson Road, and the entrance will be through the East fire door near the garage door. The SaskTel Sports center facility has three courts that will be used by the camp participants. The camp will attempt to maintain a ratio of one coach for every 10 athletes. A photographer will be in the facility recording the event. The still photos will be posted on the academy web page each day. These photos are for participants to download and print off if they wish at no charge. Spectators are allowed in the facility to watch the sessions and the gameplay. Gameplay is in the last session of the day for each group. Athletes are expected to arrive at the facility 15 minutes before the start time. Athletes are welcome to stay between their sessions. Still, they must relax upstairs in the balcony area and allow the other groups the court space. Register School Day Academy The School Day academy begins one week after school starts.  The sessions are divided into two different levels.  The basic and advanced sessions run on different days of the week.  The basic session is on Monday and Wednesday, with game days on Friday.  The advanced session is on Tuesday and Thursday, with game days on Friday.  The School Day academy is a three-day-a-week session for the more serious athletes who are interested in developing their volleyball skills.  Register The best thing you can do for your Volleyball game! The academy will also be offering Jump training to assist athletes in increasing their agility, strength and jumping ability.  Many athletes have benefited from this twice-a-week program.  It is fun, a challenge and a terrific way to help every volleyball player’s game..  Register Six Thursday Skill Sessions! The academy offers six Thursday night one-hour skills sessions for the athletes who want to pick and choose the skills they train.  The basic skills are from 7-8 pm, and the advanced skills are 8-9 pm. Serving - September 16 Passing - September 23 Setting - September 30 Blocking - October 7 Digging - October 14 Hitting - October 21 You can register for one or all six of these sessions. Register We hope to see you on the court soon. There will be a clearance sale at the Making the Cut Camp.  You might want to drop by as you will not find a better deal on volleyball clothing. Monday-Thursday 10-12 pm and Monday and Wednesday 5:30-7 pm.

 

Displaced high school volleyball players have Canadian Elite Academy as option

• Saskatoon StarPhoenix
• 5 Sep 2020
• DARREN ZARY dzary@postmedia.com

MATT SMITH

Emjay Koller bumps the ball during the King and Queen of the Beach three-day beach volleyball tournament earlier this week at Father Robinson school. Volleyball players such as Koller will have a way to keep their skills sharp despite the loss of high school sports.

Saskatoon's high school volleyball players no longer have to stay out of touch.

The 2020 fall season won't be totally lost for a group of highschool-aged volleyball players in the city.

The Canadian Elite Academy is offering a school-day run program for dedicated volleyball athletes who are interested in “taking their skills to the next level,” head coach Darren Cannell said.

The academy is targeting athletes from Grades 9 to 12 for its volleyball program, which includes both basic training and advanced training options during weekday afternoons, Monday to Thursday, at the Henk Ruys Soccer Centre.

“When the school sports ended, and they weren't going to have it this year, I thought this would be a prime opportunity to start the school-day academy,” said Cannell, a former Saskatoon teacher who served as president of the Saskatchewan Volleyball Association and as a Volleyball Canada director for 10 years.

The academy allows for 15 spots for female and 15 spots for male players in each of the basic and advanced sessions for each school cycle.

The first cycle will run from Sept. 14 to Nov. 10 to coincide with the Saskatoon high schools' new block system.

Adam Webster, a Grade 11 student and libero at St. Joseph High School, is enrolled in the Elite Academy's advanced program.

“For me, it's a chance to keep working and keep playing,” Webster said. “And it's super-important because we don't have the school volleyball any more."

The Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic Directorate announced in late August that all fall high school sports — football, soccer and volleyball — are cancelled.

“I was upset at first, but I'd rather be safe and not have other people get infected,” Webster said. “Now I still get my time to play volleyball with my friends, so I wasn't overly upset after a little while.

“There's always something to improve or to work on. My primary role is a libero, so that's passing and defence, and Darren's very good at teaching me the mental game of that, as well.”

Cannell, who spent five years playing for the Brock University Badgers, has coached at the local club, provincial and national level. After a 31-year teaching career, Cannell got involved with the Elite Academy, which also offers art and basketball programming.

“I'm the head coach and what I do is bring in as many talented coaches as I can find to come in and help with the academy,” Cannell said.

Cannell also has played at the senior club level, as well as beach. He has played on Canada's national master men's squad.

The volleyball academy has been around for three years, since 2017.

"I don't coach any teams; what I do is I just teach skills,” Cannell explained. “I go around and find the best coaches I know in each one of the different skills and then I get them to come in and do a two-hour session and I charge kids to come to the two-hour session.”

Cannell said he has enough kids signed up to cover his basic costs, like gym rental.

“I'm looking at it as this is the first time we're running it and the kids aren't too sure what's going on with school (classes),” Cannell said.

“The fact that I have that many shocked me, because they haven't even been to school yet to see if they can change schedules and stuff like that, to try and put a spare in their (afternoon) or if they have to take a cyber school class. If they are in Grade 10, 11 or 12, they can get issued a special credit.”

Along with skill development, Cannell said there is always internal competition and mini games within the group. His goal is to eventually run a league for the high school students once evening gym time becomes available.

“What I plan on doing for the league is having a women's league, a coed league which normally doesn't happen in the high schools, and then a men's league ... It would give them a chance to play so they're not sitting inactive for four months.”

I go around and find the best coaches I know in each one of the different skills and then I get them to come in and do a two-hour session.

 

Making the Cut Camp Update!

THE ACADEMY'S PREMIER CAMP Are you going to be ready for your school team tryouts?  Come attend the best volleyball camp the Academy offers. Making the Cut starts this Monday and runs for four days.  I thought it would be worth dropping a quick note about the amount of space available at this camp. We have 1 spot left in the Elementary School Camp We have 2 spots left in the Junior High School Camp We have 3 spots left in the Rookie High School Senior Camp We have 3 spots left in the Returning High School Senior Camp This is our Premier Camp for the year; we have 7 Senior Coaches and 5 intern coaches working at this camp.  The camp is full when we have 36 athletes in the gym for each time slot.  At the academy, we try to offer the best coach-to-athlete ratio to ensure that each athlete’s needs are met. We look forward to this camp every year, we hope to see you on the court. Find out more details on the Registration website.

 

Thank you for the Opportunity!

Any insights you have would be of great help. Our beach training has ended.  I miss it already.  Thank you for allowing Leanne McGettigan and me the opportunity to work with the athletes.  I really enjoyed the chance to get to know them better and watching them represent at the VOGO tournaments.  Good luck to the players who will be attending the SVA province tournament.  We tried a different format at the end of the training session; in the last two weeks, we let them come and play and work on all that they had learned in a game situation.  I promised to only coach if asked to by the pairs of athletes.  This allowed them to work on building the duos into a team.  They were allowed to attend all 20 hours each of the weeks or whenever fit into their schedule.  We would like to hear what you thought of this change to the training.  Did you like it, or should we have stuck to the training format used in the other sessions?  This feedback will assist us in planning for the following year. Give Feedback Pick a Fall Event to Attend! The Making the Cut Camps are coming up in 7 days.  This is the academy’s biggest camp of the year, with room for 72+ athletes.  We have a senior coaching staff of Darren Cannell, Robert Dziadyk, Stacey Thomson, Toako Chie Imamura, Michele McKeown and Jenna Maerz. The senior coaching staff will be supported by intern coaches, including Keegan Colleaux, Jaime Waskowic, Katie Young, and Ayaka Imamura.  The camp is almost full.  The Elementary School Camp has one spot left in it. The Junior High School Camp has three spots left in it. The Rookie High School Camp has four spots left in it. The Returning High School Camp has one spot left in it. Looking forward to seeing you on the court soon.   This up and coming week, I have set aside for private lesson at the IceBox training center.  If you are interested in a private lesson next week, go onto the website and register and then we will contact you to set up a date and time of the lesson.  This will allow some athletes to work on that skill they find a challenge and better prepare for the school tryouts.   We moved the School day Academy sessions and Jump training sessions later in the day.  Allow more athletes the opportunity to attend.  If you are interested, check these programs, they were highly successful last year. We are also adding in September the Thursday night skills training.  It runs for 6 weeks and allows for Basic training as well as advanced training. Hope to see you all on the courts soon. Register   The New Academy Merchandise Manager has some awesome deals on volleyball clothes which will be available at the Making the Cut Camp.  Plan to drop by and see what is available!

 

Fall Sessions are Here!

We are coming rapidly to the end of beach season.  We are announcing new sessions for the end of August, September and October.  Check them out. There is something there for everyone.  If you are not sure your school team schedules do not fret, register to make sure you have reserved a spot, and we will refund you if a conflict arises.   Due to the date change in the Making the Cut camp, some athletes have found they cannot attend the camp. The change has also resulted in my ability to be available to do some private lessons.  If you cannot participate in a Making the Cut Camp, get some friends together and make your own camp. Private lessons are designed to allow the athletes to choose the topic of the session. A private lesson can be for one-four athletes. The session price is the same if one or four athletes attend the session. A couple of day’s notice is required to allow the Academy to find the best coach to run the chosen skill. The private lessons are top-rated as they allow the athletes to work one on one with our talented coaches. The most popular sessions are the three “S” of volleyball. The three “S” of volleyball are serving, setting, and spiking. Register now We are still accepting registration for the Making the Cut Camps, some of them are filling, but there is still room. The skills of the Volleyball series will be offered on Thursday in September and October.  The skills being covered are serving, passing, setting, blocking, digging and hitting. Check this out one hour of basic skills training then one hour of advanced skill training.  Register for all of them and save some money. The School day Academy is back for Elementary and High school athletes.  .  These are month-long training sessions.  The most fun activity developed during the pandemic was the Jump training.  This fun-filled hard work resulted in lots of athletes increasing their agility and jump.  This should be a must for all serious volleyball players. Register now