07/11/17 — Learning the basics: volleyball camp takes the floor at GHS gym

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Learning the basics: volleyball camp takes the floor at GHS gym

By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on July 11, 2017 5:50 AM

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Goldsboro High School volleyball player Dakota Jones gives pointers to Nyila Williams, 13, during a Parks and Recreation volleyball camp at Goldsboro High School Monday. Several of the team's players are volunteering at the week long camp to help teach the fundamentals of the game.

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Over a dozen girls practice the fundamentals of passing and setting during the first day of the Goldsboro Parks and Recreation volleyball camp Monday morning.

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Jayda Harrell, 10, listens as Goldsboro High School volleyball player Dakota Jones gives her a few tips about communicating with other players during a Parks and Recreation volleyball camp at Goldsboro High School Monday. Several of the team's players are volunteering at the week long camp to help teach the fundamentals of the game.

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Haley Phillips, 14, concentrates while during a drill in the Goldsboro High School gym Monday morning.

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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO

Nyila Williams, 13, watches the ball come to her during volleyball camp in the Goldsboro High School gym Monday morning.

All athletes start with the basics, and the Goldsboro High volleyball camp is helping kids start from the ground up.

Around 15 campers gathered in the Goldsboro High gym Monday to begin the five-day camp, which takes them from basic volleyball skills all the way through team play. Created through cooperation between the school and Goldsboro Parks and Recreation, the camp is taught by Goldsboro varsity volleyball coach T.J. Lancaster.

"We have a good relationship with parks and rec," he said. "To be able to have this relationship and teach the girls is great."

The campers ranged from fourth-graders to rising high school freshmen.

They lined up two-by-two and practiced drills, passing the ball back and forth and moving around to keep up with it.

All the while, Lancaster and the members of his camp staff stepped in periodically to correct their technique. A change of grip here, a repositioned foot there, and even the least experienced campers quickly got the hang of things.

As they practiced, the campers would shout directions as if they were in a real game. They called out "here, here" as their partners began to pass, and "mine" as they moved toward the ball.

Staff member Riley Howell, 16, has played volleyball for years. She said becoming part of the camp staff was something that came naturally.

"I already love volleyball," she said. "I like helping out the little ones, especially the ones who don't have much experience."

She said that starting with fundamentals is what makes the camp valuable.

"It's a good teaching experience, because we start from the basics," she said. "By the time you leave, you pretty much know how to play."

While Lancaster oversaw the camp as a whole, Dakota Jones, 16, led the exercises themselves. Having played volleyball since the eighth grade, Dakota said she was familiar with how the camps worked and how to help people get better. This was her first year on the camp staff.

She demonstrated how to move side-to-side to stay under the ball, encouraging the other girls to be ready and stay active.

Dakota said she liked to be able to share what she knows with the younger campers.

"I was like this at one point, and it always helped to have someone my age showing me things," she said, gesturing to the other girls. "When I'm helping someone, I try to show how much I love the game."