My volleyball inspiration began in 5th grade at our annual family camp
when I was allowed to play with the adults in the highly esteemed
“backyard volleyball” tournament. Backyard, meaning saggy net, sketchy
lines, and intense competition disregarding rules such as “lift” or
“double.” We had a college guy from Michigan on our team who shared a
secret strategy with us called bump-set-spike. Needless to say, I was
hooked.
I have never played on a “real team” involving coaches and practices, but
I have taken every other opportunity to learn and get better at the game.
I took P.E. classes in high school and college, played spring open gyms
with the high school team, and played and won intramural championships in
co-ed outdoor, co-ed indoor, and men’s indoor volleyball in college. After
graduating with mechanical engineering in May 2009, I started taking
volleyball more seriously. I found the most competitive open gyms in the
area and played 3-5 times a week, played my first AA tourney in September,
followed by my first men’s USAV season in the spring which concluded by
winning a AA Nationals tournament in Portland with the team No Game.
This summer was the start for outdoor tournaments, which included a couple
grass tourneys, and my debut at Alki going straight to the AA/Open Men’s
doubles tournament where we finished 12th of 19.
For coaching experience, I had a little taste of it in intramurals through
putting my teams together, taking the role of captain, and deciding
rotations and strategies necessary for winning. Then, this past November
through June I was the assistant coach for the girls U16 traveling team
with the High Velocity club. I worked with Brian Richards, the experienced
head coach of Holy Names high school in Seattle, who was an amazing mentor
and taught me nearly all I know about coaching girls’ volleyball.
My goals this year at Sammamish as the JV coach is to share my
appreciation for volleyball, teach the girls to set goals and accomplish
them through hard work, and develop a unified team built on positive
attitude and mutual respect.
averygorter@gmail.com
