El Dorado’s volleyball program returned from the dead period last week in preparation for its second season under Coach Amber Reynolds. The Lady Wildcats, who snapped a two-year losing skid last year, had 29 athletes out for varsity and JV from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. at Wildcat Arena.
El Dorado’s 7th and 8th graders worked from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
“I think it went pretty good,” Reynolds said. “They’ve been off for two weeks so there was some conditioning things but I think the girls were excited to be back.”
London Ingram, Diana Obiozo, Laila Reynolds and Karol Morales will lead the group of returning players.
“We are starting to work on position work and trying to figure out where everybody is going to play. We did have some conditioning.”
The Lady Wildcats plan to close the summer with plenty of court time, including a team camp at Alma on Wednesday that includes 46 teams. Southern Arkansas University will conduct a camp at El Dorado. The Lady Wildcats will go to Louisiana Tech (July 29) for a one-day team camp and will participate in a camp at Hooks, Texas. Both junior high and senior high will participate in a camp at Robinson High School in Little Rock.
El Dorado didn’t go to any volleyball camps last summer.
“It will give us a head start on knowing our chemistry to work out some of those kinks. You can practice but whenever games come, that’s when you really can see where they are,” said Reynolds. “It also gives us experience playing other teams so we go into our conference play with more experience. And, it gives us a chance to bond and just extend our volleyball season a little bit. It gives us more time to play.”
Reynolds would like to graduate from fundamentals to more strategic volleyball. It will take some time to get there.
“Main focus is, because they’ll be new to the system, will be getting them familiar with the system. I would like to start progressing as far as running plays this year,” said Reynolds, who believes the Lady Wildcats are jelling.
“Our girls get along really well. They don’t just talk to each other about volleyball. They’re actually friends outside of volleyball. There’s becoming a chemistry there. I do think having all of us coming back coaching-wise will help with that bonding as well.”
The varsity schedule for the week will be consistent, starting at 9 a.m. with weight room work before court time at Wildcat Arena until 11:30 a.m.
“We’re just happy to be in the gym and getting to work out to see where we can grow and prepare for this upcoming season.”