Soon after volleyball programs were started at both Skyline and Thomas Harrison middle school, varsity athletes jumped at the opportunity to help coach and interact with these players. Hannah Bowman, the varsity volleyball coach, facilitates this relationship while allowing her players to take leadership.

“So we send two different groups of our varsity kids over to Thomas Harrison and Skyline and they kind of just help the coaches there run drills and come up with some for practice, and then they work with the girls on specific techniques,” Bowman said.

Bowman explains how this teaching method will help her athletes in their own practice.

“As a coach and as a teacher that the best way to learn something is to teach it, and the more that you analyze the way somebody else plays, the more you realize your own mistakes and the things you need to work on. So I think it has helped them become more self aware,” Bowman said.

Bowman’s trust in her athletes allows them to take take a leadership role in this program.

“We’re hoping to build a love for volleyball and to get as many girls as we can playing in the winter and wanting to continue in the future with the willingness to work hard. Both JV and Varsity have shown that they can work hard which is why they are such great role models for those kids,” Bowman said.

Senior Athena Benton gives her opinion on why she enjoys this coaching method.

“We pretty much interact with them like their coach would, but probably less strict about their practicing. It’s fun coaching middle schoolers. They remind me of when I used to be worse at volleyball and how much I struggled then,” Benton said.

Benton describes how the program works and how the team is split to occupy each area.

“Our original plan was to go over to the middle schools and coach on Fridays for as long as their season lasted, but we’ve only been twice. Our varsity team is then split into three groups, and every Friday one group goes to Skyline Middle School, one goes to THMS, and the other stays at the high school to do individual filming of their own playing,” Benton said.

This program gives Benton the ability to show what is expected at the high school level.

“Maybe it would be better spent on practice, but I think it’s also important for the middle school kids to get to interact with high school players before they move up their level of play. It’s definitely a positive impact. By us coaching them we can become their role models and give them an idea of what to strive for,” Benton said.

Benton touches on what she felt was a similar experience to her as a younger player.    

“I’m not sure about set role models I had, but I admired the captain of my middle school volleyball team when I played in Japan. At HHS Skyler Johnson was someone I admired when I was a freshman,” Benton said.

Stronger players for the Varsity team in the future is what Benton has seen through programs at the middle schools.

“It would have been beneficial for our school teams to have even just had middle school teams. The middle school volleyball program actually started last year, so a lot of our freshman this year are already at a higher level of play than in past years,” Benton said.

If a similar program was used for a relationship between high school players and college players, Benton is undecided if that would have impacted her career as a volleyball player.

“I think it depends. They would give a different kind of input on our playing and practice than our coaches, and they could be role models for some players. Personally I don’t know how much it would have helped because I decided last year that I wouldn’t pursue volleyball seriously in college, and if we had been coached by college players, I don’t know what I would’ve felt about that,” Benton said.