Many athletes specialize in one sport.  They have only focused on this one sport their whole life, so they are already ahead of other athletes and have the chances to make a more advanced school team at a younger age.  Staley has many students who are involved in their sport more than just one season.

The volleyball team has everyone on both their JV and Varsity team, and a majority of their C-team, playing volleyball year round on a club team.  These athletes train with their club team from November to April.  On these teams, the girls have the opportunity to travel the country and play in large tournaments, including nationals.

After their club season is over, they begin training for school from April to July, and the school provides a Summer League program for JV and Varsity.  During this time, the girls may also be training for club or finding a better club team to sign with.  School tryouts start in August, and their season ends at the end of October.  The cycle then starts again, and the girls never really stop their training.

Volleyball is not the only sport where their athletes train year round. Football, wrestling, basketball and more have the same type of schedule.  There is a lot of backlash from other schools when Staley wins because our students have these opportunities.  They blame the reason we win on the amount of money our parents have instead of the hard work.

If they wanted to be better at sports, they should have been in club sports.  Club sports require athletes to work hard and put all their effort into one thing.  You can practice and play in school, just not all year round which is where other schools are lacking.  We are good because we work hard in what we do, even if it is playing a club sport year round.

I think without these club sports we wouldn’t be as good at all of our sports, but the athletes take their sports to a more serious level.  I have played club volleyball since I was 10, and have improved myself immensely in my volleyball because of club.  Without club, I would never made the national level team that I currently play on or spend 10-12 hours in a week practicing in a gym.  Club sports give you that extra push to get you to being for school.

I have also played school volleyball since I was in the fourth grade.  I never saw school volleyball as very fun when I was younger because there were parents as coaches, and I didn’t like my team as much.  Now in high school, I like playing with my friends and getting share the court with them for games and practice every day.  I believe that our school is so successful in all their sports because we don’t stop ourselves after the season is over we keep training until we are ready for the next season.