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N.Ky. Volleyball Club took 13 teams to compete for national championships in Las Vegas


By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter

Jill Hunt spent 11 days in Las Vegas and said she lost $4 the only time she cozied up to a slot machine. She spent most of her time at the convention center instead of casinos, watching Northern Kentucky Volleyball Club (NKYVC)  teams compete in the USA Volleyball Junior National Championships.

As director and recruiting coordinator for NKYVC, it was more of a business trip than vacation for Hunt. She was constantly talking with college recruiters about talented players on the 13 club teams that qualified for the nationals in six age groups — 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Jill Hunt, center, was a head coach and her two daughters, Maya, left, and Julia, were players on NKYVC teams that qualified for the USA Volleyball Junior Nationals in Las Vegas. (Photo provided)

Hunt also coached one of the teams, so she was bouncing around like the ball in a roulette wheel during the Vegas trip.

But she was glad to be back at it after last year’s club season and the national championships were cancelled due to the pandemic.

“It was nice to have a little breather (last year), but you prefer it this way,” Hunt said. “It’s fun to watch the kids and fun to be successful as a club. As crazy busy as it is, it’s still a lot of fun.”

Hunt said this year was the first time that the NKYVC had a team qualify for nationals in the open division of five different age groups.

The only one that brought home a trophy was the 13-year-old team that tied for third place, the highest finish in club history.

“I really wish we would’ve finished a little better than we did overall,” Hunt said. “But I really don’t know if our finishes reflected how good we played. When you’re talking about the open division, they only take like the top 38 in the country, and we went three sets with most of them. They were all good matches.”

The exposure NKYVC players get at the national championships and qualifying tournaments that begin in January opens up opportunities for college scholarship offers and more. Three club members were selected for training sessions with the USA National Team Development Program later this month in California.

Hunt’s daughter, Julia, was selected in the 15-year-old age group. The other two were Taylor Preston in the 17-year-old and Riley McCloskey in the 14-year-old divisions.

The NKYVC team that placed third in the 13-year-old open division at nationals included Addyson Bianchini, Maddie Cho, Callie Combs, Emma Frietch, Carmen Helgason, Kirsten Kemper, Paige Larkin, Grace Portwood, Maddie Steele, Piper Steinmetz and coach Angie Rechers. (Photo provided)

The national training programs are new this year, according to Hunt. They replace the High Performance Camps that USA Volleyball previously used to develop promising young players.

“Taylor and Riley had both done that before, but Julia had not,” Hunt said of the High Performance Camps. “They switched to the national training programs this year and sent scouts out to watch tournaments and pick out top players in the country and invite them to this training.”

Club volleyball ends after the national championships so it doesn’t interfere with high school and junior high school volleyball seasons that begin in August.

But Hunt doesn’t get a break. She’s head coach of the Holy Cross High School team that includes her daughters Julia and Maya, who both played in the open division at the national championships. That was part of the reason their mom couldn’t find time to be a typical tourist during the 11 days they spent in Las Vegas.

“The good part is I got to at least watch my own kids during the span we were there and then I had my own team (to coach), so it was all good,” she said.

 

 


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