Badger Region Awards

At the annual Badger Region Volleyball Junior Club Director Meeting on Sunday, Sept. 16, we were pleased to hand out several awards to deserving members, and recognize some national award-winners.

Robert L. Lindsay Meritorious Service Award
For contributing outstanding participation, motivation and other services in the promotion of volleyball.

Voted on by the Badger Region Board of Directors, the following individuals were honored:
- Janice Siebert (Midwest Penguins)
- Larry Schoenick (Official, Official's Assigner)
- Kelly Lehman (Wisconsin Juniors)
- Betty Lange (Wisconsin Ice)
- Sharon Galonski (Next Level)

We congratulate all of these deserving individuals for their passion and commitment to the sport and to Badger Region!

USA Volleyball Gold Whistle Award
At the USA Volleyball Open Championships in Salt Lake City, Badger Region President & Commissioner Julie Voeck was named as the Gold Whistle Award Winner, recognizing the individual deemed as the most outstanding USA National referee at the previous year's USA Open Championship event.

USA Volleyball Outstanding Program Director
At the USA Volleyball Annual Meets in Salt Lake City, Midwest Penguins co-club director Anne Slattery was recognized as the nation's Outstanding Program Director, given to an individual involved in local junior volleyball development.

Leif Storvik Award
At the Badger Region Junior Club Director meeting, we were also pleased to award a speechless Anne Slattery with the esteemed Leif Storvik Award. Slattery's tireless dedication to the sport of volleyball, her club, Badger Region, USA Volleyball and the student-athletes and children in general is inspiring to all those who know her.

"Anne is involved in every aspect of Badger Region, and because of her, our region is a better place," said Voeck. "Between her  club director and tournament director duties, the time she has dedicated to improving the region's budget and accounting processes, her role as an Impact clinician and many other additional interests, Anne is truely an inspiration to many."

Leif Storvik is well remembered for his leadership in volleyball in the Badger Region and at the National level. Leif gave countless hours to the sport of volleyball and always made sure whatever he did was done right. His quiet, yet determine and uncanny ability to solve any problem made him a great ambassador for the game of volleyball. He was very supportive and complimentary.  Leif will be remembered as one of the true nice guys of the game, yet he played very competitively while still having fun.

 

The Badger Region Volleyball Association established The Leif Storvik Award to recognize and honor those individuals, teams or organizations who have made a positive impact to the sport of volleyball.

 

Previous Storvik Award Winners:

2002 -  Neill Luebke

2004 - Julie Voeck

2006 - Terry & Nancy Paulson

2007 - Jenny Hahn

Congratulations to all of these individuals and to all of those in our region who continue to do a great and selfless job  throughout the year to promote and teach the sport we love!

Be sure to LIKE our fan page! https://www.facebook.com/BadgerRegionVolleyball

HP Championships Update #3

Aileen Herman of the Badger Region Volleyball High Performance National Select team gave an update on the HP Championships:

We discovered that doing cartwheels in the second floor lobby isn't a good idea. It apparently shakes chandeliers in the main lobby. We did find out that cheering for other Badger Region teams IS a good idea and a lot of fun. Our Select team found ourselves in a cheering battle vs. a bunch of USA HP athletes during the Boys Regional match this afternoon. Our loud yells and cheering helped lead the team to an awesome 5-set victory and their first of the tournament! At team dinner we worked to find how much water you can fill into a glass and were informed on the science of it by Madeline Mosher. Maddie and Anne Rasmussen proceeded to do their best cat impersonations and "drank" from the glass.


Our select team went 2-0 today and beat the overall #1 seed in our division from the Aloha Region. With one win tomorrow morning we will assure ourselves 1st in the pool and stay alive in our hunt for a medal. We'd also like to send out a special "Happy Birthday" to coach Natalie who's birthday was on Tuesday!!


Word of the Day - MENISCUS (think surface tension)

*********
The five-set match between Badger and Lone Star in the Women's International Junior division can be seen online here: http://www.ihigh.com/fountainvalley/broadcast_234146.html?silverlight=1

High Performance Championships-Day 2

Post from Aileen.

Day 2 - 1:00am Shower for Lizzy Kalous as she mistakes an incoming text message for an alarm and decides it's time to take a shower and get ready. Breakfast begins in about 8 hours.


Later... Today was a great 1st day of competition for the Badger Region. My team, the girls national select team, won our first match vs. Iowa HP. 3 of the other teams also won their first matches. After we left the convention center and got some groceries the region teams headed back to the Hyvee Center for the opening ceremonies. We had a pasta and salad buffet that fed over 2000 people in attendance. There was live entertainment from an awesome drum line and dance crew called the, "Isiserettes Drill & Drum Corp." After dinner Angie Forsette from the USA Women's National Team held a Q&A session with the audience and some members of the USA Youth National Team. Simone Lee from Wisconsin was one of the lucky few that got to ask Angie a question in front of the group. One final piece of entertainment was a Haka dance performed by some boys from the New Zealand delegation. Looking forward to day 2 tomorrow!!


Word of the Day - COW

HP Championships Update #1

Aileen Herman of the Badger Region Volleyball High Performance National Select team gave an update on the first day of the HP Championships:

Day 1 - Monday, July 23rd
9:00am - Some amazing volleyball players from around the state met at Center Court for a photo before heading to Iowa for the 2012 HP Championships. We get on the two buses and settle in for our 6 hour ride to Des Moines. The selected movies for the ride over were "Grown Ups" and "She's the Man". While some of the girls enjoyed the movie, others talked, texted, and slept. Around noon we stopped in Dubuque for lunch. There were a few options for everyone and included Taco Bell, Burger King, and a Hyvee grocery store. We arrived at the hotel a little before 4:00, cleaned the bus up to avoid any "prizes" from Paul and settled into our rooms. I asked one of my teammates to describe the ride and her response was, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." In other words, "long." For dinner most of the team members bombarded a local Quiznos and then we headed to the convention center for the evening practice session. We got some good work in and had a chance to see the place we will be playing over the next 5 days. After practice we headed back to our rooms tired out from a long day but excited and ready to begin our matches tomorrow!!
Word of the day: CHEESE

Saving The Day

Below is a story relayed to us by Kit Kay, a board member and coach at West Allis Lightning about a normal day turned extraordinary due to the actions of one of our Badger Region members - Lightning director Angie Hardwick.

I'm 100% confident she would be too humble to tell any of you at Badger Region herself but it is an awesome story that occurred during our recent volleyball travels.

We have had a whirlwind summer. From June 14-18 we were in California with the five Boys teams (14-18) at the SCVA tournament. We were home for a few days and then from June 26-July 2 we were in Phoenix with 3 Girls teams (12, 15, and 16). 

As I'm sure you're aware - these events are all very time consuming for Angie and she is a MASTER at planning out the details on travel, car rentals, hotels, food, on top of all the tournament entry, etc.   We consider her a superhero for how fantastically these events are planned and how fantastically smooth they run but all of us close to Angie know that they run smooth because of the literally hundreds of hours she puts into the organization.

Well - while in Phoenix with the girls - Angie and I were at Sam's club doing team cooler shopping.  As we rounded a corner - Angie got this incredibly distressed look on her face and started to run.  At this point I had no idea what was happening.  

Angie had seen an older lady (in a shopping "scooter") appear to be struggling breathing.  She could tell from the way the woman was acting it was a very bad situation. Angie ran up to the lady and asked her "are you ok?" The woman shook her head "NO." Angie then asked "are you choking?"   The woman shook her head "YES." Angie then told the woman "I'm going to give you the Heimlich." She then went behind her and applied the Heimlich 3x.  After the 3rd - the woman coughed up whatever she was choking on. Angie saved this woman's life!!!

I watched to awe  - literally with my jaw dropped. The woman and her husband (also in a scooter) thanked Angie over and over. After the chaos cleared - Angie proceeded to grab the cart and walk off to finish the shopping - like it was no big deal.

I have reminded Angie repeatedly what a hero she was and IS  - not only to us at Lightning but certainly to this unknown woman at Sam's club in Phoenix. And I've been telling this story to anyone who will listen.  

I'm not telling Angie I'm sending because she surely wouldn't want to self-promote but hey - isn't that what friends are for!!

Angie Hardwick with her son Dylan after the WAL Lightning B18 team won the USAV 18 Open National Championship

Angie at the BJNC in Dallas with three of her kids, who are all coaches!

Coaching Clinic - Serving Technique and Drills

Below are some videos taken at the Badger Region Volleyball coaching clinic run by Salima Rockwell of Texas and Brian Wright of Austin Performance. These videos focus on some serving technique and some good drills to teach this technique, especially for young or new players.

A serving technique drill aimed at getting good contact on the ball:

Another view of the contact drill for serving technique, this time talking about self-feedback that the player gets from this drill:

A few more serving drills:

Be sure to follow Badger Region on Facebook so that you can keep up with all of the new videos posted from the coaching clinics! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Badger-Region-Volleyball/144504375636264

Coaching Clinc - Warmup on your own!

Below please find a great video that you can use for a warmup or to practice your ball-handling skills on your own. This video is from the June 9-10 coaching clinic featuring Salima Rockwell (University of Texas) and Brian Wright (Austin Performance). These can be used at any age group, and they're fun!

Be sure to follow us on Facebook at the Badger Region Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Badger-Region-Volleyball/144504375636264