Caption: Rafael Meikle prepares to serve the ball during a Wednesday Varsity practice. [Arthur Silva]
by Arthur Silva (Warrior Post Reporter / São Paulo, Brazil)
The volleyball pre-season started earlier this school year, with off season practices starting in August on Wednesdays as student-athletes prepare for the upcoming volleyball season in February.
The purpose of this new schedule was to provide time for students to maintain their volleyball skills who also participate in the first semester sports of basketball or soccer. By fitting in this extra practice time into the schedule, the volleyball players from last year would not lose the rhythm of last season.
The new schedule includes volleyball as a third practice that happens one day a week, after school. According to the varsity and JV girls coach, Carlos Eduardo Sampaio (known as coach Du), he said that it was a unanimous decision between the athletic director Renato Sousa together with the other coaches.
According to Coach Du, the coaches agreed to make themselves available for off season practices and that this would take place in two parts. Through this decision, PACA’s Athletic Director, Renato Sousa, also proposed the new practice schedules that would rotate in every other Wednesday. During that meeting, Coach Du said this helped them decide what was best to do with PACA athletics.
When asked about it, the Varsity and JV soccer and basketball coach, Leonardo Nogueira, was in agreement with the decision. According to Nogueira, all the other teams practice during the off season to maintain the chemistry in between the athletes and help them improve on skills and tactics.
For Coach Sousa, the focus is on better preparation for the student athletes.
“My goal was to allow students to continue to improve and be better prepared for the coming season,”said Sousa. “Hopefully we can do the same with basketball next semester.”
In the planning of these practices, there was still some doubt among athletes on why it is Wednesday.
“The reason why these practices take place on Wednesday is because that’s the day that least affects the other teams’ preparation for their games,” Sousa said.
During practices, the coaches are proposing a new tactic of how to prepare for their performance during games. The JV and Varsity boys soccer and basketball teams are developing the 5×1 strategy, by practicing during games and through specific exercises of each position. Also, the teams are learning how to attack before the three meters line in order to take advantage of attack opportunities during the games.
Meanwhile, the JV and Varsity girls soccer and basketball are preparing their teams and rebuilding it, because a big part of the team left last school year or moved up to the next level in the sport.
The practices happen during the second or third practices on Wednesdays, with the teams practicing together every other week.
With the practices, the coaches believe that Varsity and JV teams are being able to improve their skills and gain confidence to enter the season more prepared than the last one.
As the practices started, athletes are developing different skills as a new tactic to play the game, together with learning how to attack from the three meters line.
The starter pointer, Junior Rafael Meikle, said that when it comes to the students, it is possible to visualize progress on the court and the athletes are feeling the same thing.
“Having these practices have helped me to be more mature,” said Meikle, “to be able to do my best in every practice so I can be the best version on games.”
The volleyball season will start in the second semester, with their first game scheduled for February 2, 2023 at the international school, Graded.
