by Carrie Moritz, Gazette
Whether it's volleyball, basketball, or track, 16-year-old Logan Bly loves playing sports. She broke the high jump record for Garretson twice this past season in track, which means she definitely has talent. Though she comes from a sports family (both older sister Jaden and older brother Evan have both placed their mark on Garretson sports), she knows that her interest in them is all her own.
"I was the manager for my sister's volleyball team since about third, fourth grade, all the way up until middle school," she said. "While I didn't practice with them, I watched them play, and I thought I should try it."
Joining a couple of friends, she started with the intramural team that formed in Garretson around her third-grade year, and has been playing since. She's done middle school volleyball, camps, the JO team, JV, and Varsity.
All that practice is paying off. Bly traveled to Orlando, Florida at the end of June to partake in the AAU Sports National Volleyball Championship in Orlando with the Avera Kairos 16U team.
"It was super fun," said Bly.
She had tried out for the team on a whim last fall, and made it on the Nationals-bound Kairos Beta team.
Only the Adidas and Beta teams go to Nationals out of the four teams of 16U athletes that were formed, which makes the team rather elite. A review of the athletes on the Beta team reveals Bly to be the only athlete from Garretson. One athlete is from Sioux Center, IA, one from Spirit Lake, IA, two are from Brandon Valley, two from Harrisburg, and two from Sioux Falls.
The team had practices two to three times per week starting in March, with tournaments approximately two times per month. Those tournaments were held both locally and regionally, with travel as far away as Lincoln, NE. Practices were an hour and a half each time, and dedicated to conditioning, techniques and skills practice, teamwork, and scrimmages.
Both teams performed exceptionally well at Nationals, with Adidas taking first overall in the Premier division and Beta taking 39th out of 181 teams in the Club division. The full tournament lasted twelve days for ages 12-18, and hosted 3,445 teams with 56,000 total participants. It was the largest Nationals Volleyball tournament in the world.
"Florida was good," said Bly. She said the athletes had a lot of fun.
While parents were welcome to travel to Florida to watch their athlete play, the girls stayed in a condo, did some sightseeing, and traveled in a rental van together to build that team mentality. The 16U Beta team played four days of tournament games.
The Kairos team played athletes from all over the United States- California, Illinois, Michigan, and Puerto Rico just to name a few. Kairos Beta 16U had an overall win-loss record of 8-4.
"There was a lot going on" during the tournament, Bly said. She admitted she was "a little more nervous playing in front of all those people." There were 3 gyms going concurrently, with 90 courts in each, according to Bly. The athletes played three games per day, at one point starting their final game at 8:00 p.m. The next day, they hit the court at 9:00 a.m. for their next match.
The first day of play, Kairos Beta faced up against three teams and won all their games. On their second day, they matched against teams from Puerto Rico, Illinois, and North Carolina, winning the first two and dropping the third with set scores of 19-25 and 23-25.
"The third day kinda killed us," Bly said. "We competed well, we just couldn't quite finish it off." That day, they only won one of their three games. The athletes were up against some tough teams, including one from Nebraska they had played (and lost) against earlier in the season. They didn't let those teams win easily, however, losing by only a few points in their sets.
On the fourth day, they hit their stride again, winning their first two games. They finished the tournament with a loss to a team from Montana, winning one set but losing two.
Even with the losses, however, the athletes enjoyed themselves. Bly states they played their best volleyball of the season at those games. "We were a lot more focused and ready to go at Nationals."
Overall, Bly is grateful for the experience, and has set her sights on trying out for the team again next season, with the goal of breaking onto the Adidas team if a spot opens up. She loves the differences between practices and games for both the high school and the Kairos teams, noting that she gets to work on many different techniques and skills by being on both.
Look for Bly to keep making waves and solid plays on the Blue Dragon Varsity team this fall. Practices start in only a few weeks, but until then, she's got more camps to attend.
"It was a great opportunity," she said. "It's just fun meeting new friends and learning new techniques... I feel like I've definitely improved."
