It is obvious from the first serve.  This is a slow burning candle not an explosive firecracker. They meld well playing with skill and understanding of the strategy laid out for them. Everything is carefully planned, discussed and agreed upon. They have learned about  the “Report Card “  completed after every competition that grades 19 separate categories from Focus to Enthusiasm and ending with  a grade on the coaching: It is very equalitarian . 13 girls includes 6 seniors, 4 juniors, 2 sophomores and1 freshman all possessing athletic skills  matched with a coach ability  quotient  highlighting growth. 

They reflect the image of their coach calm, observant evaluating what is happening on the court and making adjustments. They are a well-oiled machine. Notable is the power of Kuhlmeier, the digging skills of Greenberg, the adaptability of Evans, the mechanical attack perfection of Blake, and the speed and versatility of Morvin.  The other starters and subs combine to make the machine continue to be well oiled. It does not “take a village” to be successful just 6 or more players geared toward a common goal.

This group of seniors and those who preceded them in the last 4 years have converted the image of St. Basil volleyball.  When I was coaching at Merion Mercy on my first trip to St.Basil for a competition the feeling on the part of the Merion players was that this was a “snoozer.” The team at St. Basil was not competitive. In Laura’s freshmen season the team won 3 and lost 7according to the records at Max Prep. That changed in the last 3 years winning 23 in09 and going to State’s, winning 22 last year. Now St.Basil is considered one of the premier teams in the Greater Philadelphia area ranking in the top 3 for most of the 2011 season.

 Although any of the senior group might well illustrate the progress made allow me to describe this journey using Laura Kuhlmeier as representative of the group. Before the 7^th grade she played basketball and soccer. Her dad a regular Thursday night volleyball player with his buddies encouraged her to try volleyball. She did in the CYO organization and was energized from the very first day. She played CYO for 2 years and then matriculated at St.Basil. Doug Blystone the recently hired new coach to the school had strong ideas about the value of athletics as a learning process not only for volleyball but for the hard lessons of life. Accordingly he developed a strong plan including not just volleyball skills but an attitude toward problem solving, transparency in personal relationships and using individual intelligence. Laura bought into the plan as did the others in her class. Accordingly as she worked the plan the team began to show signs of competitive stature (September 22, 2009 was the match against Merion Mercy that announced that St.Basil was ready to take a place in the hierarchy of Philadelphia volleyball. Typically the candle burned brightly but not explosively by taking a game off the Merion team that would eventually win their third and then fourth State Championship). That year St. Basil was in the Districts and lost in the first round of the State’s to Hempfield.  Laura was chosen during this sophomore year to be a member of the Keystone High Performance team, a first for St.Basil. The junior year filled with many of the players now on the senior team lost in districts to Upper Merion who made it to the finals of the State Championships.  Now in her senior year she and her teammates have carved a position as one of the top three teams in the area and are recurring members of the state AAA top ten ranking list. They won the AACA League Championship beating Villa Maria in the semifinals and then Mount St. Joseph in the finals. Districts are the next challenge. Hopefully followed by State’s.

Laura is a humble young woman without pretense or bravado. She is self-contained, sensitive in her personal relationships and I suspect forgiving. Volleyball she believes has taught her about working with others in such an intimate atmosphere that would not have been available in any other group activity. She laughs a lot accepting that she has much to learn and improve in her game.  She makes the honors list academically with regularity but works to obtain these grades. She hopes to play volleyball in college but has not narrowed down where and what she would like to study making her a rather typical college freshman. On the court she does it all: serving with power, attacking aggressively, digging a large portion of the court, chasing every out of system ball and blasting an occasional 10 ball to the corners of the opposing team:  A well-oiled performance on a well-oiled team.

The Laura part of the machine  will move on to college. Her next coach will discover her inviting challenge and do it with the demeanor of a veteran.  Deeds count, responses count and matched with a positive attitude provide a core around which a team can be built. You saw it first at St. Basil’s.

         Near the end of the club volleyball season in 2011 SYNERGY 18’s were ranked the number 1 team in the United States. This had never happened to a team from Pennsylvania before. It happened from the dedication of a number of coaches, parents and those players on the court who worked so hard for 6 years or more to hone their skills to this level.
   As a team game all 6 players on the court need to constantly fulfill their position obligations. There are no “hot dogs” on a volleyball team but the fans like the power of hitters, the awesome nature of the jump spin serve and the clever quick hands of varying people during extended rallies.  Easily overlooked by the invested fan are the “grunts” of volleyball. These are the players that dig the attacks, handle the varying challenging serves and clean the floor with their bodies denying points for the opponents.
    Meet Philadelphia’s number 1 GRUNT REBECCA BATES. Rebecca is the LIBERO for the Synergy 18’s a position she has occupied for all the Synergy 15 and over club teams and at her school Villa Maria. She is the little engine that starts the sequence that optimistically will end up in “POINT VILLA!” A popular “T” shirt has printed on it: Good pass, good set, GOODBYE”
How did this California girl end up being so skilled? Well it all started with figure skating. Learning to move her feet in the intricate patterns of figure skating transferred well to the volleyball court. Players are told by coaches “Feet to the ball” with recurring, boring regularity.  She won many awards in her age group for skating but was bored with the daily routine of going round and round on the ice for hours. While in the 3rd grade she met a girl who was a volleyball player and encouraged Rebecca to try the game: No contest, Good bye skating and Hello volleyball.
 California beaches beckoned her and the beach game she believes is what taught her how to handle serve/receive and pass accurately. This usual two person game demands that you handle the ball on every occasion it ventures into your side of   the court. There are no excuses for not getting to it despite the friction and drag that sand provides. Such frequent contact and lessons from instructors gave her the basics for the mechanical processes seeking perfection, not excellent but perfect. She wanted to be the best. She was willing to do the work to be the best.
Matriculating at Villa Maria was not a serendipitous decision. She researched the local volleyball high school scene, checked out the academics of each and figuring that AAA was the best in volleyball she landed at Villa in the 9th grade. Synergy was the place she felt most likely to fulfill her vision of being able to compete at the national club level.
 As a student at Villa Maria she is challenged in the classroom every day with demands for assigned reading and independent research for essays.  The subject of her independent research was “Mad Macbeth and his Loco Lady” a study of the mental illnesses and how those contributed to their tragic downfalls.  She is studying Spanish as a foreign language and wants to expand her fluency to Russian and most of the Eastern European languages. When asked why these languages she said,” It fits in to my long range career plans”.
My first awareness of Rebecca was from a volleyball student of mine, Casey Reade, who was Rebecca’s roommate at the Juniata Volleyball Express Camp. When Casey returned from camp she told me to check out ‘BATESY’. Rival coaches know all about the skills she brings to the court.
       On the evening of September 15 I attended a volleyball match featuring The Villa Maria Academy against St. Basil. St. Basil Academy is the number 1 ranked team in the Greater Philadelphia area with great power attacking and serving. Such constant pressure presents a serious challenge to those players who must dig the attacks, take serves and pass the ball accurately so that offensive systems can operate. I mentionned their capabilities to Rebecca prior to the game and she said, “Great, I’ll enjoy the rush.” During the match Rebecca made a total of 42 touches on the ball in the three games played. She served 9 times, had 15 serve receive receptions, 15 defensive digs and 3 ten ball attacks one resulting in a kill. On a grading scale for passes of 3 being near perfect and 2 very good and 1 ok but  causing offensive restrictions I counted 2 digging errors, 1 pass that would receive  a 1+ and one pass that  resulted in the opponents immediately getting a point. When I pointed these passing scores to her at the conclusion of the game she said” 4?  That is too many”. 
St. Basil won that match. I asked  St. Basil’s coach, Doug Blystone, what the game strategy was and he replied,” KEEP THE BALL AWAY FROM BATES!”.
Joe Boland the longtime coach at Villa found the perfect phrase to capture the aura of this player: “The proof of her excellence is that for a good player, a coach or an observer would remember specific plays where the player stood out. In Rebecca’s case, stand out plays are routine, so what sticks out in one’s mind are the rare, very rare errors. That is the ultimate testimony to her excellence.”
Mark Clark, the Head Volleyball Coach at Garnet Valley says” she maybe the best libero we have ever seen in this area”. Mark has a daughter that was no slouch as a libero either.
 She has applied for and completed much of the overwhelming paper work required to get into the Air Force Academy. She is looking forward to the military career and the opportunities presented by that service. I mentionned that she would have to jump out of the plane and practice parachuting she replied”Yeah, isn’t that exciting”. 
Energy, enthusiasm, organization and planning are such compelling character traits of’Batesy’ fitting into her own determination seeking perfection.  She just may get there.

Roger Dietz

Tuesday, September 27, 2011