LAKEPORT >> Two dozen athletes, most of them Clear Lake High School volleyball players, sharpened their skills this past week during the four-day Gold Medal Squared camp in Lakeport.
Gold Medal Squared and its experienced coaching staff hold hundreds of camps each summer across the country. This is the third year in a row Clear Lake has hosted one, according to varsity coach Marci Psalmonds. A full field of 24 campers took part.
On hand to coach the camp on Thursday, which was the final day, were Gold Medal Squared’s Rob Holley and Tim Voth. Holley, who has collegiate coaching experience, said the triple-digit heat this week in Lake County was nothing new for him after working camps in such places as Florida, where he said humidity as opposed to the temperature simply made things unbearable at times.
“I’ll take this,” he said. “Even with the heat, you can pull up in the shade somewhere and be comfortable.”
Clear Lake’s gym had a big fan working at midcourt to help cool the facility. Even so, the campers took several breaks to hydrate.
Holley, who worked with the varsity-level players on Thursday, said he was impressed with the talent of the Clear Lake squad.
“They’ve got some nice players,” he said.
Holley ran the campers through a variety of drills and definitely had the players working hard. He even mixed it up with them on the court, including blocking a couple of hard hits by Kiana Richardson, Clear Lake’s All-League first-team outside hitter.
Clear Lake returns several starters this coming season and is among the favorites to win the North Central League I title. The first official day of practice for the 2017 season is Aug. 14.
