Skylight volleyball camp is a success again

Montana State University-Northern head volleyball coach Bill Huebsch has built a summer volleyball camp that has become respected around the state and this past week showed why, as volleyball players from across Montana converged on Havre to participate.

Huebsch and the Skylights actually ran two separate camps this week, starting Monday with the younger kids camp, which was open for grades five through eight. Then, the camp for high school kids followed later in the week, starting Thursday. It will conclude Saturday inside the Armory Gymnasium.

"We only had about a dozen kids pre-register," Huebsch said of the young kids camp. "But we about doubled that with registrations at the door, so it was good to see that kind of turnout."

With the grade 5-8 camp, the Skylights offered plenty of fundamental drills and a lot of one-on-one instruction time, not only with Huebsch, but with his players and assistant coaches as well. The long-time head coach said one thing that made camp different this year was that all of his players were in attendance, instead of just a few.

"With the way our schedule worked out and with our two-a-days coming up, we just decided to have everyone come and do the camp," Huebsch said. "It was just really nice to have all those extra hands and eyes and everyone helping out."

The younger kids certainly put in some work on the volleyball court throughout the three days, but they also had some fun too. On Wednesday, they took part in what Huebsch calls the Skylight Olympics, which was a series of challenges combined with a talent show.

"We started doing that about three or four years ago," Huebsch said. "It's just something we do to keep things fun."

With the older kids, the fun was more limited and the volleyball work was a little more serious. The high school camp runs all day, with sessions in the morning, afternoon and evening. The turn out was even better than with the younger camp and with all of the kids participating, Huebsch and the Skylights even set up some nets outside to accommodate everyone.

"We had so many kids here," Huebsch said. "We wanted to make sure that our lines weren't too long, so we decided to spread it out so we could make sure each kid gets more reps."

Not only did the camp attract around 50 players or so, they came from all across Montana, something that Huebsch said is great for recruiting purposes.

"We have kids from Wolf Point, to Poplar, to Hamilton, to Canada," Huebsch said. "We advertise, but a lot of it is word of mouth and a lot of them are return campers, who enjoyed themselves that last time because we are doing the right things.

"It gives us a chance to look at a lot of different kids," He added. "It's just hard for us to get out and see kids play with the way that our season falls and their season falls. This way we can get a lot more Montana kids and maybe we will see someone that we might have missed."

While the camp is a positive from a recruiting aspect, Huebsch also said the fact that all of his players are working the camp, will also help team building as the Skylights get set to open their season in the coming month.

"It's been great for the team and coming together," Huebsch said. "They go eat together, they have to work together and it gives them a chance to get to know each other better."

Huebsch and his players will continue working with the high school campers today and Saturday when the camp wraps up.