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Highlands Today

Panthers' Tune-Up Goes Well

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By CHRIS HOFFMAN

Highlands Today

Published: August 25, 2008

LAKE WORTH - Coaches often say their teams can only do so much in practice before it's time to see players react to real game-time situations.

Such is the case for South Florida Community College head volleyball coach Kim Crawford, who was upbeat and positive about her Panthers' execution and hustle during the Palm Beach Jamboree on Saturday.

"This was a great venue to give everybody playing time and also mix and match as far as our rotations to see what combinations work the best," Crawford said. "I'm really pleased with what I saw in terms of hustle and overall desire to get better."

The Jamboree featured Webber International University, Indian River, Northwood University and the host Palm Beach Community College, and all the teams played one another in a non-scoring event to give the teams a warm-up to the regular season.

Crawford used this event to put her team in situations where they'd be challenged, and the players showed that they're up to the task.

"They showed me that they can overcome obstacles and challenges that come up in games," Crawford said. "But we, as a team, have so much more to work on to get better by the time conference play begins."

Serve/receive and ball control were the biggest red flags Crawford mentioned when asked about the overall performance of her Panthers, with their passing skills being the biggest question mark.

"Our passing wasn't up to par," Crawford said. "We couldn't run an offense really, and until we pass better, we're going to have a long road this season.

"It's not that the girls aren't working hard, but we have to be able to put points on the board and if it wasn't for our defense we wouldn't have performed as well."

Setter Brieanne Engel showed tremendous hustle on the court chasing down balls, while Heloise Antony has shown the passion for the game that Crawford craves.

But the coach still have some advice for her newcomer.

"Heloise has a ton of energy, but she sometimes gets wrapped up in her mistakes," Crawford said. "She's the first one to cheer her teammates on and the last one to stop, but I think she's a bit too hard on herself and I'd like to see her smile once in a while."

The transition game sparked by the Panther defense was catching many teams out of position and was a high watermark for Crawford, noting she understands the task of building a better offense around such a young team.

"Our defense was really messing up the other team's line of defense with our transition game," Crawford said. "But you can't expect to win night in and night out with just defense."

Today's practice at the Panther gym is expected to be a rough one for the girls, not only because of so much work to be on the court, but it is the first day of classes and the transition to being a student/athlete, which will present the team with a pile of distractions.

"As a coach, you have to keep the girl's focused through all these distractions," Crawford said. "They've had The Hotel Jacaranda to themselves for three weeks, but now they've got the baseball and softball teams there, and that presents a whole new set of distractions.

"Monday's practice is going to be a spirited one. We're going to go through every rotation and also do a lot of catch and throw drills to improve our passing skills. We've only got two weeks before conference play begins and we need to be ready."

The Panthers begin the regular season on Tuesday, when they travel to play Florida College in Temple Terrace. Crawford has tried to prepare her team for the raucous atmosphere this small college generates and hopes it will prepare her team for the rigors of playing in hostile territory.

"Florida College is really small, but they pack that gym and it gets really loud," Crawford said. "I want to get these girls use to communicating in a hostile environment and learn to dismiss everything but their opponent and playing together as a team when they're on the road.

"Florida College is one tough place to play."

SFCC will host their first home game on Thursday when they face Broward at 7 p.m.

Chris Hoffman can be reached at 863-386-5827 or at choffman@highlandstoday.com.

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