St. Clair Shores

South Lake’s Rogers using game situations in practice

By Jason Carmel Davis
C & G Sports Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Erin Sanchez St. Clair Shores South Lake volleyball players get ready for a serve and return during an Aug. 23 practice. Coach Liza Rogers said she’s working on getting all the players on the same page. Photo by Erin Sanchez St. Clair Shores South Lake volleyball players get ready for a serve and return during an Aug. 23 practice. Coach Liza Rogers said she’s working on getting all the players on the same page.

ST. CLAIR SHORES — A St. Clair Shores South Lake volleyball practice is structured a bit differently than most.

Because of so many young and inexperienced players, Cavaliers coach Liza Rogers mixes game situations in with her drills.

Rogers said she has six returnees on her 12-player roster, but there is still a lot of youth on the team, which makes the hybrid practices necessary.

“It’s a mixture of things. Whatever drills we might be working on, we try and turn them into a game situation, so the players know what they’re getting in to,” said Rogers, in her fifth year with the Cavaliers, who had yet to play a match at press time.

“We work on basics and fundamentals, but anytime we can put them in an in-game situation is a plus.”

Rogers allows her players to call timeouts to ask questions about a particular strategy or scenario during these drills. Teaching her players how to respond in various situations is a part of Rogers’ building process, she said.

“It’s a lot of hard work building a program,” Rogers said. “Just getting all the players on the same page as far as skills, focus and drive, and getting them to understand what our goals are, but we’re working at it.”

Rogers said getting the South Lake players to understand the speed of high school volleyball is a sticking point. She said some young players come in thinking they’ll succeed just as they may have in middle school and get a rude awakening.

Rogers said she has a couple of players she thinks can step up as leaders, but understands everyone on the roster is constantly working to get better.

“We’re working on changing their mindset — at all levels, not just varsity,” Rogers said. “It’s a fast game in all aspects, and they’re not used to that. So we’re doing what we can to get them ready, and we’ll build from there.”

The Cavaliers next hit the court in a battle with Clawson set for 6 p.m. Sept. 25 at South Lake.

You can reach C & G Sports Writer Jason Carmel Davis at jdavis@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1107. Follow Jason Carmel on Twitter.