GIRLS YOUTH
VOLLEYBALL
SPRING 2017 SEASON
COACHES MANUAL
NOW YOU’RE A COACH!
Thank you for your interest and willingness to coach in the Henderson County Parks &
Recreation Youth Girls Volleyball League. Coaching is not an easy task and can sometimes
be overwhelming. It is not just rolling the volleyballs out and letting the girls play.
Coaching involves physical and mental preparation of our kids, communication,
sportsmanship, discipline, and most of all teaching our kids the fundamentals of volleyball
while still emphasizing FUN!
1. FUN
Sports should be fun. If you don’t accomplish anything else, make certain your
players have fun! Our overall program goal is for the girls to have fun this season,
learn the fundamentals and ultimately want to play volleyball in the future. So,
please use some HUMOR and VARIETY in your practices, don’t pick the same kids to
“go first” each time, communicate positively with your team and help them to
communicate positively with each other and show encouragement at all times.
Measure your success by the kid’s efforts, not the results. PLEASE REMEMBER:
“Take the fun out of the sport, and you’ll take the kid out of the sport.”
2. COACH’S ATTITUDE
Like it or not, you have made a decision to become a ROLE MODEL for the girls on
your team. With this comes some responsibility on your part. We must remember
that these are girls ages 8-14, not professional athletes. Sometimes coaches at this
youth level can get caught up in the action and forget what this is all about. This
league will not tolerate anger, heated discussions, physical discipline, and any other
such actions. Always concentrate on positives! Lots of encouragement, affection,
patience, and understanding. If you rely on these attributes, you will be successful.
3. PLAYER’S ATTITUDE
Teach the girls to congratulate each other. This will minimize the competition
between teammates. Always try to eliminate name calling, pestering and negative
peer pressure among your players. Let them all know that a positive attitude is
important!
4. STRETCHING
We need to teach the kids the importance of stretching. Coaches, use some amount
of time at the beginning of each practice to stretch and warm-up. This is a good time
to talk and get to know the players.
5. TEACHING THE FUNDAMENTALS
There will be a wide range of ages, experience, and skill levels in this league. Many of
the girls have some experience, but a large segment of the girls will be playing
volleyball for the first time. So for this league you will need patience, patience, and a
little more patience! Some girls will be better than others, but be careful not to bring
too much attention to that. Lots of encouragement and positive feedback will always
get the most effort from your players. When first learning any sport, technique is
important! Teach them the proper technique of all basic volleyball skills like serving,
passing (forearm underhand), passing (overhand, overhead, and setting), attack
(hitting) options, blocking (attack, defend) and defensive skills. All players should be
taught the basic rules, positions and substitution rotations for this league as well.
6. PARENT ASSISTANCE
If you don’t have an assistant, get one! Parents will help. One or more assistants will
aid in making your practices more efficient. Assistants can help getting the players
organized and lined up for drills. Maybe you have a parent who has some volleyball
experience and can aid in teaching skills and answering questions from your players
about technique. Having additional eyes and ears out there with you will prevent
confusion and chaos, thus leading to a better playing experience for your girls.
7. COACHING RESPONSIBILITIES
 Communicate with parents and make sure they know practice and game times.
 Be at all practices and games. If there is a game or practice you cannot attend,
make sure you have another parent who will “fill-in” for you. If this is the
case you are responsible that they know everything laid out in this manual.
 Stress proper parental and player conduct during games and practices.
 Inform players and parents about proper volleyball equipment: our
department will provide all coaches and players team shirts that must be worn
on game days. Parents will need to provide the required soft soled tennis
shoes and shorts. Knee pads are not required but strongly recommended and
need to be supplied by the parents also.
 Teach your players basic volleyball skills, techniques and rules.
 Make sure game coaching adheres to all the rules laid out in this manual.
 DO NOT try to officiate the game from the bench! Referees are human and
will make mistakes from time to time.
 Keep a positive attitude and make sure your players do as well, win or lose.
 ALWAYS teach, demonstrate, and stress GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP!
COACHES INFROMATION
PLAYERS/ROSTERS
Players are organized on teams according to age, school and requests (whenever possible).
LOCATION
All league clinics, practices and games will take place at the Henderson County Athletic
Center gymnasium located at:
708 South Grove Street
Hendersonville, NC 28792
PRACTICE
AGE DIVISION
8-10
8-10
8-10
8-10
11-14
11-14
11-14
11-14
COACH
Sharon Orr
Laura McGraw
April Bryson
Stefanie Adams
Nicole Oursler
Che’ Payne
Andi Marshall
TBD
DAY
Tuesday
Thursday
Thursday
Thursday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Thursday
TIME
5:30-6:30pm
5:30-6:30pm
6:30-7:30pm
6:30-7:30pm
6:30-7:30pm
6:30-7:30pm
5:30-6:30pm
5:30-6:30pm
The gym will be available on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s at starting at 5pm and until 8pm if any of you
wish to get an additional ½ hour for practices, but not mandatory. Teams practicing at 5:30 may start
at 5pm and teams practicing at 6:30pm may practice until 7:50pm (if they so choose).
GAMES
All games will be played on Sunday afternoons. Gametimes can be 1pm, 2pm, 3pm or 4pm.
Games schedules will be posted by Friday, March17th.
Games will be played on the following Sunday’s:
March 26th: Game 1
April 2nd:
Game 2
April 9th:
Game 3
th
April 16 :
Easter Weekend: NO GAMES
rd
April 23 :
Game 4
April 30th:
Game 5
May 7th:
Game 6
th
May 14 :
Mother’s Day: NO GAMES
st
May 21 :
Single Elimination Playoffs
VOLLYEBALL LEAGUE RULES
PLAYERS ON TEAM
All teams will consist of 10 players on the roster.
PLAYERS ON COURT
8-10 Division:
6v6
11-14 Division:
6v6
If any team has fewer than 6 players they may borrow players from the opposing team until
they have 6. Teams can start with less players if this is not possible but must play
shorthanded. All efforts should be made by the coaches and officials to have a game if
enough players are present.
However, once a team has 6 players present, all “fill-in” non-team players must exit play and
off the team bench. As long as a team has 6 players those 6 will play the entirety of the game
(barring injury).
BALL
8-10 Division
11-14 Division
Volley-Lite Ball
Regulation Ball
NET HEIGHT
8-10 Division
11-14 Division
7 feet
7 feet
LENGTH OF CONTEST
8-10 Division
Games to 25, 25 & 15; best of 3
11-14 Division
Games to 25, 25 & 15; best of 3
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Teams do not have to win by two points, all games are to straight 25 points.
If the teams split the first two games, they will play a 3rd game to 15.
If a team wins the first two games they will win the match and teams can
“scrimmage” the third game as long as time allows.
SCORING SYSTEM
 All age divisions will use RALLY SCORING.
 Rally Scoring is when a point is scored on every serve, no matter which team served.
The team who wins the point gets to serve the next point. For example: “Team A”
serves the ball out of bounds, so “Team B” gets the point and the next serve.
TIMEOUTS
 All teams will be awarded (2) 30 second timeouts per game. These must be called by
the coach. Timeouts cannot be carried over from game to game during any match.
EQUIPMENT
 The Henderson County Parks & Recreation Dept. will provide all players and head
coach with a team shirt/uniform.
 Parents are required to provide shorts, soft soled athletic tennis or court shoes (that
do not leave marks on the court). Knee pads are strongly recommended.
 For all players’ safety, all jewelry must be removed prior to the game.
START OF GAME
 Each game will begin with a coin toss to determine the team to serve first.
 Again, if any team has fewer than 6 players they may borrow players from the
opposing team until they have 6. Teams can start with less players if this is not
possible but must play shorthanded. All efforts should be made by the coaches and
officials to have a game if enough players are present.
WARMING UP
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Teams will have 10 minutes to warm up before their scheduled game begins.
Only players and coaches that are playing in upcoming scheduled game may be on
the court during warm-ups.
It will be up to the referee’s discretion to increase or decrease the warm up time to
keep the games running on time as much as possible.
SERVING
Players may step up to the serve line designated on court to serve.
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Each player is encouraged to attempt an overhand serve with their first serve, but
may serve underhand at any time. If the ball doesn’t cross the net, they may have a
second attempt and serve either overhand or underhand. If they do not get the ball
over the net by second attempt, the other team is awarded a point and the serve.
Foot faults will be called loosely and up the discretion of the referee. As the season
progresses serve foot faults may be called more tightly.
LET SERVE
 If the ball is served and hits the net, play will continue as long as it crosses to the
opponent’s side.
SERVE LIMIT
 If one player scores on three consecutive serves, the ball will automatically be given
to the other team to serve.
ROTATIONS
 Each time a team receives the serve, a rotation MUST occur.
 Teams must all rotate clockwise. If there are substitutes, the front right players will
rotate out and the substitute will rotate in to serve.
SUBSTITUTIONS
 In an effort for players to have as close as possible to equal amount of playing time
this league will use ROTATIONAL SUBSTITUTIONS.
 One substitution MUST be made each time a team gains possession of the ball.
 The substituting player should step into the serving position, play in each position on
the floor, and then be replaced with a substitute before rotating back into the serving
position.
GAME VIOLATIONS
 Net Fouls – All net fouls will be called. No player shall make contact with the net or
step over the midline.
 Illegal Hits
1. Open hand/palm hits (underhand or overhand) which cause the ball to
come to rest or cause the ball to be thrown will be called.
2. It is illegal for the same player to play the ball in two consecutive contacts
(double hits).
3. Illegal hits will be called more liberally in this league.
AFTER THE GAME
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Always line your team up to shake hands with the other team and coaches.
Congratulate your team on their effort and make evaluations on what skills your
players are lacking so you can focus on them during practices.
RULE INTERPRETATIONS
 All questions on rules will be discussed on the floor by the officials and/or supervisor.
If there is a specific rule(s) in question, please contact the Parks & Rec Athletic Center
office so we can address the situation for future games. Please keep in mind that the
example you set as a coach will be one your players are sure to follow.
* The Parks & Recreation Department will be the final authority on all issues and will act in
the best interest of the program.