Fifth Grade Girls Volleyball is a Smash!

OES started a fifth-grade girls volleyball team this year, and it’s already a hit!

 

Seventeen girls from the class of 2030 came out to play—and their head coach, parent volunteer Sarah Ellis, is having a great time teaching them the fundamentals of the game. “Volleyball is a very hard sport,” said Ellis. “By starting them so young, they can start learning these difficult skills at an early age.”

 

Ellis says she grew up on the volleyball court, and played in college, so she wanted to coach at OES. Her daughter, Kenan E. ’30, is on the fifth-grade team. Her other daughter, Brin E. ’28, plays on the Middle School team, and Ellis helped out with the sixth-grade team last year. Ellis said though she hadn’t stepped on a volleyball court since college, the enthusiasm of the girls brought her excitement for the game back.

 

“They all want to play,” said Ellis. “With 17 girls, we have to rotate. We have one practice and two games per week, and I’ve split them into two teams so everyone gets a chance to play every week.” “Right now it’s really not about winning,” Ellis added. “It’s about learning the skills: serving, passing, setting, hitting. But they have impressed me by how quickly they are learning. And the team dynamic is great. They are a very cohesive group.” Ellis said the other parents who also volunteer with the team are a great help.

 

One of the team parents is Niru Bulusu. She said her twin daughters, Isha N. ’30 and Anjali N. ’30, originally wanted to play because their friends were signing up. “But now they absolutely love it,” Bulusu said. “They have such a great time keeping the ball in motion.” “Coaching is harder than playing, I’ve learned,” Ellis said with a smile. “But it’s such a fun challenge, and the girls make it all worthwhile.”

 

The current fifth grade volleyball schedule is here.