Central Michigan University Assistant volleyball coach Krista Rice gives instructions at an All Skills camp held at Alpena High School on Friday.

For most student-athletes pursuing a collegiate career or who are hoping to catch the eye of a college coach, athletes must attend camps during their respective offseason. Usually athletes in northern Michigan will have to travel long distances to these camps in order to be taught by these coaches. On Thursday, athletes had the opportunity to attend a camp at Alpena High School put on by Central Michigan University and its coaching staff.

“I had heard that the CMU coaching staff had done a camp like this somewhere last year and I wanted to do something different with our summer schedule this year,” Alpena coach Stacey McEwen said. “I thought an opportunity like this would be great, not only for our athletes, but surrounding schools as well. The exposure to Alpena High School is great and it was really easy to set up and I’m proud of the turnout and I think it’s great for Alpena volleyball.”

Chippewa head coach Mike Gawlik brought his entire staff to Alpena for the two day camp that consists of several age groups that participate in the camps during different parts of the day. The camps were broken up by grade with high school athletes in one camp and junior high athletes in another. Roughly 120 athletes signed up and attended the two-day camp put on by Gawlik, Assistant coaches Adam Rollman and Krista Rice and Volunteer Assistant Maggie Baumert.

Athletes from around the area and conference attended the camp. A large group of Alpena volleyball players along with athletes from Rogers City, Alcona, Oscoda, Gaylord and Traverse City among others made up the number of over 100 campers.

“This is a really great opportunity to come up to Alpena. I think it’s a mission of ours at Central Michigan volleyball to be an accessible resource to people that want to play volleyball in our state,” Gawlik said “We understand its not always easy or affordable to come down to Mt. Pleasant, so we wanted to bring that opportunity to a couple of area’s in different parts of our state to showcase what we’re all about.”

The two day camp was put together as an all skills camp, focusing on every aspect in the game of volleyball. The camp gave athletes the opportunity to practice each skill of the game no matter where they may play at one the court. Back row players learned the skills and got to do the same drills as front row players and front row plays got to spend time doing back row drills.

“Some camps that we run have more of one skill or two skill focus, but this camp is designed as an all skills camp so we go over all of the elements of volleyball and give a well rounded perspective,” Gawlik said. “It’s more fun to do everything and some younger athletes may not know where they want to play, so this exposes them to that and gives them an opportunity to train at a certain position they may like.”

The Chippewa staff offers three day camps and after a quick and easy call to set up this first camp, McEwen is hoping to continue this tradition for her program and Alpena for years to come.

“The CMU staff was happy with our numbers and we are really lucky that we are able to have this superior coaching staff come to our area and put this on for the kids,” McEwen said. “The feedback from the kids was great and I’m really hoping that this is something that we can continue to do in Alpena.”