Just as the school year starts, the fall sports season begins. Barstow’s Girls Volleyball’s season started on August 8th, with its first official practice.
The two coaches for this year are Head Coach Chloe Foster and Assistant Coach Lisa Tillema. Coach Foster has been coaching at Barstow for the past six years while Coach Tillema was a coach for eight years.
“We are a very young team, we have 20 underclassmen and only 2 upperclassmen. We graduated six seniors last year and they had been playing since they were freshmen. So we had a core group, now this year is more rebuilding. But we are looking good overall this year,” said Coach Foster.
“The team this year has a fair amount of new talent but the majority of the team are returners which creates a good foundation for the team,” said long-time Coach Tillema. “Both Varsity and Junior Varsity look promising this year, almost everyone was at the first practice which was a good start.”
Despite the relatively short duration of the Barstow Girls Volleyball season, their dedication is as strong as any other Barstow team’s. Even before the official start of the season, the players prepare during the summer. Some even condition during the spring.
“We’ve been doing workouts; during the summer we would come in 3 times a week,” Foster said regarding conditioning.
Both volleyball teams will be practicing every day to prepare for the many games they have scheduled this year. Do not fret if you cannot make a game; there will be many opportunities to show your support for the teams. The first game of the season is at Cass-Midway on August 30th, both Varsity and JV are playing. If you want to see what games are happening and when the schedule is already posted on the Upper School Athletics page.
The big event to look out for is Pink Out, which will be on October 6th from 5-7 PM. It is a breast cancer awareness fundraiser that Barstow contributes to each season. Every fall for about twelve years, Barstow sells Pink Out t-shirts and the volleyball teams wear pink all day.
The shirts are available at the online spirit wear store. Before the games, there will be a bake sale to help raise money. During the games, there are concession stands where proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which strives to find a cure for breast cancer.
“Pink Out is one of the bigger events for volleyball that we try to get the whole school involved in. There is a lot happening during this Pink Out game, we are playing Pembroke and it is also Middle School Night. So there is going to be a lot of fun energy going around that day,” Coach Tillema said.
Even though the school year only started, the volleyball season has been going on for a few weeks. Show some Barstow spirit by going to games to support the team. Go Knights!
