Bump, Set, Spike: Northville High Volleyball Players Prepare for Tryouts

Northville High School’s Varsity Volleyball Coach Amanda Yaklin will be starting her fifth season at NHS when tryouts take place next week at the high school gym.

Volleyball tryouts will be held on Aug. 13, 14, and 15.  On the first day of tryouts, sophomores, juniors, and seniors will participate in physical testing from 10 a.m. to noon. Incoming freshman will then complete this part of tryouts from 2p.m. to 4 p.m.

The rest of the tryout sessions will be open for students from all four grades, on Aug. 14 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and on Aug. 15 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

While one more evaluation session has been added to this year’s tryouts since last season, many different exercises will be used to test the players’ volleyball skills.

“We will perform physical tests with shuttle sprints, jump touches, and triple jumps, individual skill drills, including serving, receiving, attacking, setting, digging, and blocking, serve and receive drills, wash drills, free ball, and simulation of games and mini tournaments,” Yaklin said.

Yaklin expects there will be between 65 and 70 players at tryouts for all three levels, Freshman, JV, and Varsity.  From this pool of players, 12 to 15 will be accepted for each team by receiving individual congratulation letters in envelopes. 

Yaklin will work with assistant coaches Makenzy Wilson, Brian Coughenour, JV Coach Rick VanderVeer, and Freshman Coach Alyssa Zantello this season, starting with the first division game away at South Lyon High School on Sept. 12.  Freshman and JV teams will play at 5 p.m., followed by Varsity at 6:30 p.m.