On the Palestra floor girls are serving, setting and digging volleyballs. This scene could describe practice any day for the Penn volleyball team.
Except on this day, the Penn players are not the only girls on the court. They are joined by about 50 local high school and middle school volleyball players.
On Saturday the Penn volleyball team hosted its annual volleyball clinic. Each year the team invites girls from local schools to spend an afternoon at the Palestra.
The visiting students get an opportunity to watch a Penn volleyball match and then join the team on the court to work on their skills.
"It's just something we do for the Philadelphia schools," Penn coach Kerry Carr said. "Volleyball will get better in Philadelphia if more [kids play]."
This year the clinic was extra special for one area high school.
With a little help from Penn, West Catholic High School has revived its volleyball program this year after four years without a team.
Ever since the school's administration dropped volleyball, athletic director Joe Hasson has been determined to get a team back together. This year he was able to bring volleyball back on the club level.
One main reason for his success was that he finally found a faculty member willing to coach the team. West Catholic math teacher Al Koerner signed on as head coach this season.
Koerner played volleyball recreationally throughout college and loves the sport. Although he knows the game well, he does not have any experience coaching.
Thus, West Catholic had been looking to outside sources to help get things started.
When Hasson heard about the clinic, he "immediately jumped on."
The team was able to bring 14 girls to the clinic out of a total of 24 team members. There are 12 girls each on the varsity and junior-varsity squads.
The girls enjoyed the clinic, but they are mainly just excited to have a team back at their school. Most of the girls are playing volleyball for the first time.
"We might have four girls who actually played the game," Hasson said. "The rest are all learning."
West Catholic junior Melanie DiMartino is one of the players with some experience. She played volleyball for three years, in grades six through eight, but playing for West Catholic will be her first time in a league.
"I think [the clinic] was good -- [it] helped us with our skills," DiMartino said. "Next year we're going to be a league team. We're hoping to build up our skills and just have fun."
Next year the Burrs will compete in the Philadelphia Catholic League.
The team needs lots of practice to make the transition from club to varsity in one year. Practicing alongside an experienced college squad -- even if only for one afternoon -- will certainly make it go smoother.
The clinic "was great. It really helped me out on my serving," said West Catholic junior Michelle Anthony, who is in her first year playing volleyball.
Though many of the players, like Anthony, only started playing a few weeks ago, the Quakers' players were impressed with their performance.
"They're much further along than I was at that age," Penn junior defensive specialist Liz Hurst said. "They're really positive; they take everything we say. They're going to be successful with that kind of attitude."
That positive attitude has proven necessary, as the team has had to overcome some early handicaps this season in addition to lack of playing and coaching experience.
Since the administration had not approved the team yet, practice did not start until two weeks into the school year, well past the usual August starting date.
Even after getting approval, the team still had to deal with limited facilities. West Catholic has only one gym, which the team must share with both basketball teams. This limits volleyball practice to twice a week.
Another problem was that the school no longer had sufficient equipment to run the program.
Fortunately for West Catholic, Penn stepped up to help here as well.
"They had expressed a need for any equipment we could offer," Penn assistant coach Brandon Roth said. "We went through and found any equipment we had available, and we're going to donate that to help keep their program going."
After Saturday's clinic, Roth gave Hasson and Koerner three bags full of old equipment.
Although no formal relationship has been established between Penn and West Catholic, both sides have been happy with the cooperation thus far.
"I think it's great," Hurst said. "We're in this community to reach out and help out. [The West Catholic players] hopefully look up to us as college players."
Hasson is appreciative of all the assistance he has received from Penn in trying to restart his dormant volleyball program. His only hope is that he has not seen the end of it.
"Hopefully we can have some sort of relationship with Penn," Hasson said.
It has certainly been rewarding so far.
Giving a helping hand - The Penn volleyball team was instrumental in the restarting of the program at nearby West Catholic High School - Penn ran a clinic teaching girls from West Catholic, many of whom had never played before - The program also donated some equipment to get the fledgling team off the ground
