At  Net Results (2600 Research Drive, Plano 7574 – Google map)

Saturday’s schedule – court 2, Pools (ref, play, rest, play, ref, play)

• 4:00pm vs Nitro Elite Black, won 25-21, 25-7
• 6:00pm vs 900.2, won 25-14, 25-18
• 8:00pm vs TAV Black, lost 14-25, 18-25

Sunday’s schedule

• 8:00am vs Texas Image National, won 23-25, 25-12, 15-3
• 9:00am vs Skyline Roshambo Royal, lost 13-25, 11-25
• 12:00pm vs Tejas Rox, lost 23-25, 16-25

Tournament results

This was the second of North Texas Region’s three ranking tournaments where the best teams come to play. With us finishing 21st at the first ranking tournament and seeing how other teams have improved, we were a little nervous.

For Saturday, our goals were to beat Nitro Black whom we had a tied game with a week ago, and to make Gold playoffs. The girls did both!

On Sunday, we got a little greedy and wanted to finish 9th but stumbled a bit not able to get past Tejas Rox to finish 16th. Short of our goal but it’s still progress.

The highlight of this tournament was getting to play against Skyline and TAV’s top teams. We’re no match for them but it was good to see the Kaboom girls play unfazed and well against them. It was fun to watch.

Texas Fest next weekend would be our 5th tournament in 6 weeks. That’s a lot of competition but the girls are handling it very well, learning to bounce back from tough losses and are getting better each week  as we prepare for Colorado Crossroads later this month. Go Kabooms!

At  the Dallas Convention Center (650 S Griffin St  Dallas, Texas 75202 – Google map)

Saturday’s schedule – (Hall F) court 14, Pools (play, ref, play, ref, play, rest, play)

• 8:00am vs TNT Hughes, won 25-19, 25-9
• 10:00am vs Instinct Cougars Elite, won 25-12, 25-14
• 12:00pm vs Nitro Elite Black, tied 25-20, 25-27

Sunday’s schedule – court 12

• 8:00am vs Club Legacy National Blue, won 25-18, 25-16
• 10:00am vs Texas Image Mizuno Kristen, lost 25-18, 17-25, 11-15

Tournament results

This tournament nearly went down the tube when team captain and 5-1 setter Kristen sprained her ankle in the very first match. The rest of the team stepped up to fill the void and turned to their defensive game to grind out points to win their pool on Saturday.

In the Gold playoffs on Sunday, the girls stepped up some more in reducing unforced errors to win against higher ranked Club Legacy. The Kabooms kept up their good play against Texas Image Mizuno to win the first set but didn’t have their usual level of offense without Kristen to close out the deal.  We finished tied for 5th place which is as good as we could hope for.  Great job, girls!

At  TAV-ASC (4302 Buckingham Road, Forth Worth – Google map)

Saturday’s schedule  –  court 9, Pools (ref, play, rest, play, ref, play)

• 4:00pm vs Instinct Cougars National, won 25-14, 25-18
• 6:00pm vs Club 900 13.3, won 25-22, 25-18
• 8:00pm vs Club Vertical Black, won 25-18, 25-21

Sunday’s schedule – court 9

• 9:00am vs Tejas National, lost 25-14, 8-25, 15-8
• 11:00am vs Ellis County Nationals, lost 20-25, 19-25

Tournament results

This was one of the the three “ranking” tournaments of the season where the best teams in the region came to sort out the region’s pecking orders.

The catchphrase “two steps forward, one step back” sums up our weekend. The girls did good improving their offense to win their pool on Saturday, in the process beating Vertical Black whom they lost to last weekend. Then on Sunday, despite all their efforts, the team didn’t play their best and lost twice in the Gold playoffs, even the consolation match, for the first time.  As the result we finished 21st out of 48 teams, well below our expectations.

The team was well situated in the playoffs for a deep run thanks to good pool results but just couldn’t hang on to the opportunity. Still, what we love about these girls is that with two tough tournaments in consecutive weekends, they were given the choice of not having practice on Tuesday and they said no, wanting to get back to work. That’s the spririt!

At  VIP(1909 10th Street, Suite 400 Plano, TX 75074 – Google map)

Saturday’s schedule  –  court 2. Pools (play, ref, play, ref, rest, play)

• 2:30pm vs NorTex Black, won 25-16, 25-16
• 4:30pm vs Dallas Summit White, won 25-15, 25-15
• 6:30pm vs Texas Image Mizuno Kristen, tied 25-21, 19-25

Sunday’s schedule – court 2.

• 10:00am vs Tejas National, won 19-25, 25-17-15-4
• 11:00am vs Blackhawks Natinal, won 21-25, 25-21, 15-8
• 1:00pm vs Club Vertical Black, lost 21-25, 25-20, 15-9

Tournament results

After the last tournament, the girls did good working hard to shore up weaknesses to come to this tournament more ready to compete. And they sure did, to win coming from behind twice to finish higher in this tough tournament (7 of last year’s top-10 teams came to play) than we could expect. That’s resilience. Great job, girls!

Another thing is with us being a small  team where  everyone gets plenty of playing time, which is good, yet the downside is our outside hitters and setters had to play with no sub the whole way and had to dig deep and deeper to play through mental and physical fatigue as the team advanced. It was great to see the girls pulled for one another and gave everything they had. They played hard and they had fun together, the Kaboom way!

As with the last tournament, we see more areas for improvement and we sure will get after it!

1. Work hard, be resilient. Embrace the cycle of working hard to improve, play your best, lose to a better team, get better from it, do it all over again.
2. Have fun. Enjoy volleyball and the team. Be loyal and supportive teammates. Make this the funnest Kaboom season ever.
3. Win 4 out of 5 matches. Win first place at least once. Win top-3 at least three times. This is how we got high rankings last year. If we work hard and have fun, we can win this well again.

At  Texas Assault (12750 Perimeter Rd, Dallas TX 75228)

Saturday’s schedule  – 8am start time, court 2. Pools (play, ref, play, ref, rest, play)

• 8:00am vs Tejas National, tied 25-15, 18-25
• 10:00am vs Dallas Force Select, won 25-12, 25-14
• 1:00pm vs Black Hawks Red National, won 25-19, 25-13

Sunday’s schedule – 8am start time, court 1

• 8:00am vs Lake City Edge Orange, won 25-12, 25-13
• 10:00am vs Absolute Red, lost 15-25, 16-25

Tournament results

We finished 5th out of 25 teams which is plenty good except we were hoping to go further given how well the girls have worked to prepare. On the other hand, we were able to experiment with different line-ups and in the process found a capable setter in Gillian who did amazing despite her lack of experience. We also saw Maddy who was a reserve player last year, play with great confidence to anchor the middle blocker position very well for us. Maddy stepped up big time to carry the team offensively when we needed her.

As for the team, there were many high points especially their strong play against Blackhawks National. Yet the best part of this tournament was seeing how they began the quarter finals error-prone and being steam rolled by Absolute Red yet the girls kept battling to find their A game to finish strong each set. Despite all their troubles, the girls didn’t give up and kept working at overcoming their difficulties. That’s the personality of this group of girls, that’s how they won last year and how they’ll do it again this year.

Have a wonderful Christmas break, everyone!

December 4 – Scorekeeper clinic, 4:30pm at Texas Assault

December 17-18 – Dallas Home Opener tournament, location/time TBA

December 19-31 – Christmas break

To renew last year’s membership, click here

To register for the first time, click here

Everyone also needs to print and fill out this medical form

The Kabooms took a month off after the club season before playing Summer league at Sportsplex.  They played up one grade and finished 3rd in the 8th grade division.

2011 Summer League

The girls also worked hard to get ready for school tryouts. 7th grader Lucy who goes to Providence made her school’s 8th grade team. The rest of the Kabooms go to Highland Park where we had 6 girls making the 7th grade’s A team, 1 making the B team. Great job, girls!

Here’s how the Kabooms did with the goals set before the start of the season.

1. Rank in the top 1/3. Yes, they did! They also went way further to make top 1/10  in North Texas, which is unreal.

2. Win top-3 at least 3 times. They sure did, too! Great job, Kabooms.

3. Win 1st place at least once. Not this one. We went for the more difficult tournaments, came close to this goal twice but didn’t make it. We also switched gears mid-season to play as a national team with the goal of qualifying for USAV National Championship in Atlanta. We didn’t make that goal either (only 4% of teams do), but aiming high spurred the girls to improve more than otherwise so we’ll keep doing it for sure.

4. Work hard, have fun, improve every week. The girls did work hard (also whined hard), had fun even when they shouldn’t, and kept improving week after week, tournament after tournament. It was a lot of fun to see.

For a former YMCA team coached by parents to have done that much, the girls had to overachieve week after week all season. And in the process, not only have they grown by leaps and bounds in volleyball skills but they also have grown as people too as they dealt with the challenges, on and off the court, that come with intense competition. It was good to see them being good teammates and be supportive of each other in difficulties as well as success.

A famous coach once said “Each season is a journey, and each journey is a lifetime”. This season certainly felt that way given how much the girls have done and how far they’ve come.

The Kabooms have had some great seasons and this one was the best. Thank you, parents, for your awesome girls. And thank you, girls, for being such great people. We coaches learned from you, too.

Go Kabooms!

At  VIP (1909 10th Street Suite 400, Plano, TX 75074)

Saturday’s schedule  – 8am start time, court 4. Pools (play, ref, play, ref, rest, play)

Sunday’s schedule – 8am start time, court 5

For the national teams in our region, this was the most crucial tournament of the season where the top 3 teams get to go to Atlanta in June for the USAV National Championship.  A lot was at stake and the weekend was like a mini-NCAA March Madness where the level of play was outstanding, where suddenly hot teams took down higher ranked teams with abandon.

The Kabooms were at their peak and were upset minded but could not get past our season-long nemesis, 7th ranked Texas Image Mizuno. We met them in the Gold division playoffs where the Kaboom girls made one gutsy play after another to tie the score at 12-12 in the third set to be so close to pulling off an upset we could almost taste it, before they finished us off in three quick points. Playing Texas Image always brings out the best in us and our girls played the best they could, mentally as well as physically. That’s really all we can ask for so this loss is still a win in our book. Great job, girls! And congratulations to Texas Image, we hope to see you again next year!

(Update:  Texas Image finished 4th in this tournament but will go to Nationals after all, receiving a reallocation bid from a team that declined to go. Congrats again and good luck in Atlanta!)

Kabooms + Texas Image

Then we finished the season on a high note with a wonderful party at the Wyma’s where the girls went swimming in 54 degree weather (just like them). Thank you, Coach Wyma and Mrs Coach, Kay for hosting us!

More photos…

Tournament results…

In computer ranking as well as coaches voting.

That’s 10th out of 92 ranked teams (126 teams if including those don’t want to be ranked or part-time teams that play few NTR tournaments) in North Texas, ranging beyond DFW from Wichita Falls to Tyler.

Before the season began, we were hoping to rank around 30th to make the top 1/3, which was plenty ambitious for a former YMCA team coached by parents instead of experienced professional coaches.  Making top 10 is awesome.

Great job, girls!

At the Dallas Convention Center (650 South Griffin Street Dallas, TX 75202)

Friday’s schedule  – 2:30pm start time, court 7 – Hall F.   Round1 pool (ref, play, rest, play, ref, play)

Saturday’s schedule - 8am start time, court 7 – Hall F.  Round 2 pool (play, rest, ref, play, play)

Sunday’s schedule – 8am start time,  court 13 – Hall F.  Silver A Bracket (single elimination)

This tournament will have 1200+, not players, teams.   It’s a monster of a tournament, the largest qualifier in the country with 180 of last year’s participant teams went on to nationals. Here’s the tournament website.

It’ll be fun, let’s get ready for it!

______________________________________

April 24th – Wow, that was some tournament. So many good teams from all over the country, even the semi-legendary Borenquin Coqui team from Puerto Rico (update: they finished 1st at nationals). Plus the unexpected twist and turns that made this tournament “epic” as Madeline said.

The week began promisingly with an extra good practice on Tuesday, then a fun practice on Thursday where the girls wrote their ideas on “How I can be a leader”.Then at the tournament, just as they were finding their mojo, came a big blow when our most versatile player Maddy badly sprained her ankle on the second day. The girls unraveled a bit to nearly have lost the next match against Texas Tornados, but were re-energized to win the match seeing Maddy back from the trainer’s. It was great to see their affection for Maddy.

Injured Maddy

With Lucy too already hobbling from tendinitis the Kabooms played on with just 6 healthy players.  They still finished 17th, above the 29th seed they began this tournament with. Great job, girls!A nice surprise at the tournament was meeting Sunshine 12 Elite, a team from California, whom we lost to twice. Each time was a hard-fought battle, and it was after the first match that two Sunshine players came to our post-game huddle to share heart-felt encouragement to our girls. As parent coaches, we want our girls to develop character as well, and it was a wonderful example of sportsmanship and leadership to see. We definitely will emulate it. Kudos to the Sunshines!

Kabooms + Sunshines + Justin

Something else to take away from this tournament after seeing some of the best teams in the country in person, is that we’re actually not that far off from them like we had thought. The amazing hits and digs that they do with every rally, our girls can do too once in a while in pracice. We just can’t do it at will like them on a consistent basis yet. It’s certainly doable to speed up the process to be as good as them if we set our minds to it to train as they do and be willing to work through the many struggles and difficulties that will entail. That would be a great accomplishment for a team like ours.

But I think the price to be that good is perhaps too steep for this group of girls to pay. We certainly want them to be passionate about volleyball. But not so consumed by it that they cannot continue to play other sports, do other activities to develop other talents.

We have one more tournament next weekend, let’s enjoy our last week of 2011 club ball and make sure the girls know we appreciate them.

Go Kabooms!

Sunshines + Kabooms

More photos…

Tournament results…

At ASC (4302 Buckingham Rd. Ft. Worth, TX 76115)

Saturday’s schedule  – 8am start time, court 8. Pools (play, ref, play, ref, rest, play)

Sunday’s schedule – 10am start time, court 8

Our goals for this tournament were to finish top-3 and to win against Victory National to recoup ranking points lost to them.  The girls did both.

It was, however, a bit of a wild ride with the team not practicing hard on Tuesday, perhaps feeling they’ve arrived given how well they did last weekend. They got back on track at Thursday’s practice but still began this tournament not playing well, quite error-prone unlike their normal selves as they tried to be more of an offensive team.  To their credit, the girls kept working at it and by the end of Saturday, they were at their best of the entire season, offensively and defensively to win pool play against TAV Black in a match where both teams put constant pressure on each other with great plays. The Kabooms handled the heat with teamwork and more mental toughness than we’ve seen.

They stayed on fire in Sunday’s playoffs to win convincingly against Victory National, then went toe-to-toe with Skyline Roshambo Royal (2nd ranked in the region) in the semis. To be fair, Roshambo Royal was playing down to our level but the Kaboom girls were oh so close in winning a big upset, leading for many parts of the match before losing 23-25, 23-25.

We’re (cautiously) so proud of the Kabooms.  With this tournament, playing with energy and spirit is now a habit and the girls have also added resiliency and mental toughness to their game. Great job, girls!

2011 Springfling

More photos…

Tournament results…

At ASC (4302 Buckingham Rd. Ft. Worth, TX 76115)

Saturday’s schedule  – 8am start time, court 3. Pools (play, ref, play, ref, rest, play)

Sunday’s schedule – 9am start time, court 4.

This tournament had 4 of the region’s top-10 teams, which is a bit of a rarity in this stretch of the season where national teams are traveling.  We were the 5th seed going in, and finished 5th place despite going through a tough bracket. Which was pretty good but the girls did way better than that.

This tournament marked the first time when they went from primarily a defensive team to winning games with their offense. Even the setters got into the act to have everyone on the team with at least one spiking kill. Definitely a milestone for us. The Kabooms won 4 straight matches spiking it up a storm to reach the quarterfinals against a very good Texas Image Mizuno team (8th ranked in the region) and nearly pulled off an upset but couldn’t sustain the high level of play to lose in the third set.  Hats off to Texas Image, we hope to see them again.

Us coaches and parents are so proud of the Kaboomers.  Playing with energy and spirit is becoming a habit and they’re starting to have an offense to go with their never-say-die defense. Watch out, other teams!

Tournament results

At the Dallas Convention Center (650 South Griffin Street Dallas, TX 75202)

Saturday’s schedule  – 12pm start time, court 3. Pools (play, ref, play)

Sunday’s schedule – 8am start time, court 1

We’re the #1 seed in this tournament (unlike the first 4 tournaments where we were bottom seeded being a new club with no ranking history). It’ll be interesting how the team will deal w/ being a favorite instead of an underdog. Let’s be ready, Kabooms!

————————–

The girls were ready and able, they just fell shy of closing the deal in the finals to finish 2nd in this tournament. Hats off to the Kabooms for their extra effort the entire weekend. They rolled through pool play winning it without letup for +86 cumulative points differential, then kept up the pace in the playoffs until the finals where they lost a hard-fought match that could have gone either way. Great job, girls, we’re very proud of your effort and spirit!

American Volleyball Challenge 2011

More photos…

Tournament results

At ASC (4302 Buckingham Rd. Ft. Worth, TX 76115)

Saturday’s schedule  – 2:30pm start time, court 9. Pools (ref, play, rest, play, ref, play)

Sunday’s schedule – 8am start time, court 9

This was the third and last ranking tournament of the season where all the region’s best teams came to play before they fly off to the various national qualifiers around the country. We signed up for the Open division again hoping to validate our recent 11th ranking in the region.

The girls did that by finishing 9th; and if success is measured by performing to one’s potential, the Kaboom girls nailed it.

They finished Saturday winning their pool by edging out (albeit narrowly on 0.02 points ratio) a talented Texas Image Mizuno team (8th in the region) then in the playoffs nearly pulled off a big upset over the Madfrog National Nicky team (7th in the region) before running out of steam physically and emotionally in the third set. It was so exciting and simply great to see.

Yet the best part of the tournament was how the girls played with energy and spirit throughout the tournament to win one tough point after tough point, in the process saw how effort and determination are keys to success.

Great job, Kabooms, we’re very proud of you all!

Tournament results

February NTR Computer Ranking (click on 12′s to see)

11th out of 98 teams. Way to go, girls! Definitely on their way to meet the 2011 season goals.

Our plan was to play this season as a regional team then to prepare for being a national team next year. But the girls have done exceedingly well, enough to be a national team this year, so we’re going for it.

We’ve upgraded our remaining tournaments schedule and have started to train more rigorously since last week (the girls were gassed but undeterred).  Our goal now is to improve at a faster pace in the next two months to have a chance at nabbing a spot in the USAV Juniors National championship (in Atlanta in June) by finishing top 3 at NTR’s Regional Bid Tournament in April 30.

It’s a long shot for us since only 4% of teams make it but it’s better to shoot for being excellent and end up being good, rather than aiming for being good and settle for mediocre. Go Kabooms!

At Sportsplex (5702 Alpha Rd, Dallas, TX 75240)

Saturday’s schedule  – 8am start time, court 5. Pools (play, rest, ref, play, play)

Sunday’s schedule – 2pm start time, court 3

The Kaboomers finished 4th out of 18 teams, which is plenty good yet also a bit disappointing since this was an easier tournament and the usually tough minded Kaboom  girls uncharacteristically didn’t rise to the occasion in an early playoffs game, where missed serves and break down in serve receives let a win against a good team slip away. Other than that, the girls had a great time as usual and did bounce back strong in a ranking match to clinch the 4th place. Way to go, Kabooms!

President's Day Tournament 2011

More photos…

Tournament results

At IAD (2800 North Interstate 35e, Carrollton, Tx   75007).

Saturday’s schedule  – 10am start time, court 2. Pools (rest, play, play, rest, play, ref, playoffs).

Polar Express 2011

Gold Finalists!

The girls finished 2nd out of 15 teams, winning 5 straight matches to reach the finals where they played their best ball of the day to almost pulled it off but eventually lost to a better team.  We’re so proud of these Kaboomers. Great job, girls!

Tournament results

At IAD (2800 North Interstate 35e, Carrollton, Tx   75007).

Saturday’s schedule  – 8am start time, court 1. Pools (rest, play, play, rest, play, ref)

Sunday’s schedule – 8am start time, court 3.

This was the second of the region’s three ranking tournaments where the more competitive teams come to play to sort out the region’s pecking orders. We signed up for the Open division hoping for the best while expecting to be outmatched more often than not. There were  stretches where our weaknesses were exposed and confidence shaky but the girls found ways to keep competing to improve their play as the tournament went on. They managed to squeeze into the top 1/3, finishing 9th out of 28 teams. Our highlight of the tournament was how the girls began as the lowest seed in pool play but battled to 2nd place in their pool to make the Gold bracket playoffs. Great job, girls!

Tournament results

At Texas Assault (12750 Perimeter Drive, Dallas, 75228).

Saturday’s schedule – 8am start time, court 3. Pools (play, ref, play, ref, rest, play)

Sunday’s schedule – 8am start time, court 2.

Winterfest 2011

More photos…

This was the first ever club tournament for everyone (players, coaches, parents) and it went better than we had hoped. The excitement and intensity of club play were as advertised and the girls had a great time.  They finished 5th out of 25 teams (won 5 of 6 matches, lost to the eventual champs). Great job, girls!

Tournament results

1. Rank in the top 1/3 throughout the season
   
2. Finish top-3 in at least 3 tournaments
   
3. Win 1st place at least once 
   
4. Work hard, have fun, improve every week 
   

January 4th – Tuesday and Thursday practices resume at Ridgewood, 6-8pm.

January 15-16th – Winterfest tournament

January 29-30th – VB Rags Invitational – Region Ranking Tournament.

December 2nd – 6-8:00pm at Ridgewood – Tuesday and Thursday practices begin for the 2011 season.

December 12 – 4:30pm – Scorekeeping clinic at Texas Assault (12750 Perimeter Drive, Dallas, 75228).

December 19-31 – Christmas break

With the players on Kaboom 2 moving on to other clubs (Texas Assault, Victory), we were down to one team. Then two Kaboom 1 players decided not to play club and we were down to 6 players.

Tryouts were held on November 8-9th. Welcome aboard to Lucy and Maddy.

November 6 –  The two Kaboom teams finished 1st and 2nd at the Park Cities YMCA. Kaboom 2 won the finals, beating Kaboom 1 for the first time in a non-practice game. This was our last season w/ the Y league and it’s been great to see the girls going from below .500 in 3rd grade and 4th grade to dominating the league the last 3 seasons. The other Y teams will be glad to see us gone next season.

November 13 -  The 6th grade Kaboom teams finished 2nd and 3rd at PSA’s 7th/8th grade competitive division. Kaboom 1 and 2 met in the semi-finals won by Kaboom 1, which then lost to a 7th grade Skyline team in the finals. Both Kaboom teams brought their A game to this tournament to compete with older players. The Kaboomers played tough and they played smart, the Kaboom way. Great job, girls!

PSA Fall 2010