A new school year at Townsend Harris High School means a new volleyball season for our junior varsity girls and their coach Penelope Lymberatos. Although their season doesn’t begin until the end of September, this team’s strong mentality brought them to greatness last season, and will hopefully do the same for them this season.
Coach Lymberatos, third year junior varsity coach, plans on putting more focus on building the girls’ skills such as hitting, bumping, setting, and serving. She believes these factors will help the girls learn to compete at a varsity level. As Lymberatos says, “I prepare my team to play at a higher level of JV. I like to keep them ahead of other teams as much as I can.”
The JV girls have absorbed all of their coach’s advice leading them to become stronger future varsity players. One person who has experienced this transition first hand is junior Kasey Wagner. Now a varsity player, Wagner feels that being on the JV team has helped her become more comfortable with the game as well as becoming a more experienced player. “She [Coach Lymberatos] always encouraged us to try harder and taught us what we needed to know to improve our volleyball skills,” said Wagner.
Though not yet on varsity, junior Kimberly Newman, current JV volleyball player, has much knowledge on the benefit of playing JV. Newman states, “Junior Varsity has definitely helped me work on the basics of volleyball and how to better improve my skills.” Having such a strong and personal relationship with their coach also motivated the girls to a great extent. Newman finds her coach to be a great person on and off the court stating, “She taught me to push myself and to never give up.”
Sophomore Eriselda Cuni, once a player without much experience in the game of volleyball, found that she also benefited greatly from the help of her coach and her teammates. “Coach taught us how to work like a team. Because of her influence, the whole team became like a family.” This support from her couch has lead the JV volleyball team to be first in their division in their 2012 fall season.
Similarly current JV member, Amanda Chan was extremely appreciative of Coach Lymberatos’ efforts in improving the girls’ skills and understanding of the game. Like Wagner, Chan felt as though the team helped enhanced her skills and build up her confidence in the sport.
The Hawks are looking forward to another great season this fall, and with a number of incoming freshmen, they hope to stay on top of their game.
