CRESTVIEW — Florida State University assistant volleyball coach Gokhan Yilmaz was back at Crestview High School for a second straight year this week to work with the Bulldog volleyball team at the Florida State volleyball camp.
Yilmaz was pleased with how the three-day camp went and he was impressed with how much the Crestview players have improved in the last year.
“Things went pretty good,” he said. “It shows the good year they had and the work they are doing here has really worked for them.
“They look stronger and better in volleyball. The varsity group looked pretty good and the younger group is playing club ball, so everything they are doing is helping them.”
He said the biggest improvement he saw was how much more fundamentally sound the Bulldogs were from a year ago.
“Because they play year-round with club and after-school volleyball, they are better than they were a year ago,” Yilmaz said. “If you only play high school or middle school volleyball, you only play two or three months (a year), but if you add club to that, you play year-round and you improve two or three years at once.”
The camp covered the basics of passing, serving, hitting and blocking. There also were many team and game situations of four-on-four, five-on-five and regulation six-on-six games.
Bulldog coach Kathy Combest welcomed Yilmaz back for a second year and said she intends on making it an annual event.
“Everything he does are drills that we can use to practice the game and different layers of the game,” she said. “I think every coach can make your player a better player. There’s something new someone has to offer, no matter who’s coaching and doing the clinic.”
Combest said 25 of 28 camp participants were from Crestview, although Combest sent flyers and camp information to other schools in the area.
“I wish more people would take advantage of it because it’s right here and he does a fantastic job,” she said.
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview volleyball team learns Seminole style