For most people in college, summertime is a reprieve from the pandemonium of school.
But for Lobo volleyball, the months between school year are hardly a vacation. Summertime for the Lobos means one thing: It’s time for camps.
The New Mexico volleyball program’s slate of youth camps is a summer highlight for the players and alumni, as it gives the Lobos a chance to give back to their younger fans and share some of the experience they’ve cultivated as collegiate players.
This summer’s group of camps, which featured six camps between indoor volleyball and beach volleyball, was no different for current and former UNM players.
Between the young freshman, the seasoned seniors and the alumni of the program, the Lobos enjoy coaching at the camps, sharing their different perspectives with the next generation of volleyball.
“We always look forward to camps in the summer,” senior Julia Warren said during the Advanced Skills Camp. “It’s a great way to give back. All of the girls come to our games and see us play. We’ve signed autographs for probably every girl at camp. It’s just a way for us to get to know them on a more personal level.”
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| Lobo freshman Lauren Twitty (standing) | |
Virtually all of the camps that UNM offers under head coach Jeff Nelson experience good attendance, so it gives the Lobo players past and present the opportunity to really have an impact in the volleyball community.
Camps like the Advanced Skills Camp, which features a number of young volleyballers eyeing to improve under the tutelage of collegiate players, are the biggest sources of enjoyment for the Lobos.
“I think the big thing is being able to help girls that look up to you and actually seeing a difference in their play if you help them and they work on it and improve,” freshman Lauren Twitty said. “It gives you so much more confidence and it make you want to help other people. It’s such a great experience.”
Twitty also channelled the enthusiasm she experienced as an attendee at the camps in the past into her coaching.
“Watching the coaches last year have so much enthusiasm and then talk to you and interact you, that was an inspiration for me,” Twitty said. “That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to interact with the kids and get to know them a bit like the coaches did last year with me.”
But the real payoff for the Lobos coaching at the camps is witnessing the improvement of the campers.
“I really enjoy coaching the camps,” alumna Hannah Johnson, a 2016 UNM grad, said. “… My favorite part is seeing them on the first day of camp and then seeing them on the last day of camp and seeing how much they’ve improved in the few days they were here. Seeing all of their improvement is my biggest source of pride as a camp coach.”
For the older players and the alumni, the joy of seeing the campers improve under their guide also helps feed the need to improve the program.
Some of the campers will eventually move up to the collegiate ranks, and a few of those might head to New Mexico to play.
It happened before with players like Twitty, who attended the camps last year, and it’s another source of pride for the Lobos coaching during the summer.
“Almost being an alum of the volleyball program, we always want to leave the program better than when we came in it,” Warren said. “So teaching these girls the skills that they can build in the future is just going to make the program better and better.”
However, between the learning experience and the teaching experience, the camps are still all about everyone’s shared love of volleyball.
That’s why the campers come and why the Lobos spend their summers giving back to their fans and sharing their experience.
“It’s awesome to share our knowledge of volleyball with them,” Warren said. “We’ve done thousands of reps and have played so much volleyball and all of us have so much knowledge, why not share it? We’re always looking to help.”