MV holds four-way scrimmage

FM's Elisha Nealeigh digs a ball out of the net for the Jets against Botkins.
CNO Photos by George Starks

Three county schools participate
By George Starks

UNION CITY- Franklin Monroe, Tri-Village and Botkins invaded Mississinawa Valley Tuesday for a rare four-way scrimmage.

According to Jodi Bauman (FM), Jackie Barnes (TV) and Hawks coach Scott Brewer, it was a prosperous night for all involved.

FM brings youth and a little inexperience and Bauman saw that exploited in the Lady Jets first scrimmage of the season.

“I’ve got only one girl on this team that played tonight that has any varsity experience from last year,” said Bauman “So really, I don’t have anyone that has a lot of experience. My setter was out tonight because she injured her foot recently and she was the starting setter last year. So I have no one with any real varsity experience and it showed.”

With such a young group, Bauman is mixing things up on the floor.

“We’re doing a lot of different rotations and a lot of at-the-net switching,” Bauman pointed out. “This was our first scrimmage and when you put it all together, it kind of shows them where we need to be at and getting more comfortable with where they’re at and who they’re playing with and how that person plays.”

Like in any scrimmage, there are positives and negatives.

It was no different for Bauman.

“We had excellent serve receive tonight,” said Bauman. “I can’t complain about that. I have a good bunch of girls. They give a hundred percent all the time. I would like to see better communication. We don’t talk enough to each other. The fundamentals were there and I was happy with that. We need to improve on the rotation and the switching and how we play. We need to tweak some things.”

For Tri-Village and Jackie Barnes, it was the second time in as many nights for the Patriot netters.

“”This was a great work-out for the kids tonight, getting to scrimmage three teams,” Barnes admitted. “Playing three different teams allowed us to work on a lot of different things. With a team like Botkins coming from the Shelby County League (SCL), they bring a different package to the table. The SCL is a tough league. We will see teams like them in the tournament. This was good practice for us.”

With the Pats on the floor Monday night, Barnes got a good look at her squad in the two days of work.

“We worked on a lot of things and got better,” Barnes stated. “We ran some zones and plays tonight instead of just hitting the ball over the net. We needed to do this yesterday so we were doing it today. We got out of rotation a couple of times tonight, but that’s just a mental thing that we need to fix. We need to communicate. I feel good about this team.”

Scott Brewer echoed the sentiments of Bauman and Barnes.

“We have a lot of things we need to work on,” Brewer said. “We didn’t communicate until we scrimmaged Botkins. When we got them, we started talking. Botkins is a perfect example of the way a team should be talking all the time. We need to improve on our weak side hitting. We got better in the middle of the scrimmage then we let up again. But all in all, I was pleased with the scrimmage.”

All three schools will start the season a week from Saturday in the county tournament at Bradford.

Action is set to begin at 9 a.m.