Ronan hosts successful volleyball All-Star showcase

Several high school volleyball players from the Mission Valley got to showcase their skills at the Mission Valley All-Star Tournament Thursday night at the Ronan Events Center.

The All-Star showcase included players from Class C through Class A selected from the following high school volleyball programs including Polson, Ronan, Mission, Arlee, Charlo and Hot Springs.

Maidens’ volleyball coach Charla Lake said she felt the All-Star showcase is a “good send off” for players that dedicated four years of volleyball at the varsity level and also an opportunity for players to get recognized for their contributions to their team throughout the season.

“Every (player) involved in the tournament is all competitive including myself,” Lake said. “It is just for fun, the players are all competitors and want to end their season (or career) with a victory,” Lake said. “It was great to see the girls encouraging each other.”

Finding continuity can be a challenge when a group of players are playing together for the first time.

“During the season there is a process of figuring out the dynamics of your teammates,” Lake said. “You have to learn to communicate with each other. Even though all of the All-Stars are very talented individuals, it takes a while to establish the communication.”

One of the organizers behind the successful All-Star showcase was Ronan’s athletic director Lucky Larson, who Lake said was instrumental in making the event come to fruition.

“(Lucky) does so many things in the community, is pretty selfless and cares about the kids,” Lake said. “I think that is a huge part of giving recognition for all of the hard work by the girls. There was a lot of time and dedication put into this event. It was a great way to recognize the seniors, especially the ones who might not play volleyball again, and send them off to their next journey in life.”

Lake said she felt the process of selecting players to the all-star game is “extremely hard” because there were so many key contributors on her team.

“It is extremely hard, especially with the sport of volleyball to select players,” Lake said. “(In volleyball), everyone has their specialty on the floor or on the field. It’s hard to narrow it down to a couple of kids to represent you and it was really hard to decide on two.”

Lake said she was “pleased” that several players were able to get recognition in this All-Star showcase.

“I think All-Star games like this are a huge part of giving recognition for all of the hard work done by the girls because they put a lot of time and dedication into playing,” Lake said. “It was great to recognize the seniors that might not get to play competitively again and it’s a fun way to send them off into their next journey. These girls have made friends Valley wide and they know the girls they are playing with. They may go to play college and it’s a fun way to get together with players that have been your rivals during the season. All of a sudden, they are your teammates and it’s fun to see them on the same side with you.”

Polson Pirates coach Patty Luetzen said she enjoyed getting to coach several of the talented players in the Valley.

“(All-Star games like these) are just a fun way to enjoy volleyball,” Luetzen said. “It was delightful. It was really nice to see Charla and the athletic directors took it upon themselves to run the whole evening.”

Luetzen said she enjoyed working with several of the other area talent in the Valley, which is talent they normally don’t get to compete against because of the different classifications.

“There were players that just sat on the bench and said ‘they were going to have fun cheering other players on’ when a girl would get an ace or a kill,” Luetzen said. “It was nice to get to know and coach all of these talented players for an evening.”

Luetzen said she enjoyed getting to know the players.

“It was delightful when you had one or two of them on the bench and you would have little discussion with the players on the bench,” Luetzen said. “It was all smiles and fun. It was a really fun event for the parents and great for the people that wanted to come just watch their kids play.”

The Mission Valley All-Star game looks to continue and is tenatively slated for the Ronan Events Center at the conclusion of the 2018 volleyball season. This year there were a total of six teams represented throughout the entire Mission Valley.