Back to School...

Training camp is over. It was a short eight days of practice but all 20 girls made it. Not to mention our seven little New Cadets have graduated to Plebes!!! YEAH! Congratulations to Lauren Wood, Margaux Jarka, Megan Wilton, Megan Forbes, DJ Phee, Christiana Fairfield and Kerry Horan! It's only up from here.

Also, a big congratulations goes out to all our Cows (Juniors) for vowing to commit 5 years in the Army once they have commissioned as an officer in 2012! The upper classmen even bought them pizza and ice cream to chow down on afterwards (see picture). Congratulations Rocky Willis, Fabiola Castro, Kristina Keltner and Ali Giraud. We are all so proud of you!

Now that school has started things have slowly fallen into place. The girls attend classes in the morning and early afternoon then head down to practice around 1500. They practice from 1500 to about 1830 and then back to their rooms to study. All in all it makes for a long day but they are all working hard to prepare for our first home tournament on August 27. Only six more practices until we put it all together against FDU! We can't wait! Make sure you come out and support the 2010 Army Volleyball team!

Until next time....

Beast Barracks 2014

The dramas of R-Day have come and gone and now the seven incoming freshman are in full swing with the highs and lows of Beast Barracks. Fortunately, six days into Beast the girls had the opportunity to attend Mass Athletics. Mass Athletics is a time when the girls get to come down to Gillis and hang out with the coaches for a little bit. It's a good mental breather for our soon to be plebes. On Saturday, Alma picked the girls up for their first Mass Athletics. Even after a long hot day here at the Point, can you believe they were all smiles and giggles? We let them rest for a little bit then let them pepper back and forth and get back into touching a volleyball. Nothing strenuous, just something we know they all love.

The most comical thing to watch during Mass Athletics is the girls who have to wear glasses or BCG's (Birth Control Glass, they're THAT ugly) play volleyball. The BCG's are huge and annoying and frankly to an outsider...hilarious. (Note picture of New Cadet DJ Phee, outside hitter). Other than that, the new cadets got to meet all the Yearlings (aka sophomores) and hang out with them, get their advice and tips on how to make it through the next couple weeks of Beast.

For the next four days, the coaching staff will get to see the girls. Mass Athletics this week is every evening from 1630-1800. So we will no doubt be hearing more about who has the hottest squad leader, which person to stay away from and which squad leaders reaps the most respect.

There are sure to be more updates as the week unfolds. Until next time....

Summer Training...

Cadet Leadership Development Training

Cadet Karen Powell (senior and captian the volleyball team) converses with local villagers at the traffic control point outside the combat outpost. During the combat outpost exercise, companies of cadets were tasked with securing their area of operation from insurgent attacks while maintaining good relations with the local villagers. Missions ranged from negotiations with the village sheik, quick reaction team responses to attacks, medical evacuations and route clearing operations. The three-week Cadet Leadership Development Training for rising cows and firsties at West Point, N.Y., included marksmanship training, platoon attack engagements and urban operations to uncover high value targets (insurgent leaders) as the objective. Photo by Mike Strasser, West Point Public Affairs

Rolled and Ready for Graduation

A Class of 2010 cadet’s diploma with the commissioning certificate on top is rolled and placed inside its individual container May 14. Before they are presented to the cadets, each diploma and certificate is cleaned and proofread for accuracy. It takes about two weeks to proofread and another week to package the nearly 1,000 sets of diplomas and certificates. Graduation Week activities start on Tuesday with the Alumni Review and Exercise and culminates on May 22 with the Class of 2010 Graduation

The Terrible TEE's are OVER!

Friday...today is the day that most students have been waiting for since the first day of school, especially the seniors. Today is the last day of finals (or TEE's). That means only a week until graduation and summer. The students are off for the weekend and return to campus Sunday night for graduation preparations. At least the hard part is over! No more studying and stressing about finals. Just parading. :)

On another note, Army Athletics is taking the Patriot League by storm! Lacrosse, baseball, woman's tennis and softball are all Patriot League Champions! Softball and baseball are hosting the Patriot League Tournament here on campus this weekend while lacrosse and woman's tennis begin the first round of the NCAA tournament! Good luck to all the teams! How awesome is that!?

Well the weekend is only a couple hours away and the weather is nice, couldn't ask for anything else. Until next time...

18 days!

Here at The Point, warm weather has invaded the campus with record high temperatures this past weekend. Temperatures are rising as the number of class days here are dwindling. Cadets are itching for the next two weeks to go by quickly and anticipating Graduation Week, especially the seniors. Rumor on the street has it that Obama might be the key-note speaker this year. But I won’t believe it until I see it. As graduation fever engulfs the seniors, sophomores are struggling with the idea of signing their lives away to the Army or returning to the simplicities of being a civilian. Whereas plebes are just ecstatic that they won’t be plebes anymore. No more walking with your hands cupped outside or hugging the side of the hallways in the barracks or only being able to take one pass a semester. Oh yes plebes, I know you can see the light at the end of the tunnel now! So, for most cadets here at the Academy it is an exciting and scary time of year to say the least.

With only 18 days left until graduation, everyone is trying to get that last homework assignment in, study for their TEEs and say their last goodbyes to friends before they head off for their summer assignments. Here’s to hoping these next three weeks go by quickly…

Penn State Scrimmage

As the girls walked through campus, bystanders gawked at the sight of huge, tree-like girls walking around taking in the history of West Point. That only meant one thing...Penn State volleyball team had arrived. The day was a success. On Saturday morning our girls and the Penn State team got together to run a few drills and get some tips from 3-Time Nationals Championship coach Russ Rose. It was a competitive morning filled with intense drills, hard hitting and all out defense. Penn State even got a tour of West Point. They got to see the dorms, classrooms, Cadet Chapel and ]even got to eat in the Mess Hall. Yummy.

Each team was impressed by the other. Our girls were humbled to have the chance to play with 3-Time National Champs and Penn State was humble to learn about what it takes to be a student-athlete at a place like West Point and the commitment our team has not only to volleyball but to their country.

All in all it was a great day, each team learning a lot about the other. An unforgettable Spring Tournament for sure! Now our team has two more practice to get ready for our last tournament at the University of Rhode Island. Bring on the challenge!