Now that the 2016 volleyball regular season has come and gone for the Panorama Panthers, they will head into their off-season looking to refresh and regroup for 2017.

But this off-season there will be a different twist to Panorama Volleyball. In the hunt to bring back volleyball glory to the Lady Panthers, Panorama will be installing a much needed and desired feeder program for all young, aspiring volleyball athletes looking to develop their skills for the high school level.

Raccoon Valley Radio spoke with Panorama activities director Erin Ambrose as she described the upcoming feeder program and what it allows young volleyball athletes before the enter the high school level.

“We are starting our feeder program here in the offseason starting with 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders and really getting them familiar with the game and building those foundations and fundamentals so that when they transition up into the high school program those things are already developed for them. Then you can really fine tune your skills at that point and talk about some plays and work on different rotations because all of those things are already familiar,” stated Ambrose.

Ambrose also stated the problem seen by Panorama and other schools is the lack of experience that athletes have coming into the high school level and how important it is to over come that with the program.

“One of the things in our conference and with the other teams we’re playing they are running into the same problems we are that they are touching the ball for the first time as 7th or 8th graders. From a spectators standpoint it seems like it’s a pretty easy sport, you’ve got bump, set, and spike but there’s so much more to it when your playing good volleyball. That’s something we feel is really important, that’s why we’ve had success in our other programs because we can start them early and really nail down those fundamentals before they get into that junior high and high school program,” explained Ambrose.