This story
appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Monday, November 5, 2007.
By STEVEN NIX
Valley Press Sports Correspondent
When searching
for the right Volleyball Club to play for, coaching as well as player talent
are two major factors.
Antelope Valley Volleyball Club
has both.
AVVC has an outstanding cast of
coaches that have both played in college and found tremendous success as head
coaches in the Valley.
"We have coaches from all of
the top schools in the area," Cherland said.
"We all have the same goal of developing the talent out here."
Started in 2000 by Todd Cherland and Allison Vocke, AVVC
was a much needed relief to players who had to travel south to play club
volleyball.
"It mainly started because
there wasn't any volleyball happening in the Valley," Cherland
said. "We wanted to give all the talented athletes in the
The coaching staff is made up of
the best of the best from the Golden League teams. Larry Vocke
has had tremendous success at Quartz Hill, and Dave Gutierrez, who had a great
deal of success in the Santa Clarita Valley at
Rounding up the all-star staff is
Mike Kelley. Kelley took his Paraclete boys team to
the semifinals of the Southern Section playoffs last year
Rachel Behen,
paired with Andrea Buckner, led the 15 one's team to the Gold Division last
year, which is the first time a team from the Valley
has competed in the top division, ever.
"We have had tremendous
success and ended up being the highest ranked volleyball team to ever come from
this Valley," Buckner said. "I spend my time and money going to camps
and clinics so that I can bring all of that information back to the Valley,
because some of the girls may not have the time or money to do so."
Arlene Stockhausen and Ariane Labrzycki are two
up-and-coming players in the Valley at their respective schools, and know just
how much playing for Behen and Buckner have helped
them.
"I made varsity as a
freshman at Paraclete and the high performance team
for the
Sophomore Labrzycki
is having a very successful year in her first season on varsity at
"I chose AVVC because the
Revolution practices were too far," Labrzycki
said. "I like it because the coaches are dedicated to coaching. They take
their time with you, they work with you, and they do their best to make you a
better player."
Behen played college volleyball at the
AVVC combined with Nai'a in 2005 to keep from spreading the Valley's talent to
thin.
"We thought we could produce
stronger teams by keeping the playing talent in one club," Bucker said.
With Behen
and Buckner molding the younger players, it makes the job that much easier for
the coaches of the older teams.
Gutierrez is heading the 18's one
team this upcoming season, which is his first-year coaching an 18's team for a
club.
He definitely has the experience
to do so.
Gutierrez held the coaching
position for seven years at
"I needed a club job and I
knew that they were an established club and would run things efficiently,"
Gutierrez said. "I think it is a great club and really well run. I think
it's going to be exciting to coach the 18's this year, and it's something I'm
looking forward to."
AVVC players have also benefitted from the club, and moved on to play at the
college level.
Mojave graduates Shakora and Shanora Smith earned
scholarships to play at Alabama A&M.
Randy Cooper was recruited by
Midwestern University in Texas, Tara Henn played for
Pierce College and is now at CSU Northridge and Cora Peeler went to Behen's Alma Mater, Wyoming.
Last year's Golden League MVP and
major contributor to Lancaster's first GL title, Roxy
Neely, is now enjoying her time on the team at CSU East Bay which is one of the
top Division III schools in the country.
Neely played
for all three of the Valley's club teams.
She started out with Buckner and Nai'a, moved to Revolution for their first year, and ended
her club days at AVVC last season.
"When I played for
Revolution I couldn't make their practices because they weren't as close as
AVVC was," Neely said. "I knew Andrea (Buckner) from Nai'a and Gutierrez was going to be there as well. I knew a
lot of the coaches and they made me feel a lot more comfortable.
"The girls were also very
competitive which made it fun for me," Neely continued. "If you know
your team wants to win as much as you do it makes it a lot of fun."
With the end of the girls season near, club tryouts are looming in the next
couple of weeks.
As the girls make their decisions
for who to play for, the strong coaching staff as well
as the quality volleyball players that AVVC has produced in recent years will
be hard to ignore.