Your future, our focus
Pohlman-Led Team Opens in Idaho
The Northwest College Trapper volleyball team, under the direction of new head coach Shaun Pohlman, dives into action Friday and Saturday at the College of Southern Idaho. Three ranked opponents await them.
Northwest is scheduled to face No. 5 Southern Idaho, No. 7 Salt Lake and No. 17 North Idaho this weekend. The team also has a game against the College of Eastern Utah.
“I’m exicited and thrilled to have the opportunity to play some of the toughest teams in the nation to start out with,” said Pohlman. “We’ll go out and give it everything we have, and regardless of what happens, our goal remains to prepare ourselves so we can fight at the end of the year for that Region IX title. We need these tough games to compete at that high level.”
Pohlman will be entering that fight with a roster comprised of mostly new faces to Trapper fans. Sophomore Cailey Washington and redshirt freshman Lauren Buseman are the only hold-overs from last season’s roster.
Three sophomores transferred into the program for Northwest this season — Alyssa Montoya, a setter from Colorado Springs; Danielle Schaal, from Twin Falls, Idaho; and Kristina Reitsma, from Jerome, Idaho. They’ll be joined by 10 freshmen, including local products Olivia Rogers from Powell and Brecka Carrizales from Burlington.
“We’re not going to be the flashiest team,” Pohlman said. “We’re not going to be a team that puts the ball down with a lot of power. We don’t have the personnel for that. What we have is girls that are very versatile. If one thing isn’t working for us, we’ll be able to do something else. That’s our biggest strength.”
Pohlman said he’s been impressed through the early practice schedule with the pace at which his team is picking up his system.
“The girls have done well in learning and implementing things,” said Pohlman. “That’s going to be one of our keys is being able to be more skillful in our execution of simple plays and not getting stuck in situations. One thing I’ve learned about this sport is that a lot of times it’s about how fast my team can listen and do what I ask versus how fast their team can do what their coach is asking.”
At the team’s first scrimmage at Montana State University- Billings, Pohlman said he saw flashes of both the team’s potential and the team’s youth.
“As you’d expect with so many freshmen, we had some first game jitters,” Pohlman said. “But that’s one of the points of the scrimmage is go and get those out of your system a bit. We did some things well. We saw some things we need to work on. We did a lot of free switching of people in and out and in and out to put people in situations and try different combinations.”
In a development that hopefully doesn’t signal a return of the injury- ravaged 2010 season, the Trappers will be down one player as play begins in Idaho as one member of the NWC roster contends with an ACL injury.
“The girls have done really well with the whole matter of a person going down,” said Pohlman. “We acted the next day and the girls have done well adjusting.”
The Trappers play their first several games on the road. The team won’t play in Cabre Gymnasium until Sept. 16 when Laramie County comes to town.