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Young ready to take over Jackrabbits
Kurtis J. Wood/Post-Register
Pam Young was hired to take over the Quincy High School volleyball program.
Pam Young has a vision for the Quincy High School volleyball team, and it is pretty simple – win some games.
Of course, in the Central Washington Athletic Conference, that is easier said than done. With the likes of Selah, Grandview and Ellensburg at the top of the conference, the road to winning has proved to be bumpy at best for the Jackrabbits. But Young just might be the coach to take the QHS volleyball team down the winning trail.
The newly appointed mentor is a 1982 QHS grad. She played in the state tournament during her senior year under the guidance of coach Diana Rector. Rector is the coach who had a lasting impact on Young.
“She was amazing,” she said. “She was a phenomenal coach and PE teacher. In three years she took our volleyball team to state and we didn’t have a dominant team. We just had a good coach. She just taught us how to win and work together.”
Young would like to have that kind of success in her new assignment. She has inherited a squad from previous coach Jeannie Brindle that has loads of varsity experience.
“I want us to win volleyball games. I want us to compete in this league we're in,” Young said. “It’s a tough league, especially the top half, but the other half is not and we’re not competing with them. I want us to be .500 in league. I want us to be a threat to even the good teams.”
Young has confidence in her players, and is determined to work on the basics of the game and get all the players up to speed from serving to passing and everything in between.
“I think we can compete this year. We have a group of kids that have been around more volleyball than a lot of kids have in times past,” she said. “My goal this year is to win some matches.”
The Jackrabbits’ one glaring weakness is height. The better teams in the league all have a tall player to lean on, but the Jackrabbits floor a team with players all under 5-foot-10.
“We’re vertically challenged, and that makes it a little bit tough at times,” Young said. “But we’re working out to help with that.”
She has designed a summer program with players forming three- or four-person teams. The goal of the program is for players to work on plyometrics and core training. At the end of each week the team captain will report back to Young with the team’s progress.
Time will tell if the program will pay dividends. But for now, Young is enjoying the hoards of players at open gym.
“At open gym we had 26,” Young said. “It’s the most I’ve seen since I’ve been helping. I’ve been helping with open gym for three years and there were times we had just one kid show up.
“I’m letting them know I’m excited and thanking them for coming and encouraging them to keep coming. It’s not to come to play and just have fun. It’s to come to compete and work on our skills. The attitude feels real positive right now, so I’m excited about that.”
Young said she liked the fact that Brindle put an emphasis on workouts in preseason. She added that she is going to take conditioning to a different level this coming season.
“I plan to condition a little differently,” she said. “I plan to condition on the volleyball court. I think our conditioning can be done in the realm of the game.”
Young is quick to add her coaching strength is fundamentals. But Young, who has officiated volleyball in high school and the college ranks for the past 25 years, has a vast pool of resources to lean on.
“I have a large bank of resources I tap into,” Young said. “I have a lot of people whose brain I pick. My strength is my resources. I’m around a lot of great volleyball each year.”
Young is looking to elevate the Lady Jacks to a new level on the courts. She has a passion for the game. She is willing to share her enthusiasm for the game - a game she admires.
“It’s an amazing game,” she said. “People don’t know what volleyball really is. It’s big. It’s powerful. It’s fun."
