The Upstart

After several days of competition, the MIPA 2012 Volleyball challenge has finished leaving Newspaper Editors as champions.

It came down to the final game of Newspaper Editors and Advanced Indesign for Newspaper for the cup, but both teams had game plans on how to win it all.

“My advice for them is to keep doing what they’ve been doing,” Advanced Indesign for Newspaper instructor Jim Woehrle said. “They’ve been very successful setting up the attack, working it from the back end into the early offensive zone. What we’re trying to do is called the left-side flank, where they come in and then they set it up from the right side and then work what I call the left flank, which is where they try to attack what I call the A7 zone on the other side. If they can do that, they will be very successful.”

While the ‘Designers’ worked more with physical strategy, the ‘Editors’ focused more on their team’s mental strategy.

“Our plan is just to try and do our best as a team,” Editors’ captain Liam Brady said. “It may sound cliche, but that’s really what we’re going for. It’s a complete team effort. Really we just like to play it on the other team’s half and put the pressure on them.”

During the games workshop staff refereed the courts and had to make the tough calls.

“It’s insane because you get the really into it kids that think they should have every advantage and then you get the kids that are kind of like ‘yeah, it’s okay,’” Activities Director Melissa Mueller said. “We feel bad when one team is being really critical like super intense about it when the other team is just trying to play a game and be friendly. It’s intense. Everybody’s having a blast with it, even with the two different sized courts they were willing to roll with it and it’s been really fun.’

Once the victory over 21 points was accomplished, the Editors knew they had followed the plan correctly.

“I thought we did a good job of being consistent throughout the tournament and really we just got it over the net and did our best,” Brady said. “Really at the end of the day, that’s just really what we were trying to do at the start of the tournament. I’m glad things worked out the way they did, there was a lot of great competition.”

Due to the success of this camp-wide activity, participants can expect another Volleyball Challenge in future workshops.

“I think it was one of the best ideas MIPA has ever had to bring togetherness among the students during their off time,” Woehrle said. “I think it was a brilliant idea and we should have done it many years ago.”

SAMANTHA VANHOEF / THE UPSTART

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