Player Spotlight in Kansas
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A quiet month on the court gives us time to spotlight some players. We’ve had some players tag us to their videos on our Twitter accounts and we welcome others to do such. Here are a few videos we checked…
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Continue ReadingA quiet month on the court gives us time to spotlight some players. We’ve had some players tag us to their videos on our Twitter accounts and we welcome others to do such. Here are a few videos we checked out and our thoughts on these players.
Rachel Van Gorp Rachel Van Gorp 5'9" | OH Heritage Christian | 2024 State #94 Nation KS – 2024 – L/DS/OH – KC Power 16-1/Heritage Christian
Van Gorp first caught our attention as a scorer for the back-to-back state champion Heritage Christian program. Even though she has exhibited the ability to play on the pins on the club scene, she has shown tremendous value as a back-row defender. A comp to us would be Oklahoma-bound Chloe Kaminski, who played for years with Dynasty before moving over to Power this season. Kaminski was a 6 rotation pin on the high school scene. She also played some on the club level but developed into a top-level defender. Van Gorp has that same “it” as a DS or libero. What catches our eye. in her latest highlight video is her instincts. She is quick with her first step to short balls and gets her hands up fast for balls down the line. Second ball passing is a strength of hers and does an excellent job of putting the pins in an exemplary scenario on the net for an attack. And even though we’ve focused on her potential transition to a primary defender on the next level, she can still fill up a stat sheet with kills. You can see her video here.
Campbell Chabot – 2025 – S – Topeka Saints 15-1/Seaman
We are still learning about 2025s, so anytime we can see a video it’s helpful. Chabot is a young player out of Topeka, KS and we immediately see some positive things in her play. One thing that stands out is her work to get her feet under her as she prepares to push the ball to the pins. This helps her strength and accuracy on ball placement. She is a start setter and utilizes the second ball over when she feels the defense sitting flat-footed. She looks pretty good with the jump set and we like the speed at which she operates the offense. Her defense from right-back is really strong. She shows some quickness on the court, which will only improve with age and speed/strength training. Check out her video right here.
Skyler Pierce Skyler Pierce 6'3" | OH Olathe Northwest | 2024 State #4 Nation KS – 2024 – OH – Dynasty 16 Black/Olathe Northwest
We like watching videos of players we already know about because it gives us an insight into things they have been working on in their game. One of the major things we see with Pierce is her shots. She is using the whole floor and seeing her expand her go thumb down and go crosscourt more this spring. Also, she is trusting her power to go right at the defender resulting in more kills off the tool. It was nice to see her going off of one foot behind the setter on some quick slides to add another area she can score from along the front row. Add that with more back row attacks, she is continuing to develop into a great all-around prospect. She has always been a strong defender in the blocking category. Her back-row defense is an area she will keep getting stronger in. Her latest highlight can be seen here.