Chesapeake Regionals - 16s Fighting For Indy

I did a little preview on 17s, which is easier for me, because I watch them so much, 16s I follow, but not AS closely, so this one may be a bit trickier. I'm probably going to have a couple teams where I don't have a standout to watch, so bear with me. It's just part of the problem of covering MD and not getting out to the VA side as much, that and I've had a weird schedule with a lot of out of town tournaments and not a lot of the regional ones where I'd see more of these guys. That being said, here's my attempt at a preview of the bid war for this weekend.   Virginia Juniors 16s - I've said a few times lately, this is one of my favorite teams to watch. They are really deep and have a lot of talent. I'm fully expecting them to come out of this one with a bid at some level. Last time I talked about [player_tooltip player_id='523664' first='Reese' last='Roberts'] and her flexibility, there are quite a few options here. This is a team with a great pair of setters in [player_tooltip player_id='536724' first='Ariel' last='Callwood'] and Zeynap Anaz, DS [player_tooltip player_id='725456' first='Audrey' last='Busch'], Bob is a huge fan of this one, I think I heard through the grapevine just recently committed. I could talk about DS [player_tooltip player_id='609504' first='Brooklyn' last='Rothwell'], or pin [player_tooltip player_id='471485' first='Kaelyn' last='Wharton'], but I think I'm going to take the easy route on this one:    Last time I mentioned her she was just getting ready to come back from an injury, and since she's been on the court at a couple recent tournaments. She's a fantastic middle in an area that just can't seem to produce enough of them. It helps that she's such a sweet kid, and congrats to her as she was just recently picked to do the NDTP Spring Session. Working out with players at that level can only help her game. I expect her to be a force this weekend.    CVA 16 - This team has some star power if you are from Maryland especially, but some are still a little too unknown for me. Let's see if we can fix that. First up, [player_tooltip player_id='857977' first='Savannah' last='Smith'], is a super athletic outside, one of my all county picks in AACO, who plays for Severn Run. Her teammate Xaria Johnson is setting for this team as well. KaLani Richardson is fairly new to the area and made a good impression at Arundel this year, and then one of my favorite players:    Anna plays for the talent loaded Howard High team that won states this year. She's had to share the spotlight with some big names, but it's about breakout time for her. If you've been watching you know she's a star in the making, just biding her time until she gets all the recognition she deserves, but she's a fantastic player. Full package, she's got power, she plays defense, she can serve, she's one of the next wave of stars in Maryland, and I think it's about time everyone recognized that.    [program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] Alec - [program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] has two teams in this bracket, not really surprising with the depth they tend to have. As I've said before my knowledge gets a little thin when I start to stretch out into VA, but I do know [player_tooltip player_id='893325' first='Bella' last='Pham'] is a great little setter. She plays for a tough James Madison team, and I've run across her a little bit. I know she's got a motor that doesn't quit, she plays great defense for a setter, and she's got pretty good hands. The other player on this team I know pretty well is:    This one is one of my favorite DS in the area. At the recent showcase in Richmond, she happened to be on the same court as another one of my favorites I keep tabs on, so I came across Anna as I was over watching her. They have a similar style, hustle, communication, and great defense. She has some serious range and is completely fearless out there, which is a great quality in a DS. There's been a trend with coaches recently to favor giving more back court time to pins that can play at least passable defense, but I've noticed more and more the teams I've seen losing in the more competitive brackets and tournaments are the ones where the defense and passing just isn't good enough and it's usually those said pins vs dedicated back row DS. Players like Anna are great for that and need to be appreciated more.    [program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] Maureen is the other team they have, and they've got some talent to choose from as well. I could talk about Aran Bernandes at pin, [player_tooltip player_id='744453' first='Megan' last='Elder'] at middle, maybe [player_tooltip player_id='588468' first='Bella' last='Chen'] at 'bro, but since I did a similar post about setter pairs, I'm going to talk about theirs. If I were to do a 16s version of setter duos, this would be one of the top in [player_tooltip player_id='541140' first='Maris' last='Francescon'], who has great agility and smooth hands, and...    Zaire, like her partner Maris has good size and agility. She moves the ball well and makes good game play decisions. I got to catch a part of one of their games recently and saw her make some good crisp sets, varying speed and tempo depending on the hitter. It showed great adaptation, and presence in the game to know and see when she had to change something up a little bit. A lot of setters do this almost automatically because they get it drilled into them at practice, but in the flow of the game, sometimes you have to see the timing or positioning is off a little bit, and you have to adjust. I got to see her do this live and it impressed me, it showed a level of awareness a lot of players don't have.    Maryland Juniors 16 Elite Black - This is another one of those teams hit hard by turnover in the region, but fields a couple key players and returners that can still do some damage. I can think of three that I could probably use for this spot, but for this point in the year I'm going to go with:    Dakota is one of a group of setters in the 2027 class that I don't think gets nearly enough respect in the rankings. Plenty of coaches want to write of shorter players and say there isn't a place in this evolving game. Others say rules are changed and put in place to get more money from shorter players. I like to let them play and show you if they can do the job or not. There's more than one way to play the game, and having a hitting, blocking RS that also sets is only one of them. Dakota plays a great game, shes got good footwork, good hands, and plays solid defense. She made a move in HS and got onto a team with great opportunity and ran one of the best offenses in the entire state. She's earned her attention, and it's about time we gave it to her.    Other teams at regionals that I either haven't seen at all, or just don't know the roster very well are:   Libero 16 Huskies   Liberty Elite 16 National   [program_tooltip program_id='494409' first='Blue' last='Ridge'] 16 Blue   Premier Edge 16   The St. James Navy 16   MVSA Sparks   MVSA Starz   The MVSA teams I wish I could say I knew more about, I try to keep on top of theirs, but in this age group I really just don't know much about their rosters. I'm hoping to get out to catch them soon and fix that. MVSA are going to be in the mix for this though, their teams are always scrappy and play great together, I know not to underestimate them. The other teams are just mostly from covering more MD than VA, I haven't been to very many local/regional tournaments the past two years, so I'm a little behind on some of the other age groups, and I've got to get really lucky to catch them at the out of town tourneys. Hopefully I'll see some more of them at the PrepDig showcases and it'll give me a chance to get to know some of them personally since next year will be the big recruiting year for them.

I did a little preview on 17s, which is easier for me, because I watch them so much, 16s I follow, but not AS closely, so this one may be a bit trickier. I'm probably going to have a couple teams where I don't have a standout to watch, so bear with me. It's just part of the problem of covering MD and not getting out to the VA side as much, that and I've had a weird schedule with a lot of out of town tournaments and not a lot of the regional ones where I'd see more of these guys. That being said, here's my attempt at a preview of the bid war for this weekend.