RIO HONDO — On the eve of the start of the 2018 high school volleyball season, the Rio Hondo Lady Bobcats hosted a two-day camp for incoming seventh, eighth and ninth graders at the Rio Hondo High School gym.
The camp wrapped up Tuesday evening with more than 80 campers participating.
First-year head volleyball coach Lizzette Esparza hosted the camp along with a pair of familiar names in La Feria’s Myah Salas and Rio Hondo’s Bianca Cruz, who served as camp instructors.
“This is the first camp I host here in Rio Hondo,” Esparza said. “The idea is to get our junior high kids and incoming freshmen ready for their season. We have gone over different skills, from passing, hitting and serving; everything they need to know we want to prepare them.”
Over the last two days Esparza saw the progress with the campers. The seventh grade group had a strong camp along with the incoming freshmen also showed some promise.
“The seventh graders were surprising, they did really well and our incoming freshmen also did really well, it was a great two days,” said Esparza.
Cruz, who just graduated from Rio Hondo, played volleyball for the Lady Cats and will be heading to Prairie View A&M to play softball this coming school year. Cruz saw the camp as a way of giving back to her alma mater.
“It was a great pleasure to help out at the camp over the last two days,” Cruz said. “I want to thank the coaches for giving me the opportunity to teach the future Lady Cats on what I know about the game of volleyball, and I’m going to miss being around them.”
As for Salas, she will head to Central Methodist University to play basketball. She also enjoyed helping guide the younger girls.
“It was great to come out and help my former coach (Esparza) and help her build her program,” Salas said. “It was great to see all the young talent and it was amazing to see myself in some of the girls.”
