In an effort to provide the students at Huber Middle School some after school activity Mary Laborin has begun what she is calling a volleyball skills camp which will run from now to the end of October.

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In the first few days of the camp Laborin, an instructional assistant at the school who is volunteering her time for this camp, said she has averaged 58 girls the first several days.

Laborin and her husband Louie had been the volleyball coaches at Valley Union High School in Elfrida for several years. Last year, she said, while still a coach at Valley Union, she was approached by several girls at Huber asking her if she would put on some kind of volleyball camp for them.

Since she wasn’t coaching at Valley Union this year Laborin said she approached Huber Middle School principal Andrea Overmann who gave her the okay to proceed and permission to use the Huber gymnasium.

Practice runs from 3:15-4:30 p.m. every day.

“I’ve been very happy with the response,” she said. “We’ve been averaging about 58 girls.”

Laborin said she called on Douglas High School Volleyball Coach Carlos Chavez who sent over varsity volleyball players Kianna Ross, Karina Avechuco, Jennifer Montoya, Jenessa Oliverria and Kristian Olivas to help with the camp.

“Those girls have done an awesome job,” Laborin said. “They’ve showed leadership. They’ve shown the girls you don’t talk during warm-ups. You don’t talk when you’re running. That you have respect for the coach and they even brought up nutrition.”

Laborin said a lot of the girls at Huber don’t eat lunch but after the speech from the DHS volleyball players a considerable number were in the cafeteria the next day eating lunch and drinking plenty of water before practice.

“I’ve already seen the positive in this,” Laborin said. “Just in the week’s time I’ve been working with them I’ve seen a difference.”

Laborin is hoping to contact other middle schools in the surrounding areas and pick up some games for these girls’.

“If it doesn’t work out with the other schools I plan on breaking them up into teams and letting them play here,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect when I started this.”

Laborin is hoping this will keep interest in volleyball going which will in turn help the Lady Bulldogs volleyball program down the road.