Volleyball Camp: Renowned Coach Teaches Sports, Life Lessons
By Leslie Rott

From left, Aaron Smaka of Grand Haven, Marysville High School volleyball varsity assistant Ketha Knuth, and Marysville volleyball coach John Knuth in the gymnasium of Mackinac Island Public School after the first day of volleyball camp.

“The goal for the week is for you to become a better player,” said renowned Marysville High School Volleyball Coach John Knuth, who came to Mackinac Island to coach a three-day volleyball camp, Monday, July 18, through Wednesday, July 20. Girls from as far away as Wisconsin came to master the fundamentals of volleyball, including footwork skills and passing.

Mackinac Island Public School sixth grader Morgan Brodeur-Bunker learns the proper way to catch a volleyball from Marysville High School Viking volleyball varsity assistant Ketha Knuth, as tenth grader Kristi Kampius looks on.

Be coachable, Mr. Knuth told the girls. If they use coaching, they can become better players.

“Think about what we’re saying and don’t take it personally,” said the coach.

He also told the girls it is important that they be dedicated to their sport and to their team, but they also should be happy and smile more when they are playing.

“Volleyball has a uniqueness,” Mr. Knuth said. It has an aspect of togetherness more so than most other sports. In volleyball, he added, there has to be a team; no single person can be good enough to play the game themselves. “It’s important just to be part of a team,” he told the girls, “and I think volleyball is the ultimate of team sports.”

Mr. Knuth shared parts of the Marysville Volleyball 2005 team video, designed to make his players a team, both on and off the volleyball court, and shared other activities that emphasize the sense of togetherness, like a special senior night, special logotypes and themes each year, and a player reciting a quote before each practice.

On the court, he demonstrated two team traditions, passing by using a board to hit the ball, instead of his hands, and a huddle at the end of camp with the players shouting, “Fun, fun.”

Coach Knuth also told the girls that everyone on his team wears the same thing. If one girl wears a white knee pad, they all wear white knee pads. Everyone wears the same shoes and shirts, to emphasize just how much a team they are.

His best advice, he told the girls, is to “Find something that you can be passionate about,” hopefully, volleyball.

As the Coach of Marysville’s Viking volleyball program, Mr. Knuth has seen the team through eight straight state championships, from 1997 to 2004 and has been awarded National Volleyball Coach of the Year two years in a row and Coach of the Year 44 times.

Mr. Knuth has been coaching summer camps for the past 16 or 17 years, however, this is the first time he has coached a camp on Mackinac Island. He and his wife, Ketha, who is also varsity assistant for the volleyball team, come to the Island every summer and decided that on this trip, they would try and work a camp into their schedule. He said he wants to do it again.

Of the camp, Mackinac Island Public School 11th grader Emily St. Onge said, “It was a lot of fun and it was a great learning experience.” She added that if the camp is offered again, she will participate.