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Former U.S. Olympian conducts youth volleyball camp
Area high school volleyball hopefuls had the opportunity to learn from a former United States Olympian at a summer camp held in early June at McCook High School.
Charlene Johnson Whitted conducted the four-day camp, along with McCook High School head volleyball coach Krystal Weber.
Charlene Tagaloa competed for Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah from 1991-94. The former professional volleyball player was also a setter on the United States national team that competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics Games in Sydney, Australia. The U.S. squad finished fourth in the 2000 Olympics, losing to Brazil, 3-0, in the bronze medal match after a 3-2 loss to Russia in the semifinals.
Whitted, now remarried and raising six children (three from each previous marriage) in Ohio, and former University of Nebraska star Allison Weston were teammates on the 2000 U.S. Olympic volleyball team.
Whitted conducts instructional camps for middle school and high school-age volleyball players all over the country. She works 15 to 20 camps during year, most during the summer months. Charlene said she was recently in Alaska, with other camps locations in Utah, Idaho, Las Vegas and Michigan.
"I'm kind of everywhere," she said. "I have a day planner, everything's in it -- I look at it every night before I go to bed to make sure I'm in the right city, doing the right thing."
After three days of the McCook camp last week, Whitted selected 14 top players to come back Thursday and receive more intense and personal instruction.
Whitted got remarried last September, and she has been busy raising kids
"It's a Brady Bunch scenario; it's pretty crazy," she said. "Being a mom and making sure the home front was kept up."
Several of her children came along to McCook for the camp.
In addition to being a mom, Whitted also spent some time this past year working with the USA youth national volleyball team. Whitted will serve as an assistant coach for the U.S. squad that will compete in the world championships in Turkey in August.
Enjoy the game
Whitted was asked about the message she delivered to her camp students.
"You just need to enjoy being in the gym," she said. "The enjoyment comes from working hard, being able to execute on the court. It's no fun to lose, especially if you haven't tried to get better. So you come in the gym, you get good reps, good contacts, you stay focused and then you find success when you're playing in matches."
Although there were players with a wide range of volleyball skills at the camp, Whitted said all the players need to work on fundamentals and the basics of the game.
"We do a lot of that training," Charlene said. "We do that longer with the younger kids because they're just starting. The older kids need the basic fundamentals as well. We advance as they are getting better and showing improvement in that.
"There's some good players (at the McCook camp). We're trying to make them better."
Whitted said some of her campers don't fully appreciate the concept of being coached by a former Olympian.
"I don't know if they completely understand it," she said. "Especially if it's an area where there's not club volleyball or more intense volleyball, then they tend to not really see that clearly. But a lot of areas do."
"People know what's going on (with volleyball) in Nebraska, most definitely."
Whitted said she has past experience with the national team playing in the NU Coliseum, the Husker volleyball headquarters in Lincoln.
"It's intense," she said.
Whitted said all her children are fairly athletic, but she won't necessarily push them into volleyball.
"I let them do their own thing," she said. "It's not my life, it's their life, so whatever they're good at, whatever they enjoy doing, I support."