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Tennessee Athletics Honors April Chapple at Champions Weekend for Legendary Volleyball Achievements

My Motivational Volleyball Story Inspiring Stories by Great Players

Follow along as eight (8) iconic legendary players share their inspirational volleyball story of overcoming obstacles on and off the court.

Despite having dreams to play in the Olympics, Debbie Green Vargas spent hours in the gym because she had to improve her setting skills since she was always the shortest girl on her team.

My Volleyball Story: Elaina Oden

Follow Elaina Oden's story of her journey to accept that despite not having the physique of the "typical" volleyball player, she was determined to be an Olympian.

Elaina Oden

My Volleyball Story: Kim Oden

Elaina's older sister, two-time Olympic team captain Kim Oden was always the tallest player on her team, until she made the Olympic team, then things changed.

Kim Oden

My Volleyball Story:
Debbie Green Vargas

Despite having dreams to play in the Olympics, Debbie Green Vargas spent hours in the gym because she had to improve her setting skills since she was always the shortest girl on her team.

The Shortest Volleyball Player On The Court

Debbie Green Vargas

My Volleyball Story: Liz Masakayan

Olympian and beach volleyball legend Liz Masakayan was raised in a single parent household. She felt that led to her compulsion to overtrain and overperform in order to get her teammates and others to like her.

Are you guilty of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons?

Liz Masakayan

My Volleyball Story: Mary Jo Peppler

Not all families members may be happy when you tell them that you want to play in the Olympics. Mary Jo Peppler told her family and was kicked out. Read how she handled the situation.

Mary Jo Peppler

My Volleyball Story: Nina Matthies

Nina Matthies worked hard to accomplish her goals. The founder of the Women's Pro beach Volleyball Association, the first womens beach volleyball tour admitted that she had very few obstacles to overcome.

Nina Matthies

My Volleyball Story: Flo Hyman

The first American Olympic women's volleyball team to win a silver medal did so at the Los Angeles, California Olympiad in 1984.

One of three black females on the team and to this day still considered the best female volleyball player ever was 6' 5" Flo Hyman, born in Inglewood, California.

Flo Hyman

My Volleyball Story: Rose Magers

Olympian Rose Magers was a teammate of Flo's and played on the 1984 silver medal winning American women's team as well. In 2007, USA Volleyball awarded the "All Time Greatest Player Award" to Rose at the USAV Nationals.

Read her story as told by her friend, coach and mentor, Ruth Nelson.

Rose Magers

My Volleyball Story: Laurel Brassey Iversen

In many situations when growing up, Laurel Brassey Iversen played with and against and was surrounded by boys her age.

She had to learn how to outplay them and how to compete against them. She did. She did it so well that during her career she played on many men's teams.

Laurel Brassey Iversen

My Volleyball Story: April Chapple

Pro volleyball player, April Chapple had to overcome several physical obstacles before being able to pursue her goals of making the US National Team, earning a college scholarship and playing professionally in Italy.

April Chapple

From Lady Vol to Legend: Coach April Honored At UTK Champions Weekend

Lady Vol volleyball legend and record holder Coach April Chapple a University of Tennessee, Knoxville Hall of Fame Inductee, 3-time All American, 3-time SEC Champion, SEC Tournament MVP, 2-time All SEC Team is celebrated with her 1984 SEC champion teammates at Neyland Stadium during Champions Weekend on November 1-2, 2024.

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Tennessee Hall of Fame inductee, Coach April Chapple is

the first First Round Draft Pick for the first American pro indoor women's league
named to the first First Team All-Pro team for Major League Volleyball in USA volleyball history
former USA National team member
one of the few American women players named as an Italian Pro League D-I Championship Finalist, Italian Cup Finalist and Cup of Cups Tournament Finalist

April Chapple The first First round Draft Pick For Major League Volleyball the first American Women's Pro League Honored At Athlete Unlimited Pro Volleyball Match

Coach April's 2025 Private and Semi private Volleyball Training

Pre-Registration now open for 2025 Private and Semiprivate Training Sessions with Coach April . Get prepared for club tryouts or train with me during club season!

Email now for information on semiprivate or private indoor skills, individual or small group training volleyball classes and my Breakfast Club for College Players training for 2025.

Invest in your improvement while preepping for your next level and college goals while working hard and training smart.

Email me right now to register or for more information.

info@improveyourvolley.com

Serving slang is not just about individual techniques; it also relates to overall game strategy. A coach might instruct a player to serve a "short serve" or a "deep serve" to target specific areas of the opponent's court or exploit weaknesses in their serve receive formation.

Ari, my private training client and I are working specifically on serving on jump float cross court serves ...short to Zone 2

There's so much we work on to get to this point where she can contact the ball with

the same toss height and same toss location
the same armswing speed
the same timing for when her serving hand contacts the ball
the middle of the hand contacting the middle of the ball every single time
getting use to watching her serving hand contact the ball at the highest point of her jump ...before she starts to land
and finally contacting the ball in the precise spot on the ball so it goes where the coach wants the player to put it so in this case ..a short serve in the farthest short right corner on the court also called Zone 2.

kamiminerpac12setteroftheyearformercoachaprilchappleprivateclient3years

Tommi Stockham All Big West Conference sophomore former Coach April Chapple private client 3 years

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Dear Vegas Parent

Read my open letter to Las Vegas Jr high/high school volleyball parents about my predictions on individual and small group volleyball training trends for 2019/2021