MVB gets help from International Coach September 30, 2009
Posted by lread in Men's Volleyball.trackback
Dr. Ohm
By Mark Hunter (Kamloops Daily News, Sept 24, 2009 re printed by permission)
The TRU WolfPack will go into the Canada West men’s volleyball season
with a rookie starting at setter, the most important position on the
floor.
In a strange twist of fate, the WolfPack also has one of the top
setting coaches in the world helping Colin Carson make the adjustment
from high school to university ball.
It’s an important season for the WolfPack, which is to play host to
the CIS championship March 12-14, but also one of transition.
The WolfPack will start the season with six rookies, including Carson,
who is penciled in to start at setter.
Head coach Pat Hennelly has enlisted the help of Dr. Han-Joo Eom, a
world-renowned setting expert who is taking a one-year sabbatical from
his job at SKK University in Korea.
“It’s a tremendous help,” said Hennelly after a Wednesday practice at
the Tournament Capital Centre. “For me, it’s a sense of security that
I can focus on other young guys.”
With Hennelly’s main assistant, Chad Grimm, unable to make many
practices due to his job as a substitute teacher, Eom has become a
vital piece of the TRU puzzle.
“We don’t have (Grimm) here as much,” Hennelly said, “but having Dr.
Eom here is almost more than having a full-time assistant. I’ve got a
wealth of knowledge at my disposal with him.”
The WolfPack, which is to open the Canada West regular season on Oct.
31, is scheduled to play a doubleheader against the UBC Thunderbirds,
with the first match going tonight in Vernon and the second on Friday,
7:30 p.m., at the TCC.
Eom is doing his best to help Carson, who is from Prince George, make
a smooth transition into the top university volleyball league in Canada.
“What I am telling these guys — I just teach them the fundamentals,”
said Eom, who has a PhD in applied statistics. “If they have the
fundamentals, they have to develop their own characteristics, which we
expect them to do.”
Eom played on the Korean national team from 1978 to 1983, but as a
middle blocker. He said he always practised with setters, being that
the two positions are somewhat closely aligned, and picked up some
knowledge from them.
“The middle blocker is almost like a second setter,” he said. “And,
when you are a middle blocker, you have to figure out what the other
team’s setter is doing. You’ve got to figure out his form, his
intentions and what direction he’s going to set the ball.”
The WolfPack might be getting some help at setter. Hennelly is working
to get a visa approved for a Venezuelan rookie, and Colin Jaggard, who
started for the WolfPack last season, is taking six classes this
semester in hopes of becoming eligible to play in the second half of
the season.
Jaggard currently is practising with the WolfPack.
“There is some good competition between those guys,” Eom said. “Pat
asked me to put some pressure on the young guys — these are the guys
who are going to start the first game.”
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?