By CAROLINE CARMICHAEL/ Staff Writer

Thorsby High School hosted fundraiser volleyball “playdates” on July 27, providing the opportunity for volleyball officials to train and local teams to feel out the new season.

“They train the new officials, and we get to play and work on things that we can see that we need to be working on later for the season,” Leighsa Robinson, Thorsby volleyball head coach, said.

Robinson said these officials are from the Alabama High School Athletic Association in Montgomery.

Teams from Isabella, Billingsley, Chilton County, Montevallo and Thorsby high schools rotated 20-minute plays against each other on the Thorsby court.

It’s a last chance for pre-season practice.

Robinson said volleyball practices can officially begin the first week of August.

“It’s just a good thing,” Robinson said of the playdates.

Robinson said before a few years ago, there were no playdates at Thorsby.

“No one in the county was getting it up, so I said, ‘Well, we’ll have one.’ So I started it last year here,” she said. “So, this is our second year hosting it at Thorsby.”

Robinson coordinated playdates at Jemison High School during her former employment there as head volleyball coach.

Robinson said she started out at Thorsby High School in 2004 before returning to her hometown to coach at Jemison High School from 2005 to 2016.

The 2016 volleyball season was her first to host playdates at Thorsby High School.

“A lot of their parents and friends come out to watch them play,” Robinson said. “It’s a fundraiser, too, for us. We charge admission, so it helps us out.”

She said spectators are charged $5, but teams play for free.

“It just shows them from where they start to where they are now,” she said of the players.

Robinson said teams can leave the playdates better understanding where they stand in skill and preparedness before the official kickoff of the season.

“It gives us experience going in to the season — gets the jitters out,” Robinson said.

Teams can learn how to play with other people and how to approach specific situations on the court, Robinson said.

“I really hope that it’s going to help us with our defense about knowing where to go in certain situations,” Robinson said of the Thorsby team.

“We’re in a rebuilding process,” Robinson explained. “We lost so many of our seniors last year.”

Robinson is hopeful for the season.

“We always expect to win here at Thorsby,” she said. “We want to win.”