As of this year, Placer Girls beach volleyball is up and running. Coach Karly Sipherd is currently running the program and has devoted hours of her time to making beach volleyball available to the girls at Placer.

The program started in late January, with practices starting in early February. The program did not require any tryouts to join and all grades were welcome. Practices are held at Coach Karly’s neighbor’s house who has been kind enough to offer his sand court in his backyard to the beach volleyball athletes at Placer.

Starting any new program/sport at Placer has its difficulties and takes many hours of hard work. Karly shared that she “filled out paperwork this year for Placer Beach Volleyball to be an official Placer Club.” This means that when the girls go and compete they are representing Placer. 

While becoming a Club has been a great step in growing the program, the end goal is for Beach Volleyball to become a sport at Placer.  Coach Karly expressed, “That would be ideal. We are waiting on CIF to make Beach Volleyball an official sport for all the high schools in CA. Then they will create leagues for us as we had for Indoor. In the meantime, we will build the program through our club team.”

While Karly has worked incredibly hard to make beach volleyball possible, she has had the help of senior Kirsten Jilot. Kirsten worked alongside Karly when planning practices, creating jerseys, and reaching out to as many girls she knew who would be interested. Kirsten explained that the whole process was made easier because “we have such a huge group of girls who are dedicated to volleyball and were excited to get involved.”

The season has begun with a great start with already two tournaments and practices twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays. During practices, the girls are able to strengthen their skills with the help of Karly’s guidance. Freshman Emma Villanueva said, “I like playing beach volleyball at Placer because it gives me the opportunity to separate my indoor season and my school season with Beach. It also helps me further my skills in Indoor and I really like how it makes me a stronger player overall.”

Kirsten also shared, “My favorite thing about beach volleyball is how strategic it teaches you to be. It’s just you and your partner on the court, so communication becomes even more important as you have more space to cover and each person is responsible for serving, passing, setting, AND hitting rather than just specializing in one movement.” Kirsten expressed that while beach volleyball is very different from Indoor, she feels that her volleyball skills will improve tremendously after a season of Beach volleyball.

As excitement and participation grow for beach volleyball at Placer, none of it would have been made possible without Karly stepping in as the coach. Coach Karly Sipherd is a hillman through and through, as she herself was a part of the Placer graduating class in 2004. Currently, Coach Karly is the head varsity coach for Girls Volleyball, a sixteen one’s coach for Auburn Aces volleyball club, and is now single-handedly running the girl’s beach volleyball program at Placer. Coach Karly is truly dedicated to volleyball and bringing opportunities for our girl athletes at Placer.

With upcoming scrimmages against local high schools such as Rocklin and tournaments on the horizon, the girls are continuing to work hard. With it only being the first year, Placer Beach volleyball is off to a great start.