The Haines High School volleyball team partnered with the Skagway Panthers last weekend to prepare for tournament play.
The Glacier Bears traveled to Skagway on Oct. 10 and joined the Panthers for practice that evening.
The next morning, nine Haines volleyball players and about a dozen athletes from Skagway participated in two hours of “skills and drills,” followed by another two and a half hours of scrimmaging, said coach Gina Randles-Comstock.
“It was a really great learning experience for all of us,” she said. “I have never seen the girls perform like that before.”
Randles-Comstock said although “we didn’t even turn the scoreboard on,” the scrimmage was especially valuable for the teams’ freshmen.
The squads were “about the same skill level,” she said, and Randles-Comstock also was able to exchange pointers with another Southeast first-year coach, Skagway’s Aaron Schmidt. Randles-Comstock said junior Corinna Hill has been a bright spot for Haines at libero, a defensive specialist position.
The Glacier Bears will compete at a Wrangell tournament this weekend.