Jason Tuggle and his wife, Morgan, started Country Fire Volleyball in 2015 in hopes of creating a place where a club was about more than volleyball. Their vision was to help mold young athletes into strong volleyball players, as well as instill young players with values beyond the court, including leading, serving (teammates and community), respect and building great relationships on and off the court. What began with one team in 2015, has grown to 10 teams, and well over 350 girls and boys in indoor and beach camps and clinics. The club motto is “Team first,” and it’s how the club bases its decisions from the club, coaching and team perspective.
Community Service is a big part of playing for Country Fire Volleyball. Every 6 weeks the club participates in a new community service project together as a club. The teams clean up 4 miles of highway four times per year to give back to the community, and develop athletes who care about the environment. On average the club picks up 200 bags of trash per year! In addition, Country Fire players make blankets and donate them to local Children’s Advocacy Programs for children in their care, as well as make valentines cards for local nursing home patients, so they know someone is thinking about them. The club coaches and players teach free clinics at the local elementary schools to introduce young players to the sport. Plus, the club has fun each year building a parade float in the local Liberty Hill parade, and this year they won 2nd place out of 70 floats!
Recently, Country Fire Volleyball has gone through a massive change as the result of the JVA Mentor Program. help from JVA and Kitty Kennedy as a mentor through the JVA Mentor Program. Jason and Morgan were matched up Kathy (Kitty) Kennedy, Former Co-Director of NKYVC.
“Kitty has many years of experience that we could build off of and we brainstormed together. Through weekly meetings, we discussed our program, things that went well and things that were challenging. We utilized her knowledge and built many programs with her help,” shared Jason.
The club was doing a lot of things right, but needed assistance in certain areas. Through the mentorship, Country Fire Volleyball has changed and added many new programs.
First, we added an Advanced Skills Academy, which offers a developmental program for players that need some experience before playing at the club level, or are multi-sport athletes that don’t have time for tournament weekends. The club added…
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