Due to the weather, practices have been cancelled this evening (Wednesday, February 6) at Milwaukee Lutheran and WCTC.

Milwaukee Sting is ramping things up and getting ready for another season of our Instructional Program. This is an opportunity for kids to learn the basics of volleyball in the top program in the state. In our Instructional Program youths ages 12 and under, boys and girls will have an opportunity to learn the skills of volleyball for 10 weeks beginning February 3rd. Not only will kids learn proper techniques but they will learn the game of volleyball in a positive and encouraging environment. If you have a child interested in volleyball this is a great place for them to learn. If you know anyone who may be interested, tell them where the fun is at.

Instructional Program Information:

The January rankings for Badger Region are out and Sting teams are off to a strong showing. For those of you who are new to the ranking system, the way it works is simple. Coaches submit their overall results into a website that all region coaches have access to. It's expected that coaches enter their results after every tournament they compete in no matter where the event took place. Those results are then mulled over by Badger Region Tournament Director Terry Paulson with some help from a small contigent of coaches from around the state. If coaches don't submit their results then a team who should otherwise be ranked, will not be. Here are the current rankings of Sting teams.

Sting 17 Black - 4th
Sting 17 White - 10th
Sting 16 Gold - 1st
Sting 16 White - 8th
Sting 15 Gold - 2nd
Sting 15 Black - 6th
Sting 14 White - 10th
Sting 13 Gold - 1st
Sting 13 Black - 4th
Sting 13 White - 6th
Sting 12 Gold - 2nd

Great job, teams! Keep up the hard work. It's always fun watching teams work to move up the rankings every year. Parents, great job to you too. Your continual positive encouragement from the sidelines helps these teams be successful.

After a warm night spent indoors renewing acquaintances with team parents and teammates, the Sting 17 White team left from their motel for the first round of the Badger Tour at DC Everest HS in Schofield with the outside temperature at -17° Fahrenheit. Everyone's car started despite the frigid temperature and thankfully it was only a short, chilly drive to the high school.

The team was happy to be playing in the first match of pool play and used a quick start in each of the first two games to win the match. They went on to win the second match in similar fashion before running into a road block in the third match against a team which was playing very well for so early in the season. Finishing second in pool play meant the team would better their seed for the next Badger Tour date and put them in the upper third of all the teams. The team lost a hard fought final seeding match in three games losing 17-15 in the final game.

This first stop in the Badger Tour provided glimpses of the true potential of this year's 17 White team. Good practices and more strong opponents are needed now to develop the team into an efficient and winning unit.

The Badger Tour began last weekend and it was a great start for Sting teams overall! We had a lot of teams move up in the overall seeding. The biggest seed jumper on Day 1 of the Tour was Sting 13 Black who climbed 9 spots up the chart. Great job everyone! Here are how the seedings looked before and after the event:

Division	Team	Day 1 Seed	Day 2 Seed
17's / 18's	Sting 17 Black	8th	3rd
17's / 18's	Sting 17 White	21st	16th
16's	Sting 16 Black	1st	2nd
16's	Sting 16 White	19th	14th
16's	Sting 15 Black	11th	5th
15's	Sting 15 White	1st	3rd
15's	Sting 14 Black	12th	5th
14's	Sting 14 White	2nd	11th
14's	Sting 13 Gold	4th	1st
14's	Sting 13 Black	14th	5th
13's	Sting 13 White	7th	5th
13's	Sting 12 Gold	9th	11th
12's	Sting 12 Black	2nd	6th
12's	Sting 11 Gold	9th	8th

We had been waiting for this day since our last tournament of last season, and it finally came. We entered the gym cold, since they wouldn't let us in until 7, even though they saw us standing outside. Rude… I know! We put our stuff on and started warming up as soon as possible. Our 1st match was against Eclipse 14 Lunar. We took that match easily in 2 with our good serving. We were warming up for our 2nd match against East Troy Heat when our star libero, Hannah Picel, hurt her ankle. She immediately went to the ER while we all tried to focus on the game ahead of us. We won that match as easy as the 1st in 2.

Since we had a break, Jerad let us play with his phone, but made us promise not to go into any of his stuff, oops. Hannah came back before our 3rd match against Block Party and told us that it was just a sprain and that she would be back in about 2 weeks. Thank goodness! She stayed the whole rest of the day and did her best cheering ever! Dispensing with her crutches, we placed her in the comfort of our ball cart. Good thing Hannah is tiny. In our last pool play game against Block Party, even though we won in 2, we were a little rusty and let them have a lot of runs. We took 1st in our pool and were going to gold. Our 1st crossover game was against Southwest 14-2's. They had some good runs against us in the 1st game. We were down 10-20 and managed to work ourselves back up, but unfortunately not enough. We lost game 1. In the 2nd game we played more aggressive and had better communication and won. The 3rd game was close at the start but then we pulled ahead with some awesome kills and saves and won.

The championship was against Southwest 14-1's. Everyone worked together well and won the 1st game no problem. The 2nd game was close. We were tied all the way 20-20 to 25-25. We pulled ahead in the last 2 points and won. Throughout the day we played awesome. Jenn, Chelsea, and Carolyn had some amazing kills. Lauren, Dana, and Rachel had some perfect passes and good hits. Mal and I had some great tips, dumps, and sets. Ally did awesome filling in as libero. We can't wait to have Hannah back to make those great saves. Gold Champions!!!

[Editor's Note: There was some slight creative license used in the editing of this article.]

Sting 18 Gold player Danielle "Chub Unit" Rueter (Burlington H.S.) has chosen to play her next four years with the Golden Eagles of the University of Minnesota-Crookston. Crookston is an NCAA DII school in the NW part of MN. Congratulations Chub Unit. We are proud of you!

Crookston Fun Facts: