In an effort to further the success of the high school volleyball season many of the boys have gone on to play summer ball. Since the club season heats up after the spring high school season it is all out play now for indoor and beach for the summer. There is a beach doubles tournament almost every weekend within driving distance of Jupiter so many of the boys have been traveling and practicing their beach game at JCP since May.

John Michael Plummer has continued and multiplied his success on the indoor courts (2nd team all county) by picking up an older partner on the beach and continually finishing top 3 in the men's "A" division (next division up "AA" which is professional level). At 17 he is one of the youngest men's (as opposed to the boys ranking of which all of the boys noted below are tops in the state)ranked players in the southeastern US on the beach. He teams up with both his younger brother (Ryan age 14) and his sisters (20 and 23?) to play juniors and co-ed when not winning the mens divisions.

Taylor McColskey, Dane Lux, Elliot Taylor, Wade Gamache and Cris Syler, as well as the two Plummer boys have been spending their summer also having success on the beach and for their club teams. They travel 2 to 3 times a week to Ft. Lauderdale to practice at least 3 hours. Each boy has seen varied success at beach tournaments playing men's A, BB and B. Taylor, being the oldest at 18 also plays mens A and has accepted a volleyball scholarship to play for King College in Tennessee in the fall. He may be the first boy from Jupiter HS to go on to win a scholarship to play volleyball in college.

All of the boys played last week in the Boys Regional Championships in Orlando. The Regional featured the best boys volleyball players from throughout the southeastern US and the competition and level of play was beyond belief. The 18's starred Kyle Friend (full scholarship to Long Beach State one of the consistently top 5 national ranked teams) as well as most of his State Championship teammates. Our Jupiter boys represented well with at least one boy representing at each level (u18, U17, U16 and U15). Spanish River and Jupiter HS had the most players represented at the tournament.

Six of the boys play for Club Florida out of Deerfield Beach and Wade Gamache plays for Boomers (U-16 4th place) out of Coral Springs. Dane Lux and Elliot Taylor represented our boys in the U16 team (ClubFL) that finished in 3rd place, while Taylor McColskey, Cris Syler and JM Plummer all played for a combined U17/18 team that finished 5th. Ryan Plummer led the boys U15 team to a 4th place finish along with Jake Kosberg, the youngest Jupiter resident representing at 13.

All these boys qualified to play at Nationals in Atlanta in July. Their respective Clubs and teams will be flying up on July 7 where they will have the opportunity to train and play against the best boys teams in the country for a week. Additionally many of the boys will contend for the FL Junior Beach State Championships this Saturday (June 30) in Ft. Lauderdale. Stay tuned, boys volleyball is only getting stronger!

If you'd like more info and/or pictures feel free to give me a call. The boys practice at JCP at least 2-3 times a week in addition to indoor noted above. You could get a nice story by showing up for training soon! Tonight there will be a good showing at JCP around 6:30 (rain permitting) but you can always give me a call or write back and I can set up a training session for some pictures and interviews!

I think the Plummer family would (again I think I said this before) be a great story. The oldest daughter played college ball in Georgia and just look the head coaching job for both the boys and girls teams at Palm Beach Gardens HS. The second oldest girl (Alex) starts for Fl State. JM and Ryan are noted above and JM is one of the most highly recruited boys in the state. Ryan just picked up the sport to follow his family (his first love is baseball and his JTAA team went to the World Series last year - look in your archives) sadly their father died this spring and they have pulled together for the summer rallying around the sport and our vball community. Ryan and JM won an under 18 jr. tournament even though he is 14. He sets and is captain of the U15 team as one year younger.

And just on the side: Katie Plummer (the oldest) is one of my beach partners and we came in second in a AA tournament in May (she was one of the youngest in the division and I was the oldest!) and she finished 2nd (I think) in a Open (professional) tournament a few weeks ago (she dropped the old lady - me!) to move up in the rankings! Oh well I'm used to it my son dropped me from co-ed and found a nice young teenage girl to play with (how can I blame him?) But we were one of the only mother-son doubles teams in the country. Maybe he'll give me a break and let me play with him again soon.