More than 50 girls gave up a beautiful morning to stay inside and sharpen their volleyball skills Saturday as beginning and experienced players alike filled the Holcom Park Recreation Center for the Lawrence Parks and Recreation volleyball clinic.

After warming up and stretching, fourth- through eighth-graders partnered up for multiple drills designed to improve their footwork, positioning, passing and hitting techniques.

The clinic, instructed by former Lawrence High volleyball coach Molly LaMere, is designed to get young girls introduced to and comfortable with volleyball, a sport Lawrence schools do not offer to students before the eighth grade.

“It’s kind of hard for them to get the opportunity to play volleyball,” LaMere explained. “We offer tons of camps throughout the summer and this is just the start of them.”

She thought clinics such as this one would help girls become accustomed to volleyball and help them get excited about the sport.

“When they do get into the junior highs, hopefully they’ll want to go out for it,” she said.

“We show them the fun side of it with games and letting them actually play in game-type situations and have fun making big plays,” LaMere said. “It’s a really loud sport, so the girls have fun screaming and yelling and communicating in that way.”

Fun was a key component at the clinic, but the girls learned a lot in the meantime. Chloe Hays, 10, just started playing volleyball and learned “all the techniques.”

“We had to go up to the net and practice jumping and hitting the ball,” she said.

Ten-year-old Bonnie Reinsch said she preferred the serving drills. Like Hays, she just recently picked up the game and did so after spotting some of her mother’s volleyball memorabilia.

“My mom played volleyball and she has a lot of medals,” Reinsch said. “And I want to win a lot of medals, too.”

Awards and accolades may be down the road for the youngsters who came out for the clinic, but everyone learned about the fundamentals they will need as building blocks going forward.

“I’ll know exactly how to do the moves and when to do them,” Hays said.

And that knowledge of fundamentals was the key to the clinic.

“At this level, that’s what they need to work on,” LaMere said. “and get as many reps as possible.

“It’s definitely a challenging sport; it takes a lot of coordination, but there are skills you can improve on.”