ROCHELLE — John Pfaff has many duties as head coach of the Lady Hubs varsity volleyball team, but he admitted on Wednesday that one of his toughest tasks sometimes is keeping up with the energy Rochelle’s grade-schoolers and middle-schoolers bring to Rochelle Township High School’s annual youth volleyball camp.

Roughly 50 young players between third and eighth grade laced up their gym shoes and strapped on their knee pads for camp Tuesday morning, with the session beginning at 11 a.m. and ending at 12:30 p.m. Campers completed their first day on Monday, and they will continue to hone their volleyball skills throughout the week.

“They have energy that never stops,” Pfaff said. “During drink breaks the older kids will go over to the side and they’ll drink until we call them back out. The younger kids run to the side, take one drink and we turn around and they’re playing. They never stop bouncing the ball, serving the ball and passing the ball. I just like the energy they bring.”

Pfaff said the kids spent the first days of camp practicing fundamental skills including passes, sets and serves. While some groups are further along in their development than others, the camp is designed to help both refined players and new players hone recurrent skills while learning new skills simultaneously.

“This group seems to be a little more ahead than groups we’ve had in the past,” Pfaff said. “We still review the basic concepts but we’re getting into more attacking and blocking. This group we can scrimmage more so we can do more 6-on-6 or 4-on-4, whereas in the past with some of the younger groups we’ve only been able to do skills and not so much scrimmaging.”

Along with assistant coaches Molly Sly, Lindsay Suess and Alison Mercer-Curtis, Pfaff has received a hand from some of his returning players this week including rising junior Emily Engelkes. The main goals of the camp are to supply Rochelle’s young players with new knowledge of volleyball while spreading the word about volleyball in Rochelle.

“It’s something they can take back to their coaches in the fall,” Pfaff said. “They can practice the new things they learned in camp that they’re excited about, and they can talk to their parents, their brothers and their sisters… They’ll be encouraged to come watch a match in the fall.”