Leading by example: PCA’s Reagan Stoop teaches, shows off her skills at volleyball camp

Published 1:12 pm Saturday, June 28, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

BELHAVEN, N.C. — Bump, set and spike.

The student-athletes who attended the volleyball camp at Pungo Christian Academy last week were learning some of the basics of playing the sport. Camp instructor Reagan Stoop had a bunch of volleyballs and was circulating them into the rotation as the young ladies carried out their assignments.

They were broken up into two teams, one on each side of the net. Toward the end, Stoop told them whoever won the last point would be the overall winner. The mood picked up tremendously as the girls were yelling, telling teammates what they were doing and moving the ball back and forth over the net.

When the point ended, they met in a circle, went over some things and were done for the day. Stoop was smiling at all the interaction between the girls and the camaraderie they had developed at the camp.

It’s the second year that Stoop has conducted the volleyball camp. It began last season after PCA Athletics Director Logan Van Staalduinen asked her if she’d conduct one.

“He asked me last year if I wanted to do it,” Stoop said. “I mean, I love volleyball, and I like teaching little kids, especially.

“So, I was like, ‘OK, I’ll do it again.’ We had a good turnout last year, too, and the same as this year. So, it’s still fun.”

The camp and a lot of the instruction follow a lot of the same paths Stoop has taken while she’s been playing college volleyball at Bridgewater College. She’s grown and gotten better at the sport and is earning accolades for her work and play.

She’ll start the 2025 season as one of the top players for the Eagles, who went 22-7 overall, 10-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. She was selected to the all-conference team for the second straight season. She was one of only three players to start all 29 games for Bridgewater. She also led the team in kills (416), service aces (49), points (489.0) and digs (363).

“I’ve picked up a lot of … you’ve got to have a good attitude and you can’t let your emotions get the best of you,” Stoop said of what she’s learned while playing in college. “Especially when I was here, I had a hard time with, when you make a mistake, you’ve got to recover from it.

“So, there’s a lot of, especially with the younger girls, they make a mistake and they’re very upset that they made a mistake because they know that they can do better. So, it’s just a lot of control your emotions when you make a mistake because it’s going to get the best of you and that’s what messes with these kids’ heads.”

Stoop said she thought the girls learned a lot on the volleyball court. She is hopeful the skills they displayed during the camp will continue once the school junior varsity and varsity seasons begin.

“I think they really love when I do games with them,” Stoop said. “Of course, I do a lot of drills with them and stuff. But then, when I use the things we learn in drills and play games, like we’ve done a lot of 2v2 where they have to work on tips and doing the little stuff and controlling the ball.

“So, they love to just do all the games that I have, while they’re incorporating the stuff that they’ve learned over the whole course of the league.”

Stoop has stayed busy with teaching, playing and working with the East Coast Juniors volleyball club in Greenville. She also coaches a club team not from Bridgewater and said she enjoys working with children, something she’d like to do as a coach when she gets out of college.

“Now that we’re at camp, I’ve been staying after with these kids and we play a bunch,” Stoop said. “Then I go back to my old club in Greenville and I play there a lot. Then I come here sometimes by myself and play a lot.

“I go to Athletic Edge and lift four times a week. Our coach wants us to play as much as possible. It just gets you ready back in when you’ve got to have a lot of stamina when you’re playing in games.

“I play a lot of grass tournaments on the weekends. I played in one last weekend and I’m playing in one next weekend. I love grass volleyball, so I play a lot of that, too.”

More Sports

Fun in Belhaven: Second annual pickleball tournament brings out competition, excitement

Two of three not so great for Post 15

All in the family: Smithwicks carry love for sports, water sports life

Athletes on the Rise: Northside’s Chloe Black and Washington’s Jarryn Payne

Print Article

  • Polls

    How do you feel eastern North Carolina issues are prioritized by the state legislature?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...