Stubbs will host multiple camps throughout the summer where players can focus on refining traditional volleyball skills such as passing, setting, attacking and serving.

The next camp in the series on June 13 is designed for high school-level elite players to have a collegiate-like experience with a facilities tour and a fast-paced practice session.

But the camps aren’t just for the elite. They’re open to young players of all skill levels.

“It’s a way for us to get to know the community a little bit more with the mini camp that we hold in the month of May, and then the others are for the athletes to refine their skills and try to get potential students to come on campus,” Stubbs said. “Anytime you can get the campus filled with high school players or middle school players, it’s a good thing.”

The first two camps of the series held last month, the Mini Camp and the Serve and Pass Camp, both sold out.

Other upcoming camps include the Position Camp and Intermediate Camp starting on July 7, Elite Camp on July 9, a JV Team Camp for smaller schools on July 11 and a Varsity Team Camp for bigger schools on July 18.

Interested participants can still register for future camps. Prices start at $138 and team camps start at $117 per player for JV and $148 per player for varsity.

Stubbs says that the sold-out camps are a good sign that athletes and their parents “appreciate the product and what we’re doing.”

“As I go through camp, I walk around and I ask the parents, ‘How are things going? Do you need anything?’ Just trying to get their feedback during that time,” she said. “And the reviews are always great.

“I think they enjoy being able to see me interact with them while also interacting with the campers, and then I get emails from time to time, just saying thank you and they’ll highlight certain coaches here or there saying thank you for the attention that they paid to my kid, or just the fact that (we’re) really focused on making everyone better. It’s not just the best kids, it’s making everyone better.”

One of Stubbs’ favorite parts of the camps is seeing athletes come in, unable to do something, and by the end of camp, they master that skill.

“This past camp, this past week, we had a young lady who came up to me on the second day, and she goes, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve gotten so much better, I can hit the ball down while I’m in the front row. My goal is to learn how to do it from the back row,’ and so just teaching her how to hit the different parts of the ball and becoming better at it is definitely a highlight for me,” Stubbs said.

Even though the camps focus on athleticism and refining skills, Stubbs wants to keep the experience fun for athletes while maintaining a small-group learning environment for them to learn and thrive.

“It’s an opportunity for me to give back to the community,” Stubbs said. “… And just being able to work with the kids, the students, it’s just awesome watching them get better.”

In recent years, volleyball has grown in popularity in the United States, in part because of the Olympics but also because of an increase in college volleyball on TV and social media, according to the Associated Press.

The number of junior clubs registered with USA Volleyball has nearly doubled from 2004 to 2024, the AP reported last year.

Back here in Tucson, UA women’s volleyball had a successful 2024-25 season, logging a 24-9 overall record and a National Invitational Volleyball Championship win in December, with an even brighter future in store for next season.

“It’s a fun time,” Stubbs said. “… And, you know, we want them (the participants) to come be a part of what we’re doing and what we’re building at the U of A.”

For more information about Rita Stubbs’ summer volleyball camps, visit ritastubbsvolleyballcamps.com.

He entered the race in Eugene, Oregon, with the seventh-fastest time, but finished seventh in his heat and 13th overall in 8 minutes, 33.43 seconds — missing the final by one spot.

MSU head coach Lyle Weese saw the difference between McManus’ appearances at the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Outdoor meets: the first a product of a breakout season and the second adding the weight of expectations.

He also noticed how McManus didn’t dwell on the race and wanted to use it as motivation. It hurt missing the final, McManus said, but it made him realize he belonged with the NCAA’s best.

McManus has relied on that mindset in his redshirt junior year, earning All-American honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile, winning the Big Sky Outdoor title in the steeplechase and placing fourth in the NCAA West First Rounds last weekend.

In his return to Eugene for NCAA Outdoors next week, McManus is ranked No. 6.

“He understands what it takes to get to that final and he’s very confident about it,” MSU teammate Owen Smith said. “He’s done all the right work. He’s healthy and he just feels like it’s his time.”

McManus said the younger version of himself — as a runner at Cashmere High in Washington state — would be “pretty shocked” to find out all that he’s accomplished.

McManus said he was better at track than cross country — although he did finish second in the 1A WIAA state cross country meet as a junior in 2019 — mostly running the 1,600 meters (4:10.90 PR) and 800 meters (1:56.31 PR).

Those marks opened the door to running in college. McManus wanted to leave Washington, but not go too far outside the region. While he didn’t know the full effects of training at elevation, McManus also saw the Rocky Mountains as an optimal location. MSU checked all boxes.

“(Bozeman is) a beautiful location, beautiful town,” McManus added. “It felt far enough from home, but also familiar enough that it wasn’t a crazy change.”

Weese saw how McManus coming from a rural area (Cashmere has a population of about 3,300) could fit in well with MSU’s current team. He added that a runner who specializes in the 1,600 often has a wide range of events they can run.

McManus may have shown more of a range in high school track if not for his junior season (2020) being cancelled and his senior season (2021) being truncated due to COVID-19. He also got injured during his senior cross country season.

“It definitely, in some areas, motivated me because I really wanted a chance to find that success,” McManus said, “and I felt like I was kind of denied that my last few years of high school.”

It took some time, especially with the “reality check” that came during his first MSU cross country season in 2021, he said. McManus found adjusting to bigger college races challenging, like stepping up to 8,000 meters at Pre-Nationals (261st place, 25:38.2) and the Big Sky Cross Country Championships (66th place, 26:29.1).

“I don’t think there was ever any doubt in my mind about my ability,” McManus said. “I just kind of knew that I wasn’t at that point yet, and it was going to take a lot of work to get to a point where I could truly be happy in my fitness and my athletics.”

His teammates quickly realized how serious McManus was about achieving those goals. Duncan Hamilton, who overlapped with McManus for two years, said the talent was “undeniable.” Hamilton also teased McManus about trying to out-kick him at the end of workouts, even though it was an indicator of the speed he could muster on tired legs.

“With Rob, you could always tell that he was there for the right reasons,” Hamilton said, adding, “He purposely wanted to be great and he wanted to keep pushing his body and improving.”

Smith, who joined MSU in 2020, was intimidated by McManus at first given they were competing for similar spots. That fostered competition between the two and made them grow closer as teammates.

“He really enjoys the faster stuff, especially at the end of a workout when it’s getting hard and people are suffering,” Smith said. “You can see him really thrive there.”

McManus, who redshirted his first outdoor season in 2022, made more progress in the fall. He helped the Bobcats reach the NCAAs in cross country for the first time since 2002. After redshirting indoors, he alternated between the 1,500, the 5,000 and the steeplechase outdoors.

Coming into college, McManus didn’t know much about the steeplechase. He saw Hamilton’s success at NCAAs and the 2021 Olympic Trials. McManus also learned of Weese’s background as an All-American steeplechase runner at MSU and saw Levi Taylor qualify for NCAAs and the U.S. Outdoor Championships in 2022.

Weese saw how quickly McManus acclimated to hurdling drills. McManus also relied on advice from Taylor and Hamilton, like alternating legs on jumps and building confidence in the event.

“I think just having that legacy, having those people who you can follow in their tracks and who have a lot of really good advice and good knowledge in the sport that you can really trust, I think that definitely has turned me towards the event more,” McManus said.

After placing second to Hamilton at Big Sky Outdoors, McManus ran the sixth-fastest time (then-PR of 8:31.13) at the 2023 West Region First Round to qualify for his first NCAA Outdoors.

Amid the heat and humidity in Austin, Texas — which MSU runners tried to combat with ice baths and dunking hats in water — McManus placed 16th overall (8:47.86) to earn second team All-American honors. The race completed his first full outdoor track season since his sophomore year of high school in 2019.

McManus was happy with the race, he said, but dealt with imposter syndrome at NCAAs, something he had to mentally work through that offseason.

Earlier that season, McManus had mentioned how his main goal was to simply make it to NCAAs. With the times McManus was running, Hamilton and Taylor told him to dream bigger.

“It’s hard the first time at an NCAA meet to not just be happy to be there,” said Hamilton, who was a national runner-up in the steeplechase in 2022 and 2023. “I feel like it’s hard to perform well at your first NCAAs. But I was glad to kind of be able to tell him to step up his goals a little bit.”

The expectations continued to grow. McManus once again helped the Bobcats reach NCAAs in cross country, along with contributing to a second-place team finish at Big Sky Indoors and a conference title at Big Sky Outdoors in 2024.

After finishing with the fifth-fastest time of 8:40.18 at the 2024 West Region First Round, McManus finished 13th at NCAA Outdoors. Later that summer, he placed 23rd at the USATF Olympic Trials.

With Hamilton and Taylor becoming three-time All-Americans and representing MSU in the steeplechase final at NCAAs four years in a row, the bar had been raised, said Smith, who placed 23rd at NCAAs last year. It caused Smith, McManus and Weese to reevaluate the approach.

For the 2024-25 cycle, the timing of harder workouts has moved to allow for fresher legs. The Bobcats have done fewer hurdle-specific drills. MSU has done progressive runs on Saturdays, which include each mile getting faster until the group reaches five-minute pace.

“We would do pretty much whatever (Weese) would ask us to do or tell us to do in workouts,” McManus said, adding, “But obviously the goals remain the same, the plan remains the same to have success at the national level.”

First he qualified for NCAA Indoors, earning second team All-American status with a 15th-place finish in the mile.