An Exciting Time of Year
Written by twhigham, Thursday December 10 2009
This is an exciting time of year for volleyball.
The high school season has concluded (in Florida anyways) and club try-outs have been held. The smart girls tried out for more than just one club, because you never want to be the girl that gets left out of the season. You may not be able to play for the club you want, but at least you can play somewhere and be involved.
More than a few girls have been told that they didn’t make any team(s) at all and have spent the next few days crying; because not only did they not make a team, but they just got shuffled down a few notches on the social circle by friends who did. The unfortunate ones are now “grade B”.
For those girls fortunate enough to have made a club team – and have the means to afford the expenses – they’re on Cloud Nine. They’re taking a volleyball and bouncing it against a wall on the racquetball courts during off-peak hours, practicing their digging, hitting, and setting; making up drills to improve their skills so that when club season starts in earnest, they’ll be ready. They’re calling a friend and peppering in their front yard. They’re cajoling their dad to volley, instead of playing catch. They want to succeed on their team. They want to win.
And the NCAA is starting its volleyball version of basketball’s March Madness. Call it “December Delirium”.
Volleyball is not a regional sport, but it is stronger in some states than it is in others. California, the birthplace of beach volleyball, is the hotbed for young talent and for many years universities in the Golden State were the schools to play for if you wanted to win an NCAA national championship. Even today, it’s where beach players go to train if they want to win an Olympic gold medal. Its where all the best players are.
There was a time when getting to play in the “December Delirium” was simply a matter of ranking. If you had a winning season, you got in, no matter where your campus was located. The California schools reaped the rewards of being able to recruit the best players in its own back yard. “Hi, Mom. Don’t let your daughter play out east. If your daughter plays for UCLA, you can come watch without having to buy a plane ticket.” Consequently, most of the best players stayed in-state.
The NCAA realized that it had to do something to equitably distribute the talent pool and bring parity to the sport. A handful of California schools dominating the college landscape was not good for competition. What’s not good for competition is not good for sport. So, the NCAA changed things around. It got smart. It changed the format so that you had to win in your region in order to make it into the championships. It put all of the California schools in the same regional competition.
Immediately, there were protests from schools like USC, UCLA, and Stanford. With one rule change, their traditions of volleyball excellence were put in jeopardy. And suddenly schools that had struggled to get into the championship tournament found themselves eligible for very good seeding. Schools that had a good program – but not an elite one – had a carrot to dangle. “Our team isn’t as good as a California school, but we are better than the other schools in our region and you’ll be able to get into the NCAA’s.” California high school girls became fair game. The non-California schools swarmed in like piranha to a cow carcass.
Schools like Florida, Penn State, Texas, and Nebraska were now able to attract extremely talented athletes, and eventually were able to compete at the elite level and become volleyball powerhouses in their region.
This weekend the Sweet 16 starts. When the tournament started, the top ten seeds, from first to worst, were Penn State, Texas, Florida State, Stanford, Illinois, Washington, Iowa State, UCLA, California, and Nebraska. All of those schools qualified for the Sweet 16 except for Washington, who lost to unranked Colorado State in four games, and UCLA, who lost to unranked Baylor in four games as well (I can hear Mick Haley grinding his teeth right now).
Of the top ten schools, only three were from California, and none were higher than #4.
So has the realignment been good for competition? Yes it has. It has given high school players more alternatives for furthering their athletic careers. A talented player in Georgia doesn’t have to travel three time zones to play on a championship team. A volleyball fan isn’t just limited to watching games on tv. He or she can watch a top-quality team play at a university near them.
And a high school club coach trying to inspire young players can encourage them to go watch the Regionals, no matter what part of the country they’re in, because there’s a good chance that they’ll be watching the future NCAA champions. That’s an experience a developing player can take with her the next time she’s bouncing a volleyball against a wall on a racquetball court during off-peak hours, making up drills so that someday, maybe, she can hoist the golden NCAA trophy over her head.
This is an exciting time of year for volleyball.
Long live sport.
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