5/19/2006
Men's Volleyball
As a blog that is read by no one, I can write things about topics that no one cares about, and no one will complain. Who ever said that total obscurity was a bad thing?
I recently finished a season coaching boy's vollyeball at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy. We finished the season 2-14. Our two wins came against teams that had beat us in the first round of league play, and lost players to academic ineligibility before the second round. To be fair, our team got exponentially better. Mostly young kids, with a few seniors. Only one of our seniors was a legitimate volleyball player. The other guys worked hard (sometimes) and often suprised me with what they pulled off. They didn't listen well, and asked too many questions. But, nonetheless, they improved.
The quality of our league was pretty low. There were two teams who had any sort of sophisticated offense. Most teams actually resorted to playing on a rotation, filling in whatever spot you rotate to. This makes it hard to raise the quality of the league, becuase no one can specialize and people only spend one rotation at the position for which they are most suited. Difficult to excel that way.
Boy's/Men's volleyball seems to be on a down cycle. When I was in high school, a whole 5 years ago, it seemed like it was growing, at least in my particular volleyball world view. Lots of Division III programs were adding Men's Volleyball, the state of Texas had 2 different leagues with boy's volleyball championships (SPC and Tapps). Now there is one league, with only 8 teams, some of which have trouble fielding a squad every year.
Division I Men's Volleyball seems to be at the same place its always been, at least as long as I've been paying attention. NAIA also appears to be solidified as a volleyball league, especially since they are a little more lax when it comes to allowing foreign players with some questionable past experience.
I'm not sure where volleyball is going, but something needs to be done to stabilize its future in American athletics.
I recently finished a season coaching boy's vollyeball at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy. We finished the season 2-14. Our two wins came against teams that had beat us in the first round of league play, and lost players to academic ineligibility before the second round. To be fair, our team got exponentially better. Mostly young kids, with a few seniors. Only one of our seniors was a legitimate volleyball player. The other guys worked hard (sometimes) and often suprised me with what they pulled off. They didn't listen well, and asked too many questions. But, nonetheless, they improved.
The quality of our league was pretty low. There were two teams who had any sort of sophisticated offense. Most teams actually resorted to playing on a rotation, filling in whatever spot you rotate to. This makes it hard to raise the quality of the league, becuase no one can specialize and people only spend one rotation at the position for which they are most suited. Difficult to excel that way.
Boy's/Men's volleyball seems to be on a down cycle. When I was in high school, a whole 5 years ago, it seemed like it was growing, at least in my particular volleyball world view. Lots of Division III programs were adding Men's Volleyball, the state of Texas had 2 different leagues with boy's volleyball championships (SPC and Tapps). Now there is one league, with only 8 teams, some of which have trouble fielding a squad every year.
Division I Men's Volleyball seems to be at the same place its always been, at least as long as I've been paying attention. NAIA also appears to be solidified as a volleyball league, especially since they are a little more lax when it comes to allowing foreign players with some questionable past experience.
I'm not sure where volleyball is going, but something needs to be done to stabilize its future in American athletics.
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