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Post by coachk2 on Apr 29, 2019 14:17:36 GMT -5
At the 18s level, it's often not about how good your best players are, but how good your weakest ones are. Not having a soft spot in serve receive, or block/defense, and having every hitter be at least a competent threat usually overrides the ability of that one/two special athletes to take over - at least over the course of such a slog-like tournament like nationals. That TAV team a few years ago may not have had one singular star, but you have a huge advantage when you can trot out 10-12 quality D-1 players. This is why the powerhouse club teams stay on top even if they don't have a Top 10 player every year - and also why people are unfair when they say "XYZ VBC has three Top 50 players, why aren't they winning more?" Someone needs to help Coach K on this one! Looking back at my somewhat unofficial records, I don't see a TAV 18 Open national champ, although someone at Courtside told me it would be 2nd. My paper records go back to ANVA in Davis in 1980 (thhe first ever JOV's) but I may be missing something. Anyone know?
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Post by oldhead on Apr 29, 2019 14:35:39 GMT -5
At the 18s level, it's often not about how good your best players are, but how good your weakest ones are. Not having a soft spot in serve receive, or block/defense, and having every hitter be at least a competent threat usually overrides the ability of that one/two special athletes to take over - at least over the course of such a slog-like tournament like nationals. That TAV team a few years ago may not have had one singular star, but you have a huge advantage when you can trot out 10-12 quality D-1 players. This is why the powerhouse club teams stay on top even if they don't have a Top 10 player every year - and also why people are unfair when they say "XYZ VBC has three Top 50 players, why aren't they winning more?" Someone needs to help Coach K on this one! Looking back at my somewhat unofficial records, I don't see a TAV 18 Open national champ, although someone at Courtside told me it would be 2nd. My paper records go back to ANVA in Davis in 1980 (thhe first ever JOV's) but I may be missing something. Anyone know? If I am not mistaken, i think that their 2013 team with Ebony Nwanebu and Chiaka Ogogu won an 18 Open title. Now that was some star power.
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Post by trollhunter on Apr 29, 2019 14:39:27 GMT -5
Someone needs to help Coach K on this one! Looking back at my somewhat unofficial records, I don't see a TAV 18 Open national champ, although someone at Courtside told me it would be 2nd. My paper records go back to ANVA in Davis in 1980 (thhe first ever JOV's) but I may be missing something. Anyone know? If I am not mistaken, i think that their 2013 team with Ebony Nwanebu and Chiaka Ogogu won an 18 Open title. Now that was some star power. That is my recollection also, but USAV is missing 2013 results on their site.
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Post by oldhead on Apr 29, 2019 14:43:38 GMT -5
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Post by vbprisoner on Apr 29, 2019 14:46:43 GMT -5
At the 18s level, it's often not about how good your best players are, but how good your weakest ones are. Not having a soft spot in serve receive, or block/defense, and having every hitter be at least a competent threat usually overrides the ability of that one/two special athletes to take over - at least over the course of such a slog-like tournament like nationals. That TAV team a few years ago may not have had one singular star, but you have a huge advantage when you can trot out 10-12 quality D-1 players. This is why the powerhouse club teams stay on top even if they don't have a Top 10 player every year - and also why people are unfair when they say "XYZ VBC has three Top 50 players, why aren't they winning more?" Someone needs to help Coach K on this one! Looking back at my somewhat unofficial records, I don't see a TAV 18 Open national champ, although someone at Courtside told me it would be 2nd. My paper records go back to ANVA in Davis in 1980 (thhe first ever JOV's) but I may be missing something. Anyone know? They have won 18s open at least one other time... the one that comes to mind without looking everything up is the 2013 team that had Ebony Nwanebu (TX), Chi Ogbogu (TX), Cassidy Pickrell (ASU), Jordan Anderson (UCLA), Sarita Mikals (TCU), Reagan McGuire (TCU) and forgot a few others that played D1 also. They have won multiple age group open titles in almost every year going back several years, and then also won several titles in USA, American, National, etc., in various age groups as well.
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Post by stevehorn on Apr 29, 2019 19:00:19 GMT -5
According to AES results TAV 18 Black this decade: finished 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 5th, 5th, 9th, 1st, 7th, 10th, and 2010 didn't qualify for Open (their 17's won 170, so maybe they didn't have any true 18's that year?). Very doubtful that TAV wouldn't have mostly true 18's. If you look at their rosters over the years, they have few players playing up and the ones that do usually have to play up due to their age. Also playing 17s seems to be their big draw because of the opportunity to play for Ping.
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Post by n00b on Apr 29, 2019 20:01:27 GMT -5
This piqued my curiosity so I dove into the PrepVolleyball archives (hopefully JT is okay with me re-posting snippets of some 9-year-old stories). Preseason: March: #46 April: #26 June: #42 Final: Honorable Mention Looks like they simply didn't qualify.
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Post by coachk2 on Apr 29, 2019 22:41:14 GMT -5
Someone needs to help Coach K on this one! Looking back at my somewhat unofficial records, I don't see a TAV 18 Open national champ, although someone at Courtside told me it would be 2nd. My paper records go back to ANVA in Davis in 1980 (thhe first ever JOV's) but I may be missing something. Anyone know? If I am not mistaken, i think that their 2013 team with Ebony Nwanebu and Chiaka Ogogu won an 18 Open title. Now that was some star power. Thanks for all the responses. Re-checking my paper records, I found I was missing 2013 in Dallas and also now remember that TAV team winning it all. It was my first year broadcasting for USAV, so the new guy got 18 American and 18 Patriot Finals on the 2nd court, but saw some of the team prior to Open Final. Clearly TAV 18 Black likes playing in their hometown, although in 1998 in Dallas Kaepa City Beach won and in 2008 in Dallas TCA-CA won (there’s a name from the past). Now updating my ancient archives! 🤓
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