USA Volleyball Mag

[bunnywailer]

May 22, 2009 10:48:05 GMT -5 vbvet1 said:

Some info for Bob to complain about. I must say your posts are entertaining.

The prime legal responsibility of an NGB/USAV are national teams and championships. While we can all say what we want out of USAV, the organization is not capable of everything we in the vb community want with the limited resources available. For one, the Region structure limits grassroots growth, drives costs, and blunts national efforts.

Here are somethings that have been done by USAV national:

National Teams
The USA has just had it's most successful quad ever.
The USA has regained lost political standing in the FIVB.
The US men are back in the World League and reigning champions.
Both men and women are playing full international schedules.
Both teams have national training programs on top of the senior squads, most of who are playing pro much of the year.
Both teams are now based in Anaheim with access to all of the best players and coaches in the US.
Keeping Hugh on staff even though it is with the women. (No surprise as his future employment is greatly enhanced if he can be successful with women. Too bad Speraw would not go for the men, but UCI gave him a nice 5 year deal to stay.)

This has taken effort. The work with the national teams continue in the face of significant funding cuts by the USOC, ie. the WUG team and more. Getting Anaheim on board with the women's team is huge and took a tremendous effort. This will pay-off.

International
You may recently have noticed that USAV is now hosting international events. They include various NORCECA Championships, the Pan-AM Cup, and the World League. How about the 2012 beach qualifier. This all takes effort.

Men's College
Who do you think worked vigorously to help get the Carolinas Conference together? Jamie did most of the work, but USAV was involved in the effort. USAV continues to push for programs to be added. The D3 expansion is an example. Soon the NCAA may actually have 2 men's collegiate championships. Some day maybe 3, D1, D2, D3.

High Performance
The high performance programs have expanded immensely in recent years due to an application of resources. USA is now represented in most major FIVB competitions and is competing for medals. Plus, the introduction of the High Performance Championship. This did not happen before.

Junior beach
Have you noticed the growth of the junior beach tour?

USOC forced re-organization
Do you know about the changes in the organization and the new board with media, business, and AVP affiliations?

We should want more, but the staff of USAV is working hard on a wide range of levels. These people should not be characterized as control freaks. While Beal does not have the sweetest of dispositions, he is working for the sport and is willing to take on some of the organizations that are only interested in the almighty dollar at the expense of the sport. He is doing some things that others did not have the guts to do.

Give them some credit. They are the people that have gotten Hugh, Karch, Jenny, Speraw, Knipe, Dunphy, Larson, and others involved. Are these not the people you want pushing to grow the game?

I am a former player and long time fan of the game. Above are things that did not exist in the past. While the regions have let many good things of the past die, such as quality adult vb, the programs identified above may keep the sport moving forward against some difficult odds. I wish them well.

Sorry many of you do not share my views, but the discourse is interesting.

I find it hilarious that every single criteria that you list as "accomplishments" for USAV smacks of elitism. That's not "growing the sport" in this country - that's just catering to the .001% of volleyball athletes and programs in this country that play at the elite level - or grooming the next crop of athletes to that elite level.

USAV and Doug Beal like to harp on the accomplishments of the National Teams program in this quadrennial. Why haven't we talked about the 96-00 quadrennial when Beal, then the USA Men's coach, pretty much bullied the entire organization into allocating a disproportionate level of resources and funding into his men's team, at the expense of the rest of the efforts that USAV is involved in. 1 million dollars to enter World League in 2000, plus paying out to have a major television sponsor. And what did that net in 2000? A tie for 13th place with Egypt. Woo hoo. Conversely, the USA women, with much less attention and resources given to them, place 4th.

USAV likes to take credit for accomplishments that they might have had 10% interest in. Case in point, the results of the USA Men and USA women in the Beijing Olympics. If you're gonna credit USAV, they equal credit should be given to these athletes' sports agents, and the pro club teams they play for, because that's where they developed their games and got better playing against top-flight competetition.

But all that is irrelevant, because "growing the sport of volleyball" in this country has nothing to do with how many gold medals the USA wins in major competition, or how ambitious their summer development programs are at the junior national team and youth national team levels. All that matters little if no one notices it, and other than the small volleyball community clique that follows it, no one really gives a crap. It's not like Joe and Jane Doe suddenly wake up one morning and go "You know, I wonder how the girls' YNT did in that tournament in Zimbabwe...", and upon hearing that the USA won the gold medal suddenly smack their heads and go "OMG! That's so cool we'll sign up Brittany, Heather, Jake, and Connor to play volleyball right away and we'll join an adult league and play volleyball and we'll be one big volleyball playing family..."

I'll say it one more time - nobody outside the volleyball clique cares much about all that stuff, and all of that has NOTHING to do with growing the sport in this country. Let's see participation numbers, socioeconomic diversity numbers, and anecdotal evidence of volleyball programs being created and maintained in areas of the country and neighborhoods where they previously never existed. Let's see volleyball programs created that don't preclude anyone from participating due to excessive cost.

[ucsdfan]

May 21, 2009 20:41:56 GMT -5 vbvet1 said:

It is unlikely that volleyball will ever break into the pro arena of the US. The traditional sports dominate the available market.

While I agree that volleyball will not make it in the pro arena, it's not because of being closed out by major sports. If that were true, then Nascar would never have taken off, there wouldn't be a golf channel, the MISL wouldn't have been spawned, UFC wouldn't have become a semi-common name, and so on. Volleyball is best seen live, which makes it hard to promote in the same fashion as the more television-friendly sports. That is perhaps the biggest short-coming to a pro league. But you can't disregard a pro league because other sports exist; that's just plain wrong and a copout.

May 21, 2009 20:41:56 GMT -5 vbvet1 said:

Yet, the sport can grow without a pro league. The grassroots are linked to the schools. We can hope that NCAA women's sand volleyball will provide the opening in Title 9 for collegiate men's volleyball to expand.

The process will be incremental at best.

It can grow, and there have been some impressive actions posted by many in this thread. There is some wonderful passion in this thread. But so far only Grand SoBB recognizes the most important factor to our becoming a dominant volleyball country with a larger number of fans in the general population. Make it available to more than just the top 2% of income earners. Starlings is a great program, and it seems they have a few more teams each year. But that scrapes the surface. USYVL could be wonderful if the parent coaches were able to go to a few clinics and really get some good insights into the game. Having college kids take jobs coaching volleyball at the YMCA or City Parks could help offset their college costs (a work study option to offset the low number of scholarships) as well as serve to expose more kids to volleyball at a young age. Grand SoBB is 100% absolutely on the mark when he says that expanding the game starts by making it more affordable to the 98% of the population that are currently priced out.

[vbvet1]

Both of you make excellent points concerning grassroots growth. No argument. However, grassroots growth is not something that USAV National can easily create. It is not something most clubs are interested in promoting because they cannot make money off of that population.

As Bob states, most of what USAV National does revolves around the Elite athlete. The charge of the National Sports act is for them to concentrate on national teams and championships. The USOC governs the NGBs by controlling the purse strings. The USOC wants medals. That is the job of USAV. Funding from the USOC is restricted to approved programs. Such is the reality of an NGB. They can talk about grassroots, but the focus is the Elite.

Yet, did you know that USAV National works directly with both the Starlings and the youth leagues.

The USAV Regions do not work at it. They have no desire, but are supposed to promote the sport locally. Yet, individuals working locally for a common goal can and do create grassroots growth, not national organizations. As stated earlier, the schools can provide the resources to develop the populations you have identified. Why not try it? It has worked in at least 2 states.

For example, did you ever wonder why there is so much volleyball in the Chicago area. The beaches are only useable from the end of May until October. So that is not it. The grassroots growth of volleyball did not start in the rich suburbs where it now gets the most attention and is very active. It spread there and club thrives because people can afford it.

The creation of the first grammar school girl's vb programs began in the mid-70s on the southside of Chicago by a small group of parents and PE teachers. The programs continue today and have expanded into a large grammar school league network. Thousands of kids are involved. Girls play winter and boys spring. The effort was copied and began for boys in the early 90s. The suburbs copied it,but fund it with paid coaches, etc.

Grammar schools in many areas of Chicago, not just affluent areas, have school teams beginning in 4th grade. The teams are coached by parents and high school players. Many schools have 2 and 3 teams at each class level. Many schools have vb programs for both girls and boys. The Chicago Public and Catholic high schools have varsity programs for both boys and girls that come out of these grammar school programs. Many of the high schools host grammar school tournaments. Virtually none of the city kids play club, but they play volleyball. If you want to see a diverse population check out this group. Do these programs get attention outside the area? No. Oh well.

Across the US, the cities are the areas that need the attention and most able to provide facilities. Yet, rural areas will often be most amenable to the idea.

Instead of complaining about what others have not done, go out and start a grammar school program. It can serve as an after school program to keep kids off the street, but in a very short time you might be able to motivate others to do the same and create a league. Try it, it is fun. You usually can get local businesses to donate t-shirts. Use the PE volleyballs or get the old rejects from a vb club. If need be, the gym is usually small enough that you can string the net from wall to wall. Tape or tempra paint the floor. As you can see, we have done it.

Looking backward and seeing a program you started 20+ years ago still going strong is very gratifying. Seeing former players giving back to keep that program alive is even more gratifying especially when their sons and daughters are playing on these teams. Then if they wish to pursue volleyball to a higher level, they can go to club and beyond. Oh and I forgot to mention, it does not need to cost the participants a penny. They do not need to join USAV. It would be nice if they could be a USAV member for say $5 and get the mag, but the regions will not allow USAV National to do that even though some within the organization have tried to push for the idea.

Do not expect USAV National to do it. Look at some of the former Olympians creating exactly the type of programs described above in their backyards for their kid's school. Lots of VB people, many who work with USAV, are putting out the effort. Yet that effort is behind the scenes, but is real.

[Murina]

vbvet1,

You made a pretty good description of why the NGB seems to cater to the elite. You beat me to it, and I'm glad I don't have to this time.

That being said, I wonder what obstacles are in the way of the USAV doing something like VivaVolei in Brazil? The costs are pretty minimal, and are mostly funded by local sponsors anyway.

[pimpjuice]

Build it and they will come. Problem is there's not enough volleyball courts to play in. Try doing a google search for open gyms in your area, I myself can only play twice a week in my neighborhood because our community center/gym is reserved for polka dancing the other days of the week. If Rucker Park were built as a volleyball court instead, we'd probably see more players and diversity playing the game.

[1221pch]

May 25, 2009 6:03:55 GMT -5 pimpjuice said:

Build it and they will come. Problem is there's not enough volleyball courts to play in. Try doing a google search for open gyms in your area, I myself can only play twice a week in my neighborhood because our community center/gym is reserved for polka dancing the other days of the week. If Rucker Park were built as a volleyball court instead, we'd probably see more players and diversity playing the game.

That is the situation in a nutshell........more people do the polka than play volleyball.

[vbvet1]

I did some research and found that there is government money supporting VivaVolei in Brazil. I wish we had this here in the US.

[Murina]

May 27, 2009 16:11:35 GMT -5 vbvet1 said:

I did some research and found that there is government money supporting VivaVolei in Brazil. I wish we had this here in the US.

You wish you had VivaVolei or government money support?

As I understand it, VivaVolei was started without any government money, but has received government grants based on the social aspects of the program (keeping kids off streets, off drugs, etc.). This kind of government grant is readily available in the USA as well. In Brazil these grants don't exactly "support" the program, as the program is designed to be locally self supporting and sustaining. The grants have helped the program expand, but the program existed before, and would exist without them.