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Post by TEDDY ROOSEVELT on Jan 15, 2003 11:17:16 GMT -5
What is the Big Deal with Puerto Rican players playing at American Universities. If Americans had half the passion the "Ricans" had for the game of volleyball, there would be alot more qualilty players entering the college level. On the Junior Level, they start young and play all year around and are very competitive.
There is a high level pro/semi pro/amature league on the Island where the top players compete. Wouldn't you love to see a league like that in Southern California which features former and current collegiate players, a couple of Fab 50 prep players, and National and Junior National Team members play in a 10 team league. That's what Puerto Rico has.
You really can't consider "Rican Players" foreign players (aka: Europe, Mexico, Brazil) because Puerto Rico is an American Territory. and many rights given to them much the same as American Citizens.
Colleges are recognizing the importance of recruiting quality players to bulid their program. Even UCLA is in the last 3 years have brought in four "Rican" players. BYU, UCSB, Hawaii, Lewis, Ohio State, Penn State all have recruited "Rican" players.
I think we should take a closer look at what Puerto Rico is doing for the game of volleyball.
REMEMBER SAN JUAN HILL, TEDDY
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M&M's
High School
Posts: 7
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Post by M&M's on Jan 16, 2003 0:12:37 GMT -5
I am sorry that you feel this way.... IPFW has been recruiting a lot of guys from Puerto Rico for many years.....Hector Soto and currently Angel Ruiz, Dennis Santiago and the new Angel Ruiz. These guys are great guys and just want to play some competitive vball while going to college. Why should we ban them?
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Post by The Messanger on Jan 16, 2003 4:23:50 GMT -5
Okay, from what I've read on this and other message boards, many fans don't believe that a lot of Puerto Rican players should play mostly because many have played pro ball, and that wouldn't be fair to those who haven't- mainly, American college students. Again, this is only what others have said- I don't necessarily believe this rational.
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Post by JustMe on Jan 16, 2003 5:07:10 GMT -5
Okay, from what I've read on this and other message boards, many fans don't believe that a lot of Puerto Rican players should play mostly because many have played pro ball, and that wouldn't be fair to those who haven't- mainly, American college students. Again, this is only what others have said- I don't necessarily believe this rational. Personally, if I was a college player, I wouldn't mind playing against players that played pro. I would think playing against them would better my game. It would make me play even harder and in the long run, would make me a lot better player.
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Post by kolohekeiki on Jan 16, 2003 5:22:24 GMT -5
Why is there such a big deal about Puerto Rican players playing professional ball. There are lots of other international players that play professional ball before college. So why is this fuss just about Puerto Rican players. If they are talking about banning Puerto Rican players they should ban all international players because other international players play pro ball as well. We just shouldn't be picking on the Puerto Rican players on this issue.
Personally I don't have a problem with this, because I think it would improve the American college players game playing against higher competition players.
I would also think that this would be the same thing as college players playing in international tournaments over the off-season because they are playing against some of the best players in the world. Or is the issue money? Just because they get payed to play. What is the real issue here?
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Post by Psychopotamus on Jan 16, 2003 12:35:16 GMT -5
I think the real issue is that if they have already been payed to play, they should pay for their scholarship instead of having it given to them. If they didn't make enough playing, or wouldn't have been good enough if they had gone straight to college, that is their problem. It's only fair if everyone is on a level playing field.
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Post by kolohekeiki on Jan 16, 2003 18:09:53 GMT -5
You have a point there. I agree with you that these players should have enough money to pay for their own education and give up the scholarship to a player that really needs it.
But this players still should be allowed to play in the NCAA, and shouldn't be kicked out just because they have played professional ball.
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Post by vballmom on Jan 17, 2003 9:21:51 GMT -5
I always thought that NCAA players had to be amateurs. In other words, have never been paid to play their college sport. A baseball player in college can not have played for a MLB team. A basketball player or football player loses his college eligibility as he decides to play pro. Why is volleyball different? When my son has played in beach tournaments, everyone was very careful to make sure that he didn't win any money so that he wouldn't screw up his college eligibility. I heard that they were going to change the rules so that money earned playing beach volleyball did not impact your eligibility. I don't really know what happened with that.
Anyway, just wondering why the discrepancy is there.
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M&M's
High School
Posts: 7
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Post by M&M's on Jan 17, 2003 11:17:50 GMT -5
Not many people realize that Men's college volleyball is not governed by the NCAA. The organization that runs it is AVCA. They work along side the NCAA but they do have different rules. For example Men's college volleyball has Div 1 and 2 schools all competing for one National Title.
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Post by Charlie on Jan 17, 2003 11:38:54 GMT -5
Not many people realize that Men's college volleyball is not governed by the NCAA. No, the AVCA doesn't run men's volleyball. In the men's game, you have both NCAA and club teams. A relatively small number of teams compete in NCAA men's volleyball. The number is so small that there is only one official championship, so Div I, II and III teams can vie for that one championship. There is a Div III Championship, sponsored by Molten if I remember correctly, but it is not an official NCAA Championship. The number of Div III teams is increasing, and they are lobbying hard with the NCAA to get an 'official' championship, which would then probably draw even more Div III schools to move to NCAA competition because they would have a chance to win an official NCAA title. There are hundreds of men's club teams. They compete at a national championship that is put on by NIRSAA (I may be a little off on the exact spelling of that). Schools can actually have both an NCAA program and a club program. Club programs typically get some funding from the schools recreation department. Many of the club programs would like to be NCAA programs, but it is just not possible right now, at most schools, to add any men's programs to their NCAA mix because of Title IX constraints. (I'm not trolling to turn this into yet another Title IX debate, just noting what the situation is.)
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Post by IdahoBoy on Jan 17, 2003 12:51:17 GMT -5
We played a lot of Div III teams up in the Northwest with teams that we just threw together and our club team never lost to a D-III team. We only had 9 players on our roster for most of the past few years, and now this year can't field a team. Send some Puerto Ricans to Idaho to play... great facilities, a little bit of support from the University (although, we still paid around $1000 - notincluding party expenses, out of pocket a year to play).
We did this, like most at this level, because we loved to play. We didn't have a coach, and had different rotations from game to game depending on who filled the holes better.
Back to the point of this topic... It is NIRSA that governs club volleyball at our level. They have a championship match at the end of the year, that is basically filled in by anyone that can afford it. We never could, it was $800 just to register! They split it into 3-4 different categories: Open (incredible level of volleyball), A, AA, and B.
They also govern a womens club event, but its not as big as the mens for obvious reasons.
Wow, I had a little bit of insight to the men's game!!! WOOHOO!! We'll see how it holds up!
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Post by IdahoBoy on Jan 17, 2003 12:53:59 GMT -5
I nearly FORGOT!!! USAV also hosts many very competitive club events, and there are some teams (more on the east side of the states) that are very good in USAV. Its much more open than NIRSA is, as NIRSA has some rules about eligibility (which are pretty lenient, but do restrict players to collegians.)
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Post by halesvb11 on Jan 17, 2003 14:05:54 GMT -5
club volleyball is awesome. i play on a pretty strong team, and i think we could hold our own against most teams around, club or varsity. arizona has an incredible club program, as does utah valley state. you were right when you said that all club teams aspire to be varsity. i'd love to be varsity, get a LITTLE bit of money to help out for school, but i went ot an instate school, play club, and love every moment. NIRSA nationals are quite an experience, and if you're in columbus ohio on the 2nd weekend in april, come check it out. i think you'll be surprised at what you see
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Post by Alicia on Jan 17, 2003 16:38:03 GMT -5
I think the real issue is that if they have already been payed to play, they should pay for their scholarship instead of having it given to them. If they didn't make enough playing, or wouldn't have been good enough if they had gone straight to college, that is their problem. It's only fair if everyone is on a level playing field. Wait I dont get this, So say a non-athlete person who works for a few years before deciding to enter college should pay for his/her own tuition rather than accept a scholarship or grant to go to school. As to a high school student. Why ban someone who makes money from going to school?
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Post by Underdog on Jan 17, 2003 17:27:52 GMT -5
Wait I dont get this, So say a non-athlete person who works for a few years before deciding to enter college should pay for his/her own tuition rather than accept a scholarship or grant to go to school. As to a high school student. Why ban someone who makes money from going to school? I do believe that poster was referring to players playing pro volleyball and that they should pay their own way through college in order to play college volleyball instead of accepting a volleyball scholarship.
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