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Miscellaneous volleyball off-season news

AztecBuff

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Thought I'd create this thread so we can start collecting and sharing any miscellaneous volleyball news that comes up this (very transitional) off-season.

To start with, nothing major, but sounds like Coach Mahoney gets to see his players for the 1st time on the court today as (I assume?) the winter/ spring training period begins.



Also, for the last week or so, a person or two in the Volleytalk forum have made it sound like a "done deal" that at least one of the new assistant coaches has been selected (A VERY experienced coach by the name of Lee Maes), but I can't see where it's been formally announced yet. Be interested to hear if he is already in Boulder yet. I'd assume assistant coaches would be wanted/ needed for this training period?
(With at least 2 assistants (and I'd assume a grad assistant coach) to hire, assume they may be waiting for all to be formally on board, through HR and in Boulder before making one consolidated announcement?)
 
Per the below tweet, looks like Buffs volleyball has hired a 2nd assistant coach in Ms. Evangella (Evan) Sanders. Coach Mahoney should know Ms. Sanders well, as she was CSU's setter from 2008-2010 while Coach Mahoney was an assistant there. She also has Pac 12 experience that should be very helpful, as she then transferred to the U. of Washington for her senior season. From the below linked-to UT bio, she then played professionally for a few years before formally starting her coaching career this past season as the volunteer assistant coach for the national champion runners-up Texas Longhorns. (Thanks to the Volleytalk forum for once again 1st giving me the info of a CU coaching hire.)

As a top quality relatively tall (6'0") all-around setter who blocked as well as she set, I assume she should be a great position coach for Gabby Simpson and any setters following her for the Buffs (if that's how Coach Mahoney organizes things), hopefully for years to come.

For her personally, this must be an exciting homecoming for Ms. Sanders as she hails from nearby Lafayette and Centaurus HS. Welcome to her joining the Buffs!



Her (short) coaching bio on the Univ. of Texas site- http://www.texassports.com/coaches.aspx?rc=1017&path=wvball
Her Univ. of Washington biography giving details of her playing career- http://www.gohuskies.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30200&ATCLID=208064016
 
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So she left Colorado State to play at Washington for her senior year. Would love to know the back story of that.

We definitely need somebody to coach the setters. Good find!
 
Looks like the women had their annual post-season banquet/ awards ceremony. (See below tweet for link to article.)

Congrats again to all the team for the good season, and thanks for all the hard work that definitely lead to some great entertainment both live and on TV/ streaming this past season for the fans!

 
The players all looked so pretty all dressed up!
Yes, they do clean up nice. I'm really impressed with how comfortable they are with their height that they can wear really high heels for an event like this. For my generation I was one of the tall ones but I rarely wore even short heels.
As a side note, this seasons walk-on freshman DS, Abbie D'Agosta, is no longer with the team. Looks like Gabby Carta-Samuels will have to step up her game.
 
Yes, they wore very high heels for their big night.

Were you able to attend the banquet?
 
........Were you able to attend the banquet?
Yes we went. Got to meet Coach Mahoney and his wife; nothing much more than "hi and welcome back to Boulder". And talked for a while to several of the players. Emotional speeches from Nicole and Alexis. Alexa Smith was there. I talked briefly with her. She seems glad to be here.
 
Yes, they do clean up nice. I'm really impressed with how comfortable they are with their height that they can wear really high heels for an event like this. For my generation I was one of the tall ones but I rarely wore even short heels.
As a side note, this seasons walk-on freshman DS, Abbie D'Agosta, is no longer with the team. Looks like Gabby Carta-Samuels will have to step up her game.

Kind of surprised by this. Not that it matters much with Gwen likely taking back any of the time either of them played this past year, but I felt like Abbie showed much better when she was out there and she was out there a whole lot more. Who knows how these things work. Maybe what she was able to put on tape got her a scholarship offer someplace else that she couldn't pass up.
 
Yes we went. Got to meet Coach Mahoney and his wife; nothing much more than "hi and welcome back to Boulder". And talked for a while to several of the players. Emotional speeches from Nicole and Alexis. Alexa Smith was there. I talked briefly with her. She seems glad to be here.

I couldn't tell if regular fans were invited to attend by the article. As emotional as Nicole was at the reception I attended, I am not surprised she was emotional. I think from seeing Alexis' posts on Instagram, it's settled in that college volleyball is over.
 
I took a look at Evan Sanders twitter page. She has gotten a number of "we luv you, we'll miss you" type tweets from Texas VB players. Says to me that she was well liked by the players which will, hopefully, translate to her having the same relation with the CU VB players.
 
I like that her players at Texas are saying that. She's young and that will work in her favor with the players. I did see a comment on FB that we shouldn't hire Rams. Well, the head coach is also a former Ram and that was how we got Evan.
 
I like that her players at Texas are saying that. She's young and that will work in her favor with the players. I did see a comment on FB that we shouldn't hire Rams. Well, the head coach is also a former Ram and that was how we got Evan.
Who cares where the coaches have been prior if they are qualified? I'm not a huge VB fan, but I seem to recall the Rams having a string of very good teams.
 
All I am saying is the new coach is a former assistant at CSU when Evan played there. He coached her. Never said anything negative and don't see where you got that idea. They may have good teams but the Rams lose in the NCAA tourney as soon as they leave Fort Collins. We want to be able to be better than that because we play in a much better conference than the Rams do.
 
All I am saying is the new coach is a former assistant at CSU when Evan played there. He coached her. Never said anything negative and don't see where you got that idea. They may have good teams but the Rams lose in the NCAA tourney as soon as they leave Fort Collins. We want to be able to be better than that and solidly beat their butts every time we play them because we play in a much better conference than the Rams do.
There! FIFY!
 
All I am saying is the new coach is a former assistant at CSU when Evan played there. He coached her. Never said anything negative and don't see where you got that idea. They may have good teams but the Rams lose in the NCAA tourney as soon as they leave Fort Collins. We want to be able to be better than that and solidly beat their butts every time we play them because we play in a much better conference than the Rams do.
There, FIFY!
 
All I am saying is the new coach is a former assistant at CSU when Evan played there. He coached her. Never said anything negative and don't see where you got that idea. They may have good teams but the Rams lose in the NCAA tourney as soon as they leave Fort Collins. We want to be able to be better than that because we play in a much better conference than the Rams do.
Thank you for the education.
 
As I was getting the link to the soccer signing day announcement video, noticed cubuffs also released a relatively short video (~3 minutes) yesterday with Coach Mahoney introducing himself again, and giving a VERY brief glimpse into a practice.

Fun to watch, at least for someone like me with NO practical volleyball experience- http://www.cubuffs.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=4988314

A couple notes from watching it:
1) I think I saw all the returning offensive players I'd expect/ hope to see (along with transfer Alexa Smith); good to see they're still with the program so far. (The video didn't show any of the defensive specialist players that I could see, so assume they were practicing somewhere else, off camera, or at a different time.)
2) For just a second or two, the video shows Coach Mahoney giving setting advice to red-shirt freshman Taylor Joachim. From that, I'm going to make a total WAG and say that my WAG for what the prior coaching staff's "Plan A" was for next year's team, a 6-2 rotation with one of if not the tallest setting combinations in college volleyball history (with lefties 6'4" Joachim and 6'3" Gabby Simpson both being right-side hitters when in the front row), is also being at minimum explored by the new coaches. (Off seasons are such fun for making wild assumptions based on next to no information.)

________________________________

There's also an ~6 minute video available I hadn't seen (released Jan. 24th) produced for the volleyball team banquet featuring both highlights AND fun team building times for the team from last season- http://www.cubuffs.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=4951265
 
A couple volleyball related items (Both originally from Volleytalk forum):

· Former Buffs associate head coach JT Wenger has been named an assistant at Michigan State. Best wishes to him. (http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/021716aab.html)

· 5 Buffs are among those participating in the The annual U.S. Women’s National Team Open Tryouts being held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs this Friday through Sunday. The 5 are graduating player Nicole Edelman, along with (next season) junior Gabby and senior Cierra Simpson, redshirt freshman Taylor Joachim, and sophomore Alexa Smith.

The link to the official U.S. volleyball page for the tryouts is http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyba.../Annual-Womens-Open-Tryouts-Allows-for-Dreams , while cubuffs.com also has an article that can be linked to via the below tweet. A few notes-

a) Per the U.S. Volleyball article, looks like some nice opportunities available for those selected-
“Selected athletes for the U.S. Women’s National Team may begin their training in Anaheim, Calif., as early as the spring of 2016, or when an athlete’s scholastic or professional club season has concluded. The U.S. Collegiate National Team program has three competition options:

Tour of China (12 athletes): June 18-July 1
Tour of Europe (12 athletes): July 5-16
USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships (projected 36 athletes): June 21-30 in Indianapolis”

b) Schedule- “The tryout will involve four sessions with three waves per session. Friday’s first session goes from 2-8 p.m. MT, while Saturday’s sessions are at 8 a.m. (focus on serve/receive and individual work) and 2 p.m. (middle-centered and out-of-system focus). The tryout concludes on Sunday at 8 a.m. with tournament style play, along with 16-18 athletes selected by the staff to participate in a “USA” training session.”

c) Evidently, all courts used and all sessions will be streamed at http://www.teamusa.org/usa-volleyball/usa-teams/indoor-volleyball/women/national-team-tryouts .

 
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