Love the way we are trending in vb. we should be able to pull our share of players out of SoCal especially now we are in the pac 12. Lotta really really good players concentrated in LA.
I think it's vital for the program to add Sand Volleyball as a varsity sport at CU. It's going to become harder to keep up with recruiting, coaching and player development without that. Really tying one arm behind our backs if we're last to that party.
Sand Volleyball is up to 6 full rid scholarships next year. Without looking into it, I am assuming the sand pairs are made up mostly of indoor players? So maybe it doesn't eat up a bunch of money to add it, other than travel cost and building a sand court? Not yet a NCAA sport, but looks to be growing that way. Would definitely like to see us add.
Some rambling thoughts by me- re recruiting and sand. As always, my “facts” and opinions are worth what’s been paid for them (a big $0), so appreciate any corrections and differing opinions. (The main point of this post is probably that I really need to get a life.)
1[SUP]st[/SUP], regarding
sand scholarships and SD Buff’s comment (and general considerations re sand)- a couple points I think that should be noted-
1) sand vball is what I believe is called an equivalency scholarship sport, so colleges can give kids partial scholarships, spreading out the funding value = to six full scholarships to MORE than six student athletes. In other sports with this approach, I believe most athletes generally end up only receiving partials, so it could be assumed that most sand players will end up getting at least some scholarship funding. (Per one search I did, football, men and women's basketball, and women's gymnastics, (indoor) volleyball, and tennis are the only sports which only allow student athletes to receive full scholarships.)
2) And, one important thing to note-to avoid schools using sand scholarships to help the indoor team, the NCAA says sand scholarship players may NOT play on the indoor team.
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Re recruiting in general- I was originally with some of you that, when CU joined the Pac 12, that we might become “SoCal east”, with the bulk of our players having to be from there to be competitive. However, that doesn’t seem to have happened (although we do have 3 now, and it will be 4 with another coming in next year). I don’t know if we’ll ever NEED to go beyond that level of SoCal players, and it seems to be panning out OK.
(Of course, we’re talking about a relatively small # of athletes here. If there is a group of septuplets out in SoCal who will end up tieing for being #1 recruit in the country in a few years ratings, and they all want to come to the Buffs- I’m fine with the roster being close to 100% from SoCal.)
A few things re recruiting I see/ think:
1) I think INDOOR volleyball is pretty much a national/ international sport at the high school level (heck- looks like next year one of our athletes may be from Canada), with talent spread around the country/ world. (Just one example I can give quick- Maxpreps.com has a weekly (???) “Top 25” high school team ranking. This week, only one SoCal school is listed, and that’s at #25.) Given that width of talent, I’m thinking the Buffs might generally have more of a competitive advantage recruiting kids from OTHER areas of the country. I’m thinking this based on:
a. The Pac 12 is THE destination conference for volleyball (although the Big 10 is close), and that should/ could have allure for top level nationwide recruits (think SEC for football, or the ACC, at least traditionally, for men’s basketball) who want to compete with the best. This could/ should become even more so as we show we are competitive to, and then hopefully one of the top teams, in the conference.
In addition, the Pac 12 Network and live streaming availability (best in the country) makes it I assume awesome for families who, this year for example, could be able to watch every (???) conference game CU has played and still are due to play this year.
b. In addition, we’re a little closer to the heartlands, with Boulder having more of a (GREAT/ THE BEST) heartlands college town vibe to it, which might appeal to some mid-westerners, Texans, etc. who want to play in the Pac, but don’t want to live in big cities or duller college towns (Corvallis, Pullman, etc.).
c. And, then of course, it’s also about recruiting our state. We of course are already well represented, with five of our main contributors being Coloradoans, 3 of whom were highly rated out of high school (N. Edelman, T. and G. Simpson). I’m definitely not a believer in the infallibility of rating services. (I don’t believe A. Pfefferle was rated at all, and based on stats and my “eye test” is already looking like she has the potential to become an all-time CU great middle blocker. And, last year, I don’t think teams nationwide thought of C. Simpson in terms of being a potential great defensive only player/ Libero, so she was probably evaluated lower than she would now be seen.) However, if we want to look at rankings, I believe the state of Colorado has had at minimum a total of 4 prepvolleyball.com Top 10 “Senior Aces” over the last 4 years (2011-2014 HS graduates), and none have chosen CU. So, hopefully, as we show we can compete at a high level, some local Top 10’s and some more top 50’s who like home cooking will decide to stay close to home. (This year, prepvolleyball.com, a pay site, did publish their Top 10 as a marketing tool here (
http://volleytalk.proboards.com/thread/55027/senior-aces-2015-100-posted?page=14 ), and Colorado and California were the only states with two players graduating high school this year ranked in the top 10.
Note- of the 4 Top 10 Coloradoan’s I know of the last few years, 2 are setters, and since we’ve already got 2 VERY good to great in-state setters, I can’t complain with us not being able to land those 2 Top 10’s.)
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Re adding Sand, I also found some things about that. (I should start by saying I’m all for adding sand Vball to CU for its own sake. I have many pleasant memories going to professional tournaments when I lived in SoCal in my 20’s, as well as going to a few AVP tournaments when they came to Boulder some years ago.) Anyway:
d. I found an article in Volleyball Magazine (
http://www.volleyballmag.com/articles/43289-season-three), and they think as the sand sport gets more serious, it will get SO serious that NO (or hardly any?) indoor player will be able to compete with sand only players who train year-around in the sand, so the two types of volleyball will end up being TOTALLY separate within universities that have both. If that is true, then I can’t think of a way adding the sand game benefitting the indoor game at all. (Note- the person being quoted in the article is the head of the Coach’s association, so maybe they’re prejudiced in wanting each school to hire at least one dedicated sand coach.) Early on, there has may be even been a case or two where it’s HURT the indoor game in that some of their good players have decided they liked sand more, so have quit the indoor team. (Some USC fans have complained that’s happened at their school.)
This significant skill difference between indoor and sand players playing in the sand has even been shown somewhat in results so far, even with the sport in its infancy. This past year, Stanford and Nebraska, two of, if not
the, most athletic and talented indoor teams in the country, were just using their indoor players for the sand season, and neither one came close to competing at the top, losing to teams who’s indoor teams couldn’t win a set against them indoors. Conversely, the teams that ARE taking the sport seriously are offering scholarships
and hiring separate coaches, which will I assume become even more prevalent (including at Stanford and Nebraska) when the sport becomes official. (To become an official championship sport, as I understand it, you need to have at least 40 schools start playing, which happened last year for sand. After that, if they then keep that 40 number competing for at least 2 years, they can petition the NCAA for official championship status. So, the guess is the sand vball sport will become official in 2016.)
I guess CU could be an outlier and start and continue to treat sand as mainly a training and recruiting tool for indoor players who also like the sand game, but I don’t know if fans or administration, let alone hyper-competitive division one athletes, would want to do this if, year after year, we’re getting destroyed by the “serious” schools.
e. The 1[SUP]st[/SUP] 3 champions of the unofficially sanctioned sand sport so far have been Long Beach State, Pepperdine and USC, and all (six) schools who went to the “Final” tournament last year were from warm weather schools. Unlike indoor, I’m assuming the bulk of sand recruits, at least until a lot more scholarships and facilities become available for the kids, will come from SoCal, Florida and other beach and/ or warm weather places
. I’m therefore somewhat worried the Buffs may always have a (MAJOR???) recruiting disadvantage in recruiting sand only players with our weather, so may just get “leftovers” looking for scholarship money to come to Boulder, and never be competitive. (Would you rather be practicing in an indoor facility throughout what I assume is the main January – March training period, or be at the still relatively mild weather on the SoCal beaches/ outdoor facilities, let alone the warm weather in Florida, Hawaii, Arizona, etc.?)
Note- I looked quick, and of the 45 schools which have started or declared they plan to start sand so far, the only one’s I’d say are not in a warm or at minimum mild weather area are Boise State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon and Washington. (And, of course, Oregon and Washington are more mild than the others, just dreary.)
I do want to emphasize I don’t have any crystal ball, so don’t want the above I wrote given back to me in derision in a decade, when the Buffs are (hopefully) 5 time defending NCAA sand champions, and THE destination sand school in the nation!