9th Region KVCA Coaches Poll

[dallaslaredo]

Preseason poll

Rank Region 9

1 Notre Dame

2 Ryle

3 Cooper

4 Newport Central Cath.

5 Newport

 

:thumb: Ladycats!

[Sandman32]

huh?

[Sandman32]

That poll was put out the same day the state top 25 poll with Beechwood and St. Henry came out... it is wrong obviously. No offense, but putting Newport in a top five regional poll is just not possible. NCC doesn't belong either at this point.

[vblover]

By the scores alone, the 1v3 match-up didn't seem competitive at all

[MyShadow]

There is no team on this list that will compete with NDA. That's not a surprise to most I'm sure...

[Guest]

True but it's unfortunate that teams like Ryle, Cooper, etc. don't get the chance to compete past regionals because they are blocked by NDA year after year while less competitive teams from other regions move on to State competition instead. 9th region has a lot tougher teams than most. It would be nice to see some of that talent move on past the regional tournament.

[MyShadow]

True but it's unfortunate that teams like Ryle, Cooper, etc. don't get the chance to compete past regionals because they are blocked by NDA year after year while less competitive teams from other regions move on to State competition instead. 9th region has a lot tougher teams than most. It would be nice to see some of that talent move on past the regional tournament.

AMEN!!!

[dallaslaredo]

True but it's unfortunate that teams like Ryle, Cooper, etc. don't get the chance to compete past regionals because they are blocked by NDA year after year while less competitive teams from other regions move on to State competition instead. 9th region has a lot tougher teams than most. It would be nice to see some of that talent move on past the regional tournament.

 

I posted this in the other thread, but it also seems appropriate here

 

Volleyball is by far the most lopsided sport in the state and in need of the biggest reform.

 

It's dominated by 5 schools, all private, 3 from Louisville and 2 from NKY.

No public school has ever won the Championship, and no school outside of Louisville/NKY has ever won won either. All the best teams and players are stacked into 3 Regions - the 5th place team in Region 9 could beat the Region winner from at least 10 other Regions with ease.

 

The KHSAA thinks every sport can be set up the same way as basketball. Well, it's just not working for volleyball. Redraw the Regions, go to classes based on size, or public/private, or both. Expand the State tourney to 16 Region winners plus 6 at-large bids, so that talented teams from the really deep Regions get their shot at State. Do something.

[LJM4th]

True but it's unfortunate that teams like Ryle, Cooper, etc. don't get the chance to compete past regionals because they are blocked by NDA year after year while less competitive teams from other regions move on to State competition instead. 9th region has a lot tougher teams than most. It would be nice to see some of that talent move on past the regional tournament.

 

Same thing can be said about girls fast pitch. There are always good teams in the ninth that are better than some of the other regions competing at state. If you want to compete at vb get more kids playing club at a competitive level. That is why these schools are so successful.

[Volleyball Dad]

True but it's unfortunate that teams like Ryle, Cooper, etc. don't get the chance to compete past regionals because they are blocked by NDA year after year while less competitive teams from other regions move on to State competition instead. 9th region has a lot tougher teams than most. It would be nice to see some of that talent move on past the regional tournament.

 

Hmmm, so the state tournament should be made up of teams from Louisville and Northern Ky and forget about giving other teams a chance. No more North Carolina State's or Gonzaga's acting as Cinderella's or giant killers.... only the powerhouses should have a chance for the state title.

 

So let's continue, the Lexington teams should have their own championship since they are better than the surrounding areas and Allen Central should just be handed the Eastern Ky championship. This just might work.............

[Volleyball Dad]

I posted this in the other thread, but it also seems appropriate here

 

Redraw the Regions, go to classes based on size, or public/private, or both. Expand the State tourney to 16 Region winners plus 6 at-large bids, so that talented teams from the really deep Regions get their shot at State. Do something.

 

Now this! These are possible solutions. Well said Dallas.

[dallaslaredo]

Hmmm, so the state tournament should be made up of teams from Louisville and Northern Ky and forget about giving other teams a chance. No more North Carolina State's or Gonzaga's acting as Cinderella's or giant killers.... only the powerhouses should have a chance for the state title.

 

The reality is only teams from the power regions have a shot at a title. That's a function of not having classes, and having private and public schools together, not the set-up of the State tournament.

 

But there are schools like Ryle, Henry Clay, and a few in Louisville that if they were included in the State tournament would have a legit shot at winning it or at least upsetting one of the "big 4". The tourney would need to expand - 16 Region winners plus 6 at-large. OR, redraw the Regions for Volleyball to only have 8 Regions - with top 2 in each Region going to State.

 

It comes down to what you believe the State Tourney should have - the best teams, or a geographical representation of the State. So far, it's been the latter.

[Crosley]

I have never heard a high school volleyball player ask for changes to the existing way the state tournament is run. If you were to ask the girls, I bet you would hear the majority say they want a chance to win the outright state title. This "watering down" that so many adults call for on here, is what Indiana and other states did to their basketball title. Although the titles won in a division-based or private/public school format are not hollow, they leave a smaller school asking themselves the same question every time...what if this had been a tournament with the entire state included. Could we hang with the bigger schools?

 

Three things come to mind:

- Things change and the stranglehold that the large private schools have on the state title will not last forever. I don't care what anybody says, change is inevitable. St. Henry has won the 9th, and they are small. Why can't a public school do the same thing. The answer is the public schools can once they figure out how to do it. They figured it out in almost all the other sports. Volleyball will ultimately be no exception.

- There will never be another Hoosier story in Indiana. That possibility has been completely closed off. That makes a lot of folks sad to know that will never happen again.

- Kentucky will never go back to the one state title holder, once we change to a division, class, private/public system

[dallaslaredo]

I have never heard a high school volleyball player ask for changes to the existing way the state tournament is run. If you were to ask the girls, I bet you would hear the majority say they want a chance to win the outright state title. This "watering down" that so many adults call for on here, is what Indiana and other states did to their basketball title. Although the titles won in a division-based or private/public school format are not hollow, they leave a smaller school asking themselves the same question every time...what if this had been a tournament with the entire state included. Could we hang with the bigger schools?

 

Three things come to mind:

- Things change and the stranglehold that the large private schools have on the state title will not last forever. I don't care what anybody says, change is inevitable. St. Henry has won the 9th, and they are small. Why can't a public school do the same thing. The answer is the public schools can once they figure out how to do it. They figured it out in almost all the other sports. Volleyball will ultimately be no exception.

- There will never be another Hoosier story in Indiana. That possibility has been completely closed off. That makes a lot of folks sad to know that will never happen again.

- Kentucky will never go back to the one state title holder, once we change to a division, class, private/public system

 

Hey I'm fine- leave it the way it is. Just know that a small school, or a public school, or a school outside of Louisville/NKY is never going to win it. Why do I say this? Because it's been 35 years, and it hasn't happened yet, and I don't see the gap getting smaller. Heck only 1 time in 35 years has a public school ever made it to the Championship, and that was because of the luck of the draw, and it was just a few years ago.

 

I also say this because in volleyball, you have to be 7 to 8 players deep to win. It's not like basketball, where you can have 2 superstar players and tell the other 3 to go rebound and play defense. There's no "hiding" volleyball players on the court. Your weakest player will cost you games.

 

Yes, public schools like Ryle and Henry Clay are getting better. But for anyone to win State, you have to be better than Assumption, Mercy, Sacred Heart, St. Henry, and Notre Dame. 5 legacy volleyball powers. And you have to be better than all 5 of them on any given year to win State. It's just not going to happen.

[Crosley]

Yeah, well neither you or I have anything to do with the decision making processes behind these decisions.

 

By the way, and I know you know this...you don't have to be better than all five of those schools mentioned (Assumption, Mercy, SH, St. Henry, and Notre Dame). You win your region and then you begin the process of beating the teams in front of you in the state tournament. Sometimes you get lucky, and you get a favorable draw, but sometimes you don't. However, I believe Assumption and SH are in Region 7. So you just have to beat one of those two. Mercy will likely be there from Region 6. Notre Dame and St. Henry are in Region 9.

 

If you are Ryle or any other school in Region 9, you obviously have to win Region 9 to move on. Henry Clay is in Region 11, but they have to earn it like everyone else.

 

So after winning your Region 9 that only leaves two of the schools you talked about. All the other regions have to beat 3 of those teams. It can and will probably be done.

 

I will grant you that you need 7 to 8 solid volleyball players to win big games. It's not baseball where pitchers can dominate, or basketball where a player can put up 40 points. It's volleyball and weaknesses cannot be hidden so easily.