VBallBlue

Then college, or USAV, camps in July. More individual lessons mixed in with that. School tryouts in August followed by the start of the season. More individual lessons mixed in with that. School postseason takes you though September, October, and into November. Practices, lessons, and club open gyms mixed in as well. Tryouts coincide with the KHSAA tourney weekend. If you play open, you’re practicing in December plus conditioning in addition to practices and individual lessons. Then the club season starts. Volleyball season is year round for an open level player.

1994. Thought it was 1995.

Here is 1992--page 4. http://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1379&context=athlete

And she is per the KVCA.

KVCA Coaches and Players of the Year posted on their site. http://affiliates.avca.org/Portals/3/2016%20KVCA%20Regional%20winners%20release.pdf

I think you're looking at the wrong brackets. I'm pretty sure the 9th region winner faces the 6th region winner (more than likely Mercy) in the first round.

SHA wins 3-2. Scores were 24-26, 25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13

I think it'll be a 3-0 game, but maybe not a convincing one. SH swept Mercy, but still had some fits with them, and I'm not sold in Mercy being all that good this year. If NDA can block, they can have a shot if they can get their offense going. Haven't seen Assumption play yet, but I'm going to go with them at the top until they prove otherwise. SH following them, but not too close--edge by far and away is coaching and depth, then everyone else trailing.

Ok. This is third hand information, so if it is incorrect, I'm not claiming it. There actually was a scrimmage between Mercy and NDA the other night. Probably why no one is talking about it was most likely because neither team looked very good. Now all things are relative, and both teams would most likely roll most other teams, but neither will be at their previous levels. I was told they split sets, NDA obviously missed their departed players and Mercy seemed out of sync with each other. The general feeling was that Assumption will be the last man standing unless Sacred Heart can prevent it.

I'm beginning to think that it didn't happen.

Ok. I don't think the invite is used in Louisville, and true, you can pretty much know ahead of time who's going to be on what team. I think in Louisville the clubs do more fishing during the CSAA season. You do have to allow for the club migrations that occur. Does anybody know why people change clubs all the time?? No, on second thought, don't answer that.

First: ....does anyone at all know how the scrimmage turned out??? Secondly, what are these mysterious "club invitations" that go out in July in NKY? I've had daughters playing club in Louisville for 15 years. Never heard of "invitations" ever, and certainly not in July. Everyone just showed up for tryouts after state--unless you were still playing the last couple of years, then you missed a day.

I'll have to agree to disagree with you as well. Scott can credit their trips to state the last two (not three) years to regional realignment. Scott went in 2014 and 2015. Campbell went in 2012 and 2013. Before that it was the NewCath show until they got moved to the 9th. And noise??? Two years ago they beat two terrible teams in Raceland and Christian County, then were drilled by Mercy. Mercy had 15 aces in that match. Scott had 5 back in serve receive and still got aced. Last year they played a 12 loss North Oldham team in the first round and lost. Not much noise that I could hear and I was at all of those matches.

So.....does anybody know how the scrimmage turned out? Scores?

Parents complain from the little leagues to the big leagues. Sometimes it's justified--most often it's not and is related to the parents over-inflated opinion of their daughters ability. The problems occur when the administration doesn't have the coaches back--especially when the complaining is unwarranted. I've seen several coaches fired, or quit, because of weak AD's and principals. Schools afraid of not getting that big donation they've already spent in their minds--$$$. Parents going to their brother/sister/cousin on the school board because their daughter isn't playing enough or in the "right" position. Sometimes it's just a new, good coach who tried to actually "coach" and is seen as being "too hard" on the players. Sometimes the coach just gets tired of dealing with it no matter their experience level. While not privy to all of the insider details of NDA, I'd say that having a coach physically confronted at an end of season gathering might be the straw that broke the panda's back. Apparently the school overlooked the behavior until outside powers got involved and they had to act. Lanham quit not too long after that incident. Was she a good or bad coach? I don't know either way--same with McCourt. I just hope he has better support from the administration once the parents come gunning for him.

No crying here, but I think you had some difficulty reading between the lines. Player families running off coaches, or influencing playing time, has been all too common the last several years

Families of players driving off coaches? Is nothing sacred anymore? This breaks my heart to hear this....

I'd have to disagree somewhat with this. The All A is really almost a mirror image of the KHSAA tourney. You have certain schools from certain areas that dominate, and schools from other areas that look like they dressed the softball team to play volleyball to kill some time. The good teams at All A have some good players that play at various clubs and it shows. They just don't have as many of the good players to compete with the BiG 4. If you could move these schools to other regions, they'd be going to state each year. Every once in awhile, an out in the state school will do well--Caldwell County--but once those players are gone, they will drop back down. The in constant denominators not both tourneys is private schools with club players.

How do you suppose the HS coaches supplement their income? "Well you know, if you don't play at XYZ Club, of might have a more difficult time competing for a roster spot at ABC High School......". It's a fact that a new coach at a certain school in the Louisville area flat told his players that they could not take private lessons with anyone not connected to a certain club that might have been struggling in the last few years. Most aren't as blatant as that, but it happens everywhere. Note the rise of TriState at the expense of NKYVC at the younger ages. Some of the older kids showed some loyalty to the old club, but the younger ones will follow the coach--whether coerced or just influenced. I'm really surprised though at the number of parents/players that fall into that trap. If you're that good, the smart coach will not cut you. And, if they're dumb enough to do so, what's the effect? Nothing. If you're good enough to play at the next level, club is your ticket to a scholly--not high school ball. But that's a thread for another day.

Speaking of the All A Classic--here's the list of winners since inception. 7 champions so far--6 private Catholic schools. 2009 Lou Holy Cross 2010 Caldwell Cnty 2011 Cov Holy Cross 2012 St Henry 2013 St Henry 2014 St Henry 2015 Presentation

Until the rest of the state takes the sport seriously, they will never be able to compete with the Louisville/NKY/Lexington schools. Club volleyball--really good club volleyball--is practically non-existent outside these three areas. These girls live, breathe, and eat volleyball year round from 1st and 2nd grade. School ball, lessons, club ball, lessons, rinse, repeat. The play is entirely at another level. If you don't believe it, or experienced it, you should go to a major club tourney somewhere and watch an Open class match. That is the level most of these girls have played since the start. Go online and watch video of the state tourney and watch Assumption or Mercy's bench dismantle an opponent. I've had daughters playing club for years, and have seen it time and again. Clubs outside of the major metropolitan areas of KY just don't compete at the same level. 10/11 year old Louisville teams killing 12 /13 year old teams from clubs out in the state. School volleyball is about the same. I too have watched as an opponent team couldn't get underhanded serves over the net. They then proceed to get drilled--It isn't pretty. This is true when they are playing one of the Big 4, or one of the many other decent schools from the same areas. People say lets go to classes, but then, more than likely, your class winners are going to be the smaller private schools that can't get past the Big 4--Presentation, St Henry, CAL, New Cath, Brossart, Bethlehem... Heck, based on enrollment, Mercy would probably be a 2A. Losing makes people unhappy and classes won't make those people happy. Adding regional runners-up would make them even unhappier. The end result, I believe, is that the rest of the KHSAA will eventually vote to split. It's been on the table before and it'll be there again. Then you'll have a private tourney winner, and a public winner who now has a shiny trophy that represents not that they were the best, but that the rules were changed because they couldn't compete. Not trying to belittle anyone or be mean--just stating the facts as I've seen them over the years.

Usually the college coach thinks he/she can cure any issues if they exist. Sometimes it's not so much the player as the parent. Once the kid gets away from home, it's resolved. And it's a D1 scholarship to a school that did quite well last year--not a mid-major. And in reply to an earlier post, why wouldn't a KIVA coach apply for the position? A former longtime assistant at SH, Coatley, has coached for years at KIVA. If it's because you think Kordes doesn't want the SH coach at his club, then I'd say you don't know the man very well.

And the winner is....Bret Versen from North Oldham and MAVA. Successful record at NO the last two years, but was it the coach or the players? I'll go with the players myself as they've had a good group go through there recently. Not as impressed with the coaching ability. Much better choices out there, but I've heard some didn't want to deal with the issues. As to players and parents attitudes, AD's should be able to ignore that distraction. However, most of the time $$$$ means more to the school than a good coach.

That's about what I've heard recently as well. When you've got people gunning for you, it gets old pretty fast. Sometimes you just get tired of fighting the same old fight. SH gave the reason he wanted to spend more time with his kids--which is a legitimate reason, but he still hasn't made any public comments himself. I suspect that whoever is picked will have a rough time as well unless they just give in. If this happens, the team won't be successful and some individuals may find out that their former All American setter was more responsible for their prior accomplishments than they were.

Sacred Heart is officially searching for a new volleyball coach as of yesterday. The open position is listed on their website. Apparently, Garvey and SH parted ways a couple days ago. Don't have any other information as to what reason or who's choice it was. This comes as quite a shock as SH was going to be loaded next season as they return everyone but Zweibel--yes that's a BIG "but"--from last year.