Now Entering the Hell that is Club Volleyball

Thought I'd wrap up the season with a final post ...

DaughterQuant's team closed out its season this weekend with an absolute ass-whipping of a two-day tournament. There were sixty-something teams in 16 pools, with four slots into some regional/sectional tournament up for grabs. Our girls played OK but once again couldn't do anything once they reached bracket play. The lone bright note was during pool play Saturday when, trailing 20-15 late in the first set of their third match, they clawed back to win and avoid their first-ever 0-fer pool.

Playing in a consolation bracket yesterday they lost their opening match and streamed dejectedly off the court. The coach gathered them around for what I thought was a pep talk, but then I saw her hugging them and giving them little end-of-season trinkets. I hustled over there and said, "Uh, Coach, you guys have one more match." "We do?" The mood in that huddle brightened considerably. DaughterQuant said that the coach, who'd been telling the girls how much she loved them, said, "Oh, since we've got one more match I still hate you all!" The girls and the coaches all burst into laughter and, not coincidentally, in that last match wound up playing some of their best volleyball in weeks*.

DaughterQuant's team struggled all year with two fatal shortcomings: 1) they had only one competent setter; and 2) they had no competent hitters. Against teams that simply played defensively, DaughterQuant's team was good enough to outwait them and then get a half-ass winner every now and then. But as soon as they ran up against a team that could actually work the ball and set up an attack, they were done.

MommaQuant and I have spent the last few days pondering the season and thinking about next year. We both feel very fortunate that we opted for the level we chose; one level up would have been about $600 more for pretty much no additional benefit. In the most recent rankings, that team ranked about five spots ahead of our girls, but that's out of hundreds of teams, so it's pretty much a wash. Further, after this weekend I wouldn't be surprised to see our girls actually move ahead of that team.

The question we're pondering is whether, next year, a move two levels up would be advisable. Of course we are totally into a wait-and-see mode -- how camps go this summer, how her school season goes this fall. There's also the issue of money ... two levels up is about $1,500 more. Why I am inclined to at least consider the move is that: 1) DaughterQuant is already pushing 5-9 and she really hasn't begun to fill out, so we're thinking 6-foot-plus isn't out of the question (MommaQuant is 6-1 and SonofQuant is 6-3); and 2) all of us would like to see how well DaughterQuant could play on a really functional team.




*There were some intra-team dynamics that were ... interesting. That last match I mentioned, the one in which they played better than they had in weeks ... I don't think it was a coincidence that two particular players weren't there. One girl, who'd done pretty much nothing all season, didn't show up for Sunday's matches because her mother was pissed about her playing time on Saturday. The other girl, who actually had played OK, bugged out after Sunday's first match. Apparently both of them were widely considered to be sources of ongoing strife, so the mood on the court and on the sidelines was much more relaxed than I'd seen it in awhile.

 

Sis-13's involvement in club play fizzled out (for the time being) about three-four weeks ago when the club directors announced their 'early spring' season would end after six tournament dates instead of 10 as promised in the preseason prospectus.

StarSis was informed that Sis-13 could get 8-10 more tourney dates if she signed up for the "late spring" session, for another $400 bucks, of course.

Sis-13 has several other things going this spring: she was in a school play for about three weeks, her class is making a spring trip to Washington D.C. which will burn up another week, and she says she intends to play softball again this summer (although to my knowledge, she hasn't really touched a softball since about August).

Anyway, StarSis and hubby decided the incremental gains in playing experience weren't going to be worth another four bills. As far as StarSis knows, she thinks 'one or two' of the 10 players on the team signed up for the extra session. The club's complete FUBAR of the entire situation succeeded in chasing off 80% of the team. Supposedly some of the other families are demanding refunds since the club delivered only 6 of the promised 10-12 dates of competition.

 

Resurrecting the thread to share a fun Saturday that maybe others can get a kick out of. Kind of seems like everyone could use a story with a good ending today.

So DaughterQuant is still playing volleyball. She was rather non-committal during 8th-grade school tryouts, but when the thought crossed her mind that she might not make the team … well, shit got real is the best way to put it. Like last season, DaughterQuant did not start the season on the top team. But, also like last season, she wound up playing her way onto the top team and into a very prominent role.

Now, in our district there are eight (I think) schools with volleyball teams. But there really are only three good programs. One is DaughterQuant’s school (X), another (Y) is the school that will merge in with DaughterQuant’s in high school, and another (Z) that will, ultimately, be DaughterQuant’s high school rival. So, just to be clear, when/if DaughterQuant plays in high school, her teammates will have come from either X or Y junior high, and their absolute chief rivals will be the players who were in junior high at Z.

Thing is, Y and Z have tended to dominate junior-high play of late. They usually beat everybody else, then split when they face one another. Until today, DaughterQuant’s team – which drubbed everyone other than Y and Z – hadn’t won a set off either school in more than two years.

Until today.

Now, I don’t know why, but at the 8th-grade level there is some sort of city-wide championship. How they set it up, I don’t know. What I do know is that, heading into the season-ending tournament, Y had lost one set and Z had lost one set, each of those losses coming to the other. DaughterQuant’s team had lost four sets, all to either Y or Z.

However, per DaughterQuant’s coach, the seeds for the city tournament were supposed to be determined by cumulative Points-For/Points-Against (which, as it happened, would have made DaughterQuant's team the top seed). Further, per DaughterQuant’s coach, a decision had been made in the last few days to go ahead and name, prior to the city tournament, Y and Z as co-champions.

So in the tournament DaughterQuant’s team opened up against Z today (I think they flipped a coin to see whether Y or Z would be the top seed). DaughterQuant’s team led most of the first set, but very late Z got going and won 25-21. In the second set, DaughterQuant’s team jumped out to another lead but this time managed to hang on and win. The girls were ecstatic simply at winning a set. And you could tell they were reeling because they promptly fell behind in the tie-breaker third. But then, gradually, they got back in it. That five-point lead dwindled to three, then to one. Then, just like that, DaughterQuant’s team was ahead. And then, to the astonishment of pretty much everyone, DaughterQuant’s team finished it off. It was unbelievable.

Now, stunningly, they were in the finals … against Y.

Just like that, DaughterQuant’s team jumped out to a modest lead in the first set, and just like before the other team began to claw its way back. This time, however, the other team couldn’t make it stick. DaughterQuant’s team seemed unwilling to do the usual and give it away, and Y couldn’t simply take it. When DaughterQuant’s team won the first set, why you’d have thought they won a gold medal!

I and everyone else in the gym thought the clock had struck midnight in the second set, when Y pretty much blew DaughterQuant’s team off the court 25-13. There definitely was a feeling of, “Well, at least we won that set” among the parents. But apparently DaughterQuant’s team didn’t get that memo.

Guys, DaughterQuant’s team fought back from five points down in the third set and won that friggin’ tournament!

I may live another 50 years. I might see many, many amazing things. I doubt I'll see anything more amazing than what I saw today. The look on those girls’ faces after they’d won that damn tournament … well, I don’t know that I’ll ever forget that. Both MommaQuant and I were struggling to not break down. It was fabulous.

Like I say ... a helluva good day.

P.S. Oh, and just as a by-the-by … DaughterQuant played her patukus off. In fact, she had the winner on the final two points of the season. The next-to-the-last point was a kill right past Y’s big middle, then DaughterQuant followed that up with a block/joust over the same player. The look on her face!

 

Congrats to your daughter and her team. One question though. You said this:

"Further, per DaughterQuant’s coach, a decision had been made in the last few days to go ahead and name, prior to the city tournament, Y and Z as co-champions."

Is that for the regular season title, or was there something nefarious in the works to rig the tournament?

 

Good job DaughterQuant. That's the most I've read about junior-school volleyball in years. Very cool.

 

Apparently the tournament had originally been sold as how the city champion would be determined. First, there wasn't a complete round-robin schedule, and second, conveniently Y and Z wouldn't face each other in a regular-season match. They did play two sets, which they split, in a Saturday tournament, but that didn't count. Because those schools technically went undefeated, the decision was made at the very last-minute to forgo the tournament as decider and simply name them co-champions.

But I bet had Y or Z won that tournament, you wouldn't be hearing any of this "co-champion" stuff from them.

 

Fun story to read indeed, Quant!

 

I guess I'll knock on a quick update/epilogue on my niece Sis-14's progress in the club-volleyball arena.

After last winter's semi-disastrous stint in club volleyball, Sis-14 decided to make a final run at softball, probably her last fling at the sport before concentrating on VB in high school.

As it turned out, and actually quite unexpectedly, she did really well. She quit pitching, which she had never really put the time into, and concentrated on improving her batting contact skills.

At the grade school levels of softball, basically the only people playing outfield at all are geeks. When you get to HS level teams start to need and use somebody decent out there, so StarSis worked a lot hitting fungo flies and Sis-14 developed into a pretty good CF.

The last few seasons, she had been a bottom of the lineup hitter, but making better contact, she started hitting in the 1-3 slots.

In late summertime the HS volleyball program started its preseason camp and separated into freshman, JV and varsity squads for the upcoming season. Sis-14 stayed on the freshman team, but became the best player on the team. The freshman team was good not great -- won about 60 percent of its games.

The current varsity was OK, a bit above .500, but the 12-player roster had 2 seniors and 10 juniors. The JV team, all sophomores, was abysmal -- almost winless.

Meanwhile on the softball front, StarSis has checked out the situation: Numbers are way down due to competition from girls soccer and lacrosse (the school is state-ranked in both). The varsity softball team is awful and there aren't enough numbers to have separate freshman and JV teams.

So come springtime, Sis-14 will have at least some chance to make varsity as a frosh, simply by sheer numbers.

Volleyball looks roadblocked next year because of the 10 returning seniors on the varsity, so it's a long shot whether Sis-14 would make a multi-level jump by playing extended club volleyball this winter.

So long story short Sis-14 is going to play a "limited" club-volleyball season this year rather than the "extended" January-July "national" schedule recommended for players perceived to be on some kind of pre-college recruiting track.

Sis-14 is not a college prospect in either sport; neither she nor her mom have any delusions on that count. But the circumstances indicate she could probably have a decent high school career in both -- something she hadn't figured on a year or so ago.

So she's going to resist the advice of the volleyballistas to quit softball and play club VB year-round.

StarSis is getting involved as a board member of the Starrville Softball Boosters, which will organize weekly wintertime softball workouts for girls age 6-18.

 

Enjoying these updates immensely.