Volleyball Post Mortem

[hoyawatcher]

With the end of the season I thought I would give a post mortem on what was a somewhat disappointing VB season. Even with some major injuries I will detail below, I thought we had a good shot at being the last team into the BE tourney but that hope got blown up when the team got swept on a trip to Rutgers and SH - 2 teams they had to beat in order to have any shot.

The upside of the season was the victory over Cincinnati when we played about as well as we could. But we didn't play the middle of the BE (Marquette, WV, SH, etc) as well as I had hoped. So while we didn't make as good a run at the BE tourney as I had hoped/expected when you look at this season there is more to be excited about for next year than cause for concern about a downturn in the VB program.

The biggest issue for this team was the injuries to multiple players that I thought they could overcome but in the end were too much for a team with only 9 scholarships instead of the normal 12. The team lost its sr outside hitter (best hitter and passer) plus the 2 6'3" kids slated for RS and depth in the middle. On the back row one of the freshman DS's was never healthy and a transfer kid didn't get to play until late in the year due to academic transfer issues. The rotations and roles for much of the team were never really settled and that had a large detrimental effect.

Beyond that though there are several really nice pieces in place that should be better next year. The middles are very solid, our setter had a very good first year as the primary setter and the libero set a single season record for digs. Several of these kids are in the top 10 of the BE in particular categories:

So Ashley Malone is number 6 in assists
So Tory Rezin is number 7 in digs
Fr Lindsay Wise is number 9 in blocks.

Throw in Jrs Vanessa Dorisman and Kortney Robinson who led the team in kills and that is a solid core of young improving players. None of the team leaders in blocks/digs/kills is leaving.

A key player next year will be Analee Abell - one of the injured 6'3" RS players. She blew out a knee and has been rehabbing. If she can fill the huge hole we have at RS and let the other outside hitters find a working rotation that will be huge.

I understand we have also signed a couple of long athletic front line players who have an opportunity to come in and compete for playing time. I don't think we are ready to compete with ND quite yet but barring another injury plague we should be in position to compete for the middle of the BE next year.

[theexorcist]

Thanks for the recap.

Next season, if possible, please keep the board notified of key home games to keep this on our radar.

Thanks.

[hoyawatcher]

Right on cue GU announces the signing of 2 long athletic players to the VB program.

guhoyas.cstv.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/111909aaa.html

The key words to me are quick and athletic. In particular I hope Bachesta can bring some solid competition to the outside hitter position. Riggins is Dorisman's replacement after next year but also provides a back up option for RS.

Both of these kids play for top end VB clubs and are used to high end competition. Very nice building blocks for next year and beyond.

And I will do a better job of notifying the Board on matches next year. Would be good to get more local alumns to the games. Especially for local alumns with daughters it is a great (and cheap) evening out to give them time with Dad and a vision of a game they can play themselves. FYI - for those that haven't seen college VB, it is a great fast paced game with a lot of drama and enthusiasm.

[reformation]

Nov 18, 2009 13:56:20 GMT -5 hoyawatcher said:

With the end of the season I thought I would give a post mortem on what was a somewhat disappointing VB season. Even with some major injuries I will detail below, I thought we had a good shot at being the last team into the BE tourney but that hope got blown up when the team got swept on a trip to Rutgers and SH - 2 teams they had to beat in order to have any shot.

The upside of the season was the victory over Cincinnati when we played about as well as we could. But we didn't play the middle of the BE (Marquette, WV, SH, etc) as well as I had hoped. So while we didn't make as good a run at the BE tourney as I had hoped/expected when you look at this season there is more to be excited about for next year than cause for concern about a downturn in the VB program.

The biggest issue for this team was the injuries to multiple players that I thought they could overcome but in the end were too much for a team with only 9 scholarships instead of the normal 12. The team lost its sr outside hitter (best hitter and passer) plus the 2 6'3" kids slated for RS and depth in the middle. On the back row one of the freshman DS's was never healthy and a transfer kid didn't get to play until late in the year due to academic transfer issues. The rotations and roles for much of the team were never really settled and that had a large detrimental effect.

Beyond that though there are several really nice pieces in place that should be better next year. The middles are very solid, our setter had a very good first year as the primary setter and the libero set a single season record for digs. Several of these kids are in the top 10 of the BE in particular categories:

So Ashley Malone is number 6 in assists
So Tory Rezin is number 7 in digs
Fr Lindsay Wise is number 9 in blocks.

Throw in Jrs Vanessa Dorisman and Kortney Robinson who led the team in kills and that is a solid core of young improving players. None of the team leaders in blocks/digs/kills is leaving.

A key player next year will be Analee Abell - one of the injured 6'3" RS players. She blew out a knee and has been rehabbing. If she can fill the huge hole we have at RS and let the other outside hitters find a working rotation that will be huge.

I understand we have also signed a couple of long athletic front line players who have an opportunity to come in and compete for playing time. I don't think we are ready to compete with ND quite yet but barring another injury plague we should be in position to compete for the middle of the BE next year.

Whether we have 9 or 12 full schollies, that is a lot of resources for a program that is not competitive--if another 3 schollies would make us competitive at the NCAA level, I'd be all for it. But if were looking at a middle of the road BE finish as the programs goal I think we should allocate the money to other sports, e.g., fully fund womens track, rowing etc.. Those sports, + others e.g., could attract national level athletes. If we have a plan to be competitive at he national level that takes time that's ok but having 9 full schollies for a mediocre effort is a bad use of university resources.

[hoyawatcher]

Let's try this again and I will be a bit clearer.

The team played with 6 scholarship athletes this year against teams with 12 ships. 3 sholarship athletes plus a couple of walk ons they were counting on were hurt. If that doesn't point out a problem to you I don't know what to say.

Sorry you see that as a mediocre effort - While I thought they might overcome playing with less scholarships than starters and they didn't - I still would not call it mediocre effort or results.

For a bit of history, the team had 8 wins in 05 and 06 before only getting 5 wins in 07. They are actually up and coming program whose recruiting is much better than it was a couple of years ago. And whose results are much improved over the results before the current coach arrived - it just is a bit tough to turn it around overnight when you only get to bring in one or 2 players per year.

You might want to do a bit of research on the topic before you spout off.

[theexorcist]

It's also worth mentioning that volleyball in the recent past has won the Big East regular season. The ceiling is a lot higher than it's been in the recent past.

[hoyawatcher]

Also, I spoke to competing in the middle of the BE because that is a reasonable goal for next year from the history we have had over the last several years. To say much more than that to start with is happy talk until you get to that level. Personally I think the team has a higher ceiling even next year but realism says the first goal is making the BE tourney next year.

I think the 2 recruits are instructive for anyone who looked to see who they are. One was in the mix for the Gatorade player of the year in the state of Washington. That is a huge VB state. The other was the primary middle on the team that won the 2A championship in the state of California. Both play at the highest levels of club VB. These kids are at the same level as any team in the BE short of ND. Our issue is that we get 2 of these kids per year instead of the 3 or 4 that other teams get.

Coach Williams was an all american middle at Wisconsin as a player. As a coach she was the lead assistant at U of Florida - a perenial top 10 VB program. I can assure you her goal is not just the middle of the BE.

But I can also tell you that if we were to make the NCAA we would be the only BCS conference school to make it with only 9 ships.

[reformation]

Nov 21, 2009 23:55:28 GMT -5 hoyawatcher said:

Also, I spoke to competing in the middle of the BE because that is a reasonable goal for next year from the history we have had over the last several years. To say much more than that to start with is happy talk until you get to that level. Personally I think the team has a higher ceiling even next year but realism says the first goal is making the BE tourney next year.

I think the 2 recruits are instructive for anyone who looked to see who they are. One was in the mix for the Gatorade player of the year in the state of Washington. That is a huge VB state. The other was the primary middle on the team that won the 2A championship in the state of California. Both play at the highest levels of club VB. These kids are at the same level as any team in the BE short of ND. Our issue is that we get 2 of these kids per year instead of the 3 or 4 that other teams get.

Coach Williams was an all american middle at Wisconsin as a player. As a coach she was the lead assistant at U of Florida - a perenial top 10 VB program. I can assure you her goal is not just the middle of the BE.

But I can also tell you that if we were to make the NCAA we would be the only BCS conference school to make it with only 9 ships.

The last line of your reply seems to prove my point--If we really need 12 schollies to be fully competitive, why run the program with 9--that's too expensive to be a token title 9 effort and if its too small to be competitive for the BE title + making the ncaa's i'm not sure why we pick some middle ground

--If we can be a top 20 program with some modest incremental investment great lets do it! But if we're going to run an almost fully funded program and be top 50-100 I"m not sure that the cost/benefit makes sense.

A full schollie in women's track for instance, gets us a top 1-20 athlete in their respective event and someone who can maybe push the team to a top 5 versus top 20 finish in XC lets say--maybe someone who'd have a shot at the olympic trials. In women's rowing I would expect a full schollie would give us a shot at a recruit on the Jr natl team. So I think we have to be conscious of the opportunity costs with different programs. I don't mean to beat on volleyball(I m a fan of the sport--my brother actually played professionally on the AVP beach circuit)

The coach seems qualified as you mention, and capable of coaching a higher performing effort and the short term goals that you mention are appropriate. I'm not really concerned about this year's disappointing performance if the program is appropriately targeted over the medium/long run. However; I'm not sure what the real goals of the program are and that the resources allocated to the program are at the right level-either too high or too low.

[theexorcist]

Reformation:

There are lots of sports at Georgetown that are partially funded. Why the dumping on volleyball rather than others?

Volleyball almost certainly doesn't have national championship aspirations within the next decade (hello, Washington, Penn State, Stanford, Florida, and Nebraska), but they've won the Big East in the past, and improving the team to compete at a regional and national level seems a legit goal.

Men's lacrosse, despite significant funding, has reached a severe hump and has never made the final game and has missed the NCAAs two straight seasons, yet there's no one seriously advocating cutting their funding. Men's soccer has one NCAA tournament win, but there's not a huge push to move those scholarships somewhere else.

Volleyball has done about as well as many other women's sports over the years. Not sure why you want to drop their funding, aside from hoyawatcher actually putting something up about their season to give you a target.

[reformation]

Nov 22, 2009 10:27:22 GMT -5 theexorcist said:

Reformation:

There are lots of sports at Georgetown that are partially funded. Why the dumping on volleyball rather than others?

Volleyball almost certainly doesn't have national championship aspirations within the next decade (hello, Washington, Penn State, Stanford, Florida, and Nebraska), but they've won the Big East in the past, and improving the team to compete at a regional and national level seems a legit goal.

Men's lacrosse, despite significant funding, has reached a severe hump and has never made the final game and has missed the NCAAs two straight seasons, yet there's no one seriously advocating cutting their funding. Men's soccer has one NCAA tournament win, but there's not a huge push to move those scholarships somewhere else.

Volleyball has done about as well as many other women's sports over the years. Not sure why you want to drop their funding, aside from hoyawatcher actually putting something up about their season to give you a target.

Exorcist, I'm not trying to dump on volleyball! I'd actually be ok with increasing funding for the sport if a credible case can be made that increased funding would make the program nationally competitive. If we do not have the potential to be nationally competitive even with increased funding, I think that we have to examine whether the resources allocated to the sport make sense--I would do this periodically for all sports, not just volleyball.

Accepting your point, I'd also probably put sports like baseball ahead of volleyball as targets for restructuring. As you correctly point out, Gtwn has a bunch of partially funded sports. Most of these programs are mediocre.

However, to be fair volleyball is not on the same competitive footing as soccer or lax, though I agree with you that the results in those sports are disappointing as of late. Also, I'm pretty sure that Lax's goal is to compete at the highest level of the sport, NCAA tourney, final four natl champ etc--soccer is further behind but I guess that their goals are similar--given that their goals make sense, the issue is execution, not the objective. Also, the women's sports that get similar #'s of schollies to volleyball are lax, track, and soccer(last few yrs). Track and lax are elite national programs--admittedly those sports are a bit better funded than volleyball, but I think that's important--I'm fine with paying more for an upgrade, but having a 3/4 funded top 100 program seems questionable.

I just think the Univ should rethink(be a bit more strategic!) how money is allocated within the athletic dept to get the best bang for the buck looking at all factors including actual team performance, potential team performance, alumni support, academic cost-i.e., how many and how big an admissions reach do we have to make for the recruited athletes, financial cost, general student interest etc..

The other top academic private universities that also compete at D1 athletics, i.e., Stanford, Duke, and Nothwestern all do this pretty well and have gradually upgraded selected sports over the years, but are not afraid to make choices. Nwestern for example has built the top women's lax program ,but does not really compete in track and field. Being mediocre at everything is not a good strategy. I'd be happy to make cuts elsewhere and give more funding to volloyball if there would be a big impact.

I suspect that the interim AD is making a general review of sports prior to hiring a new AD--it will be interesting to see if they make any changes, either upgrading or downgrading the status of some of the partially funded sports.

[hoyawatcher]

Nov 22, 2009 11:29:11 GMT -5 reformation said:

Nov 22, 2009 10:27:22 GMT -5 theexorcist said:

The other top academic private universities that also compete at D1 athletics, i.e., Stanford, Duke, and Nothwestern all do this pretty well and have gradually upgraded selected sports over the years, but are not afraid to make choices. Nwestern for example has built the top women's lax program ,but does not really compete in track and field. Being mediocre at everything is not a good strategy. I'd be happy to make cuts elsewhere and give more funding to volloyball if there would be a big impact.

I suspect that the interim AD is making a general review of sports prior to hiring a new AD--it will be interesting to see if they make any changes, either upgrading or downgrading the status of some of the partially funded sports.

Reformation - You need to significantly rethink who our realistic comparators are right now. While academically we may be similar to Duke and Stanford, the AA departments might as well be on different planets (same with NW). Duke and Stanford are the poster children for broad and deep fully funded athletic departments. They routinely win (Stanford) or compete for the Sears Director Cup or whatever it is called now. All their teams are fully funded. All 3 are in BCS conferences which provide significanlty more funding to their members than the BE, and they all receive the FB share as well (which GU doesn't get).

Duke in particular is interesting in that it is one of the top 3 best funded ACC athletic departments even with a donkey doo doo FB attendance. Their NBA players routinely contribute big money back to the athletic group for general purposes and for BB specific stuff. When Duke wanted a basketball practice facility their alums funded it in no time flat and Duke now has one of the taj mahal practice facilities with amazing academic support and training facilities tacked on. GU on the other hand has spent a couple of years trying to scrape together the funds from the NBA boys and other alums to do one here.

Point being that GU is what it is - a academically oriented catholic school trying to compete in the BE with a very limited budget compared to its FB peers in the BE and all of the schools in the ACC and don't even get me started about the SEC. Our peers are schools like Villanova, St Johns, and even mid major schools without major FB revenue. Don't think our "peer" is Duke or Stanford athletics.

Now to be fair, if your objective is to maximize your potential to win NCAA championships then yes mimimize your number of teams and fully fund each of them. That obviously has not been GU's approach. Several smaller academically oriented ACC schools such as Wake Forrest and GT actually do this - choosing to remain at the minimum number of sports required to continue membership in the ACC. But even if GU went to the minimum number of sports required to compete in the BE, my bet is that several of them would not be fully funded.

IMHO GU has a revenue/commitment issue that only the new AD can address. And part of the hiring process has to be getting the right guy/gal to address the revenue situation. There are a ton of well off NBA players and other alums that are not currently being tapped the way schools like Duke do. Even with that I doubt the school starts dropping sports but I do agree some strategic funding above and beyond the basketball facility is going to be required.

[reformation]

A couple of thoughts--because we have more limited resources than the schools that we compete for undergrad students with is all the more reason to be strategic about how we choose to fund and compete in various sports. St John's and Vill probably have more comparable athletic resources to us overall, but really don't compete with us for students--i.e., our peers from a resource point of view are not our competitors and vice versa. I guess the ivies are probably more comparable from a peer/competitor perspective except for mens basketball

We manage to compete successfully for undergrad students with Northwestern, Duke and I guess to a more limited degree Stanford even though we don't actually have comparable academic resources to them because we have a reputation for excellence in undergrad education generally plus a few special areas of excellence, e.g., the SFS + the schools unique location. We really don't compete with these schools across the board on academic basis but are able to compete academically and athletically in a few areas.

I would say that competing with these schools in various sports entails a combo a resources + a reputation for excellence in that sport. Track, e.g., has poor resources but a decent scholarship + coaching funding and a reputation /goal of excellence, i.e., and competes successfully vs Duke, Stan etc. --so obviously we can compete successfully if we pick our spots and aim high(note Villanova just won the women's cross country NCAA title, maybe Gtwn could have won with the extra few women's schollies that it lacks)

--I suspect that the current strategic review of sports that the interim AD is conducting now is looking at which partially funded sports stay in the BE and wchich get moved to the PL--that's not exactly the same as picking the sports that we can compete for an NCAA title in and funding those, since it more or less takes the existing funding situation as a given, but at least its a start towards rational resource allocation--I think the admin is looking to sort out these strategic issues before they hire the new AD(looking to hire the AD to execute, not develop the strategic plan for athletics--maybe I'm wrong, that's just what I heard.)

[hoyawatcher]

Reformation - They may be looking at moving sports to the Patriot League but personally I doubt that is the tact they will take. Time will tell I guess.

What I do know is that GU is under the minimum number of scholarships required by the Big East to remain part of the BE. I am told GU is 12 under the minimum number and that is independent of the number of sports you participate in - recognizing you have to participate in the minumum number of sports to stay eligible in the BE. In other words they can't eliminate this minimum number of scholarships by dumping sports into the PL.

It is part of the reason that I believe the planning for the new AD is looking at what kinds of new dollars are required to stay in and competitive in the BE (plus something for FB) rather than an exercise in how to cut the existing pie into new pieces parts. They need to say what the fundraising challenge is for the new AD as the key issue for hiring IMHO.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

BIG EAST schools are allowed one exemption for men's sports and one for women's sports to remain in the conference. Football uses that exemption for men's sports, and until recently, field hockey did not compete in BE. All other varsity teams for which the BIG EAST has leagues, must compete in the BIG EAST.

Moving sports to the Patriot League is not a feasible option (or it is for, at most, one team). The choices for each sport are:
1) Maintain BIG EAST minimum funding levels and do the best you can.
2) Exceed the minimum and make a play for conference/national dominance
3) Drop the sport.

For women's sports, choice 3 is not really an option, unless baseball or football are dropped, due to Title IX.

I think the goal is to at least reach the BE minimum # per sport (which is likely 9 for volleyball), and then to figure out where there is growth potential.

The fact that GU only recently established its first endowed scholarships--I think there's one in Men's hoops and one in Women's Track--means that this will likely be the long-term solution for the scholarship problem. However, it will take a lot of $1M donors to reach that number of fully-funded ships.