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Post by Toby2 on Aug 16, 2017 14:34:56 GMT -5
This year's NFHS high school participation stats have just been released for 2016/2017 Ten Most Popular Girls Programs 1. Track & Field - Outdoor - 494,477 2. Volleyball - 444,779 3. Basketball - 430,368 4. Soccer - 388,339 5. Softball - 367,405 6. Cross Country - 226,039 7. Tennis - 187,519 8. Swimming - 170,797 9. Cheerleading/Pom/Dance - 144,243 10. Lacrosse - 93,473 Volleyball is the second fastest growing sport for girls just behind track with and additional 8,470 new participants this year vs last. Track had 8,508 new girls participate this year. Volleyball is the #1 TEAM sport by participation as well as the fastest growing TEAM sport. Clearly, anyone running an athletic department doesnt cut funding in a sport that is wildly popular amongst girls and if the department is on the ball they would be wise to invest in the program and fully fund it. It has become the sport of choice for girls, more so than basketball. Times have changed and the Gtown athletic department should change with it. Where's rowing and golf? www.nfhs.org/articles/high-school-sports-participation-increases-for-28th-straight-year-nears-8-million-mark/
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Post by Toby2 on Aug 16, 2017 8:13:24 GMT -5
Womens tennis, golf and rowing are more competitive than volleyball with something like 1 scholarship each and generally compete versus schools we care about-also our peer schools do very well in those sports, get elite recruits etc. Brown has won the women's rowing champs and I think Northwestern was first or second at golf this year. Volleyball dominated by Stanford, west coast and a few big midwestern state schools. Creighton and marquette are decent, a stretch to consider them peer schools and really no threat to compete for a natl champ. None of the ivies focus on the sport. Also isn't a priority for Duke, Northwestern, i.e., our admissions peers. I watched some of the NCAA champs on ESPN this year and there seemed to be a heavy population of foreign players. Maybe if you gave the extra scholarships, got some type of big name coach and changed admissions standards we'd be good-don't see any of this happening and from an investment perspective, and assuming funds are constrained, it shouldn't. 9 full scholarships at gtwn for a non competitive program with virtually no alumni support, plays no schools we really care about is probably a massive over investment, not a good justification for more funding-and very hard to justify as is. To make us competitive at a level that would justify a fully funded program I think we'd need a coach/program geared with a credible plan to make a deep NCAA run with some frequency, play against power 5 in non cons etc. Just adding few more scholarships in the absence of some big overall push would be wasting more $ than we already do. Its clear you dont understand. Nationally, nobody cares about rowing, golf and tennis at the NCAA level. Nobody. Volleyball is the second most attended womens sport behind basketball in attendance every year. Volleyball has more participants in high school than basketball. Its a HUGELY popular sport amongst women at all levels. If you want to shut down every sport thats not competitive on a national level at Gtown then you can start with football and after that there are plenty to choose from. You never did indicate who are "peers" are.
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Post by Toby2 on Aug 16, 2017 7:14:34 GMT -5
Shut down football and you will have more than enough money to support all other sports fully. Not a persuasive argument, nor one grounded in reality. Football accounts for less than 5% of the athletic budget. And for further discussion, the operating cost per player by men's sport: Rowing: $1,509 Track: $2,614 Swimming: $4,193 Tennis: $4,263 Lacrosse: $3,934 Football: $5,352 Golf: $5,939 Soccer: $7,856 Baseball: $11,958 Basketball: $235,108 No idea where these numbers came from but assuming they are correct a per player operating cost is irrelevant. Football as 92 players on their roster which equates to roughly $500k in operating costs. Far more costly than any other sport besides basketball. Theres no way that $500k covers salaries for the program as well as travel, equipment, facilities etc...playing at the FCS level. Whats the point of having a team when it sucks up such a large financial commitment when those resources could be used elsewhere in sports that Gtown competes at the highest levels of Ncaa competition.
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Post by Toby2 on Aug 15, 2017 23:39:40 GMT -5
I think they have 9 full scholarships(a lot for gtown) versus NCAA max 12 and are not really competitive. I doubt moving to 12 would make that much of a diff. If we really wanted to compete we'd probably need also a new coach and be willing to recruit foreign collegians, relax academic standards further. Almost none of our peer schools put any emphasis on the sport, don't know why we focus on it other than being a legacy title 9 effort from the 70's before sports like golf and rowing really took off for women at the NCAA level. Hard to see why we'd be elite when almost none of our peers are. If we moved the volleyball scholarships to golf/tennis/rowing we'd likely be able to compete for a national title in rowing and be top 20 in golf/tennis. I have nothing against volleyball specifically, ironically my brother was a pro beach player. I just don't think it makes a lot of sense to run as a mostly fully funded program at gtown and not be competitive while we could use the money to fund other programs that could be high elite. If simply moving from 9 to 12 scholarships allowed us to compete for a national title I'd be all for it, but I think the evidence is pretty clear that we'd still be mediocre. I do agree however, that the status quo makes no sense from a university resource perspective. Shut down football and you will have more than enough money to support all other sports fully. I don't know who you are referring to as peer schools but Creighton competes nationally every year in volleyball and is ranked in the top ten this year. Marquette is also a nationally competitive program. Both schools are fully funded. At only 9 scholarships you don't even have a second string of players on scholarship. 6 starters in volleyball it's impossible to compete asking kids to walk on at Gtown paying $66k a year when other schools are offering fulls. Foreign players are not necessary, no idea where you came up with that.
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Post by Toby2 on Aug 15, 2017 15:48:04 GMT -5
Have no real view on how they'll do but have noticed that like m & w lax, women's volleyball has substantially downgraded its schedule recently. 5 + years ago they used to play some B10/ACC/SEC teams in addition to Ivies + BE. Now its pretty much local teams + BE. Given that some of the other scholarship sports which have not been performing that well also downgraded their schedule I wonder if its just a coaches or an ath dept thing to go for better record vs lesser competition. I think the program is caught in a tough spot trying to compete against schools that are fully funded while having some pretty stringent admissions criteria for student-athletes. It would be nice if the school decided to place more emphasis on a sport that is seeing rapid growth amongst young women across the nation. Volleyball is quickly displacing basketball as the preferred sport for young girls as well as high school aged women. It seems that Georgetown doesn't seem to care much about the sport. For that matter, the number of girls high school volleyball participants blow away soccer 436K vs 381K, and lacrosse 436K vs 88K yet Georgetown isn't fully funding the sport at the varsity level. There's no way they can compete nationally, let alone in the Big East if the school doesn't support the program. www.espn.com/espnw/sports/article/18659764/why-young-athletes-flocking-volleyball-not-basketball-record-numberswww.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatistics/PDF/2015-16_Sports_Participation_Survey.pdf
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Post by Toby2 on Aug 15, 2017 8:49:37 GMT -5
Graduated two seniors (a MB and a DS/S). Three new players coming in. One is a graduate student MB that was first team all-conference in the Big West last season. Plus two freshman (an OH and a S). Only one defensive player listed on the roster. I'd assume that one of the six OH (or maybe one of the RS) will earn playing time at DS. The class of 2015 that has been the core of the team for the last two years has another year of experience under it's belt, so hopefully they're ready for a breakout year. Speech is pre-season All-Big East. I went looking for a press release on the three new additions and couldnt find one. Not sure why they havent put anything out around signing day as they have done in the past.
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Post by Toby2 on Aug 14, 2017 17:29:27 GMT -5
What do you know about the team and program for this year?
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Post by Toby2 on Jul 21, 2017 17:44:10 GMT -5
Does anyone know which sports the university pays cost of attendance stipends for? My understanding is that only full scholarship athletes are eligible for the stipend. I believe mens and womens basketball receive COA but does anyone know if other teams receive the COA stipend?
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