Posted by Bart Blair on October 31, 2001 at 10:06:20:
I am always one to stir the pot, as the saying goes... Jacque, feel free to delete this message before the region sees it and we open a can of worms...
BB last year had a lot of discussions around the level of play. Many people were dissatisfied with the extremely high level of play in BB. Others thought that was great for a variety of reasons. I know that there was an attempt at a meeting to discuss solutions, alternatives or at least an understanding... This meeting was cancelled due to lack of attendance if I recall correctly.
The question is this. Has the GEVA board, or anyone else thought about addressing this for 2001, 2002? My initial impression is that no, it hasn't been addressed. There are no A tourneys in the first half schedule, one Open tourney. The rest are BB a B. I may be jumping to conlusions based on the first part of the schedule, but since that is all I have to base it on, then I have to do that.
No A tourneys will not incent A players to play A. BB competition that is to strong pushes to many BB players in B. Even if you say that BB is all the better for that (which I disagree with), then what about the effects on B? I played a couple B tourneys with our B club team last year and there were a couple B teams there. The bulk of the teams were strong enought to play BB a couple years ago and aren't playing B because they got old, they are playing BB because of trickle down effects of what is happening way above them.
If Volleyball is to succeed and grow, then anyone with vision knows that we need to support grass roots. That means that people have to learn the game somewhere (B level). People that are getting older have to play somewhere (B level). People who just are never going to be BB or A players have to play somewhere (B level).
My message is this, GEVA: If we address the problems now, the region will suffer. It will suffer for any of the following reasons. Losing more players, having less growth of new players, by the opportunities to play being reduced.
I think that we need an open dialog of GEVA Board, team captains of all levels and concerned players. Maybe I am the only one who feels this way, and if that is the case, I will go quietly!
I am sending this message to the GEVA Board as well.