Random Reflections on Women's College Volleyball

Volleyball Random Thoughts - Either freshly minted or just regurgitated from my past by a deja-vu moment.

- Winning the Serve-Pass battle is still central to winning the match.

- Hitting the ball in the court is a good thing.

- The antennae and the net are always in the same spot in every match.

- Officials are becoming worse than the line judges.

- Even in the current economy, the gap between the volleyball haves and have nots is only growing.

- I am gravitating towards watching professional football and basketball because they don't carry a nice frosty layer of hypocrisy with each serving.

- I still don't like the multi colored ball; wish we would go back to the all white ball. If anything it would reduce the pressure on officials to make calls, since the ball spin is not as visible.

- Defense is becoming a lost art among the land of the giant volleyball players; between the libero, 340 substitutions and rally score it is hard to see consistently good defense by taller kids.

- Airline travel is just a nightmare; how much do we have to pay to get our Trainer kit checked in?

- I don't understand how come it takes almost 2 hours to get a dinner at a Chili's, Applebee's, Olive Garden, etc. for a volleyball team. Catering or finding a restaurant which delivers is looking rather appealing at this point. Delivery or Salad Bar places are my new mantra.

- HBO must have the monopoly on hotel movie channels. I can't remember the last time I saw something other than HBO at a hotel; some of them even have a few different HBO channels.

- Speaking of hotels, it is a wonderful surprise to find a good movie on after a tough loss. Can't go to sleep anyways, so being able to mentally decompress while watching something entertaining is a joy. Wasn't there a Springsteen song which said, "57 channels and nothing on"? I think this is the volleyball gods being mean at night!

- Speaking of hotels, part II - When the room smells a little 'off', break out the coffee! Almost all hotel rooms have those 4 cup coffee makers, so I will take one of the coffee packets, tear it open and sprinkle in the corners of the room. If you don't mind the smell of coffee, it really helps with not good smelling rooms - and, housekeeping will just vacuum it up anyways, so hopefully no damage done!

- The line tool shot is the great equalizer for any small Outside Hitter - It is really a thing of beauty.

- How come the volleyball always seems to find its way through the small triangle formed between the outside and middle blocker's arms? I swear this triangle is so small you could not get a tennis ball through it, but by some TLC street magic act, the volleyball comes thru untouched!

- I am not ready to even think about going out recruiting. When I was a younger coach, I voted against any Dead/Quiet Periods, now being more 'seasoned', I am always for making the Dead/Quiet Periods even longer.

Have a good Monday.

Coach