Middle Hitter Blog

Wow, it has been since July since I last posted. There was a lot of volleyball action but no time to sit down and write. So much for the off-season. I really enjoyed the World League matches in Minneapolis. I got to take some great photos from my floor (press pass) position. I even created the first Middle Hitter quiz using some of the photos. I was able to meet a few of my USAV email contacts face-to-face. It is always a pleasure to finally meet someone you correspond with. I happened to be staying at the same hotel as the teams and coaches (it wasn't planned) It was hot as #$@% in Minneapolis with temperatures reaching 100 plus degrees. Sure glad the walk from the hotel to the matches was via the indoor walkways built to protect people from the COLD. Using my press pass, I was able to attend the post match press conferences. I brought my video camera but wasn't really prepared the first night. I wasn't sure how it worked. However, the second night, I had prepa

Oh well, it has been over two months since my last post. Lots of things have been happening but I have not taken the time to write about them. Where should I start? Junior Olympic Nationals - The national tournament has come and gone again. As usual, the "Cali" teams dominate the older age groups. A few different Midwest and east coast teams did make the gold brackets this year. A few of the past year powerhouses seemed to be down this year and didn't make much of a showing. The JO's are always something to see. Court after court with teams from all over the US and a couple of countries/territories. Rivalries and friendships are made and they look forward to seeing each other "next year". For the top 17 year olds, it’s all "where are the scouts". "Is that really Al Scates and Marv Dunphy?" At the 16's level, the scouts are just getting names and making notes to look at them next year. Of course, the scouts are also looking for a few e

It looks like once a month is going to be my frequency unless I free up some time. Although the college season has ended, the boy’s high school and club summer season’s still have about 4 to 6 more weeks. I am hoping on making it over to Hoffman Estates to watch some of the IHSA (Illinois) high school playoff matches, as I have the past 6 years. The “elite eight” weekend is the first week of June. I am going to apply to the IHSA to see if they will provide me their official championship match video afterwards. They have a form and are asking a fee but the form appears to be for broadcasting the match on a cable TV station. I assume this would be a local access station. Since I do not generate any revenue from Middle Hitter , I will ask them for a copy for no charge. I would also agree to delay the broadcast until after the local cable stations have broadcast their copy. This would prevent a posting of the video on middlehitter.com from potentially reducing the cable stations viewers.

Wow, it has almost been a month since my last entry. I am glad the growth of men's volleyball is not dependant on my posting frequency! On my last post, I stated I was going to comment on the Loyola vs. Ball State match. But since I posted the entire match video on the website, I felt that no one really needed my thoughts. They could just watch the match themselves and create their own opinion. I am trying to get some video of the NCAA DIII tournament in which Juniata won it all again. I think it would be great exposure for DIII volleyball from both a recruiting and fans standpoint. As we all know, the only men's volleyball we get to watch on TV is about 6 matches a year plus more in Olympic years. I can at least take my pick to drive to two different schools to watch DI. The signed commitment page has had several updates over the past week. Now that many coaches have some time, they are responding to requests for updates. I need to email a few more coaches to get additional up

The update process of the news links has been hectic as expected. It is taking about 60 to 120 minutes to search, grab the headline and URL, move the existing front page news to the archive news and then making the new links. I just keep reminding myself that the season ends in 5 or 6 weeks. This brings up a new challenge, how I continue to get younger kids to view the DII, DIII and NAIA school websites once the news dies out. I have been thinking about asking the schools if they wanted to have a little ad with something about their team and school. I guess I will worry about this when I get to the end of the season. I received my first blog comment this past week. It is good to see other viewers sharing their thoughts and experiences on the topic of men's/boy's volleyball growth. I happen to know the commenter who is both a great volleyball player and a great person. I hope that other blog readers share their thoughts and comments. I have picked up a secondary mission

I just provided my opinion on the subject in a VT post. I am going to post it here before it gets knocked off the page with other threads: It would be nice to see some fans who prefer to give back or participate in growing the sport for men versus JUST sharing their opinions. I am sure there are many VTers that do coach, ref or volunteer but I sure hope the most outspoken members aren't showing their attitude to today's youth. If someone feels that mens VB is falling apart, will only shrink, etc... then it obvious they are not helping out with todays vb youth. If they would, then they would see the passion, especially in the younger kids (16 and under). The younger kids just cannot get enough volleyball. They cant sit still between matches, they will end up playing some game on an empty court or in a corner somewhere (probably hitting people trying to watch the current matches). They love to watch the older kids play. I remember taking a 14's team to go to the gym where th