KYdigsTN

Best teams in your state are all from the same area. Dont care how your rank them, but the AAA champ will be Brentwood, Independence, Centennial, Independence, Ravenwood, or Franklin. All these teams are probably top 10 teams in terms of talent. I think the AAA championship will be the top two teams that come out of this district. Could be any one of these. I'll say this about DB and TN High, they both beat Lafayette(KY) in three close games. This tells me they simply are not strong enough to make a run at a AAA state title and certainly are not top 10 teams. Lafayette simply is not that strong this year and played those matches without their best MB that was lost to a knee injury. In fact Lafayette is currently ranked 4th in their own district out of 4 teams so the fact they made the championship match in that Science Hill tournament tells me DB, Sience Hill and TN High are not legit top 10 teams. Just an opinion though. My guess is Greenbrier, AC and Knox Cath are the best teams in AA/A but other than perhaps Greenbrier, i'd say no A/AA team are top 10 teams. State champ will come from one of those three teams though in my opinion. My pick would be Greenbrier over AC for the title.

Happens here too to some degree that some public kids bend the rules to get to the public school they want to play for. Doesn't make it right for those that dont break the rules though. I never said anything about recruiting. I truly dont think recruiting is even a problem in KY. The athletes, and especially the parents want the kid to play for the top program if they are a star athlete, especially if their in district public team isn't very good. Lets say you have two kids that are both talented volleyball players that play for Podunk County, which is in the next county over from Knox Cath. Podunk has the gym teacher coaching the team because he/she once witnessed a volleyball match on TV. Podunk has 8 kids on the team and these two are the only ones that have any skills at all. One kid's dad owns the local Podunk auto dealership and can afford to send his kid to Knox Cath to play on a better team, and does so. The other kid's dad sweeps the floors at that dealership and cant afford to send his kid to KC and thus the player is forced to play for Podunk, even though there is another "public school" nearby that is out of district she could go to, but cant because of the geography limitations placed on residence. I just dont think that is fair and I'll leave it at that.

"ND and KC have the advantage (according to others) of being private schools, but other than the fact they are private and primarily Catholic, the advantage is???????? I guess everyone knows Catholic's are better athletes than other religions or public students. KC's 500ish students have the advantage over ER's 900ish students and AC's 960ish students because ?????" ...because they can get players from anywhere they want and publics cant. That's it. No other reason as far as I'm concerned. I dont care about financial aid or anything else. It's all about the geography limitations placed on public schools that gives privates an unfair advantage. We even have girls crossing the river from IN attending the big louisville privates here. These athletes are NOT all coming just for our great catholic education. As soon as public kids are given vouchers to attend any public school they want regardless of where they live, i'll change my opinion. I dont think anybody should fault KC or ND by playing by the rules set by the TN volleyball powers that be. I just dont agree with the rules. At least your state does have some kind of private state tournament though. TN definately is at least on the right track. Has nothing to do with being Catholic though.

I guess I'm to the point I dont even think about it anymore. I've seen spandex that was definately too short, but for the most part most teams and girls wear acceptable length spandex. Are they tight? Yes! Do boys ogle them? Yes! Do boys ogle girls at the pool and on the beach in much more revealing atire? Yes! Boys will be boys! I have no idea where the spandex idea came from for volleyball, but my guess is it came from a woman seeking a look that was both more comfortable to play in and more feminine than those AWFUL looking masculine basketball uniforms.

Gold division: Assumption d. Louisville Holy Cross 25-11, 25-13; Notre Dame d. St. Louis St. Joseph's Academy 25-18, 23-25, 25-23; Cincinnati St. Ursula Academy d. Mercy 25-15, 20-25, 25-14; Sacred Heart d. Huntsville (Ala.) 15-25, 25-20, 25-18; Assumption d. Notre Dame 25-20, 25-20; Sacred Heart d. St. Ursula 26-24, 25-19; St. Ursula d. Notre Dame 25-18, 22-25, 25-22; St. Joseph's d. Holy Cross 25-15, 25-18; Mercy d. Huntsville 28-26, 21-25, 25-21; Mercy d. St. Joseph's 23-25, 25-19, 25-17; Huntsville d. Holy Cross 25-20, 20-25, 25-20; Assumption d. Sacred Heart 25-22, 25-14. Silver division: St. Henry d. Covington Holy Cross 25-16, 25-15; South Oldham d. Boone County 27-25, 19-25, 25-22; Presentation d. Beechwood 25-16, 25-20; Butler d. Ryle 26-24, 25-14; So. Oldham d. St. Henry 25-23, 16-25, 25-21; Butler d. Presentation 25-18, 18-25, 25-23; St. Henry d. Presentation 15-25, 25-19, 25-23; Boone County d. Holy Cross 25-12, 22-25, 25-16; Ryle d. Beechwood 25-18, 25-20; Boone C. d. Ryle 21-25, 25-17, 25-20; Beechwood d. Holy Cross 25-17, 25-15; Butler d. So. Oldham 25-20, 25-17. Bronze division: Harding Academy d. Tates Creek 23-25, 25-17, 25-15; Henry Clay d. Campbell County 26-24, 17-25, 25-21; Newport Central Catholic d. Male 25-18, 25-16; Harpeth Hall Academy d. Conner 25-20, 25-16; Henry Clay d. Harding 25-22, 11-25, 25-17; Newport Catholic d. Harpeth Hall 25-20, 25-9; Harpeth Hall d. Harding 16-25, 31-29, 25-17; Campbell County d. Tates Creek 25-21, 25-21; Male d. Conner 25-21, 27-25; Male d. Campbell County 25-12, 30-32, 26-24; Tates Creek d. Conner 25-16, 25-23; Newport Catholic d. Henry Clay 25-20, 25-21. Harding got their one win over Tates Creek and Harpeth Hall got two wins. One against Conner that went winless and Harding Academy in three.

Pool play results: Pool 1 – Assumption d. Cov. Holy Cross 25-8, 25-7; Cov. Holy Cross d. Harding Academy 25-15, 25-11; Assumption d. Harding Academy 25-13, 25-13. Pool 2 – Sacred Heart d. Ryle 25-21, 25-15; Ryle d. Harpeth Hall 25-19, 23-25, 25-13; Sacred Heart d. Ryle 25-15, 25-17. Pool 3 – St. Ursula d. Male 25-16, 25-16; Beechwood d. Male 25-18, 25-10; St. Ursula d. Beechwood 25-10, 25-9. Pool 4 – St. Joseph's d. Campbell Co. 25-13, 25-17; Boone Co. d. Campbell Co. 25-13, 19-25, 25-22; St. Joseph's d. Boone Co. 25-11, 25-14. Pool 5 – Notre Dame d. Henry Clay 25-14, 25-11; South Oldham d. Henry Clay 22-25, 25-23, 25-18; Notre Dame d. South Oldham 25-13, 25-14. Pool 6 – Mercy d. Newport Catholic 25-20, 25-17; Presentation d. Newport Catholic 25-19, 28-26; Mercy d. Presentation 25-20, 25-16. Pool 7 – Huntsville (Ala.) d. Conner 25-9, 25-14; Butler d. Conner 25-16, 25-19; Huntsville d. Butler 25-20, 25-21. Pool 8 – Lou. Holy Cross d. Tates Creek 25-10, 25-8; St. Henry d. Tates Creek 25-2, 25-10; Lou. Holy Cross d. St. Henry 25-16, 25-18. Harpeth Hall lost to Ryle, which is a very good NKY public that Lafayette defeated last week in two. Harding Academy lost to Holy Cross Covington. They are not a strong team. If Harding lost to them, I dont look for them to win a match in this tournament unless it's against Tates Creek.

I know that Huntsville defeated Brentwood in Alabama in the finals, but I also know that Manual took them to three in defeat in that tournament. Butler has defeated Manual and lost a deciding game three to Holy Cross 24-26 here. If Huntsville is off a little, Butler just might take them. Sounds like they are young, so I wouldn't be entirely shocked by that. I'm surprised Brentwood doesn't play in this tournament?

I didn't write it, I just copied it off another site. Also, unless this guy is a profit all those 2006 winners are probably wrong. Nobody has won anything in 2006 yet. I'd say it's entirely possible that Brentwood will finish runnerup this year.

If you get me the ball, this team will dominate. I'm a 6' OH with 8 years of club, HS and college "watching" experience.

Just found this info online regarding pool play for this tournament. Brentwood finnished runnerup to Huntsville AL in the tournament. Very strong field of teams! Germantown absolutely got hammered by Huntsville. I also know that KY's Dupont Manual defeated Germantown and Harding Academy. Manual is probably about the 10th or 11th best team here, so I dont look for Germantown to have much chance to win AAA this year. http://scoreboard.12dt.com/scoreboard/khsa...b6?id=spec_3288 Pool A Woodward (GA) def Homewood (AL) 25-18, 25-15 Huntsville (AL) def Germantown (TN) 25-4, 25-16 Woodward def Germantown 25-17, 25-15 Huntsville def Homewood 25-?, 25-21 (This was a repeat of the AL 5A championship from 2006) Homewood vs Germantown NA (not available) Woodward vs Huntsville NA (winner will win pool) Pool B Bob Jones (AL) def St. Agnes (TN) 25-14, 25-14 Mandeville (LA) def Oak Mountain (AL) 25-23, 25-17 Mandeville def St. Agnes 25-12, 25-13 Bob Jones def Oak Mtn 25-21, 25-22 Bob Jones def Mandeville 25-22, 25-23 St. Agnes vs Oak Mtn NA Bob Jones wins pool Pool C Harding (TN) def SpainPark (AL) 25-22, 25-20 Grissom (AL) def Vestavia Hills (AL) 25-23, 25-14 Grissom def Spain Park 25-19, 25-13 Vestavia def Harding 25-19, 25-13 Grissom def Harding, didn't get the scores Spain Park vs Vestavia NA Grissom wins pool Pool D McGill Toolen (AL) def Hoover (AL) 25-20, 25-20 Brentwood (TN) def Dupont Manual 25-22, 25-17 Brentwood def Hoover 25-15, 25-23 McGill Toolen def Dupont Manual 25-22, 25-23 Brentwood vs McGill was in game 3 when I left Hoover vs Dupont NA winner of Brentwwod vs McGill will win pool McGill - won AL 6A in 2006 Huntsville - won AL 5A in 2006 Woodward - won their class in GA (4A?) in 2006 Mandeville - won their class (5A) in 2006 Brentwood - finished 2nd in TN state in 2006 Huntsville - finished 2nd in AL 6A in 2006 Bob Jones - finished 3rd in AL 6A in 2006 Homewood - finished 2nd in AL 5A in 2006

One thing that REALLY surprises me though is that there is no mention of ANY Brentwood girls on this National championship Impact 15-1 team. Three Independence girls definately bodes well for that teams future, but i'm surprised to see no Brentwood girls mentioned in this article. Definately GREAT for Impact as a club, but "perhaps" not so great for Brentwood in the next couple years after the 17-1 girls graduate. http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl...421/1043/SPORTS

Here is what I know though and this is how I base my decision. Brentwood girls for the most part are playing for Impact teams that are still competing near the top of the club division at nationals. Impact 15-1 and Impact 17-1 both qualified and did well at nationals, but they qualified in the national division and would not be able to qualify at the top open division just yet. Making great strides in that direction though. Assumption, Sacred Heart and Mercy girls start playing in grade school, come from KIVA Red and MAVA Elite teams that all finished either at the top or near the very top of the open division of USA nationals this year. Those three teams are just still in a different league "most likely" to Brentwood. However, Presentation girls mostly come from KIVA 17-2 teams. St Henry and Notre Dame from NKYVC, Bullets, or Cincy teams that compete closer to Impacts level, therefore possibly Brentwoods level. Bottom line, Brentwood still would at best be 4th in KY in my humble opinion for now. Also, with regards to the SHA JV team Brentwood defeated, it's "possible" those SHA girls were the ones that made up most of MAVA 17 Elite this year and will be seniors this season. VERY dissappointing team by MAVA standards as they only qualified for the national division at nationals and only won two matches there. Think they were 2-8. For some reason that 17 elite team was not at the level of the MAVA 13-16's that excelled in open. Not even close really.

You could be right. I feel certain you could give Presentation a run and probably beat Holy Cross. Not sure though about the other catholics though. I'd love to see how a match between Brentwood and Sacred Heart or Mercy would turn out. This particular year you might just take them as Mercy has no seniors and SHA is not expecting big contributions from their senior class. They will both still be very good, as most of the great players on those two teams come from MAVA 15 and 16 Elite that did VERY well at nationals. Assumption is just loaded as usual and should dominate as they have great players from KIVA 15, 16, and 17 red that all finished nationally in the top 4 in their respective age groups. Assumption however has 6-7 17 red seniors and the other two teams are younger. Next year though, both SHA and Mercy may just give Assumption a run for their money.

One other thing I'd like to add, is that if you look at that KY coaches poll, any team ranked 10-25 is capable of beating one another on a given night. Lots of parity. The odds of any team 10-25 defeating the top 6 catholic teams is EXTREMELY remote. Big talent gap there. Any team that would be ranked 50-240(if there was such a poll) would be very unlikely to ever defeat any of the top 25. Again, very big talent drop off. I've seen a lot or TN volleyball and in my opinion if teams like Independence, Franklin or Centennial were in KY they would rank somewhere in that top 10-25. Brentwood would be between 6-10, but there is no TN team that could currently crack the top 5. That's not a slam. Not many top teams in many states that could.

Lexington has not caught up to the top seven catholics(5 louisville or 2 NKY), but one Lexington team was right there with the best of the publics last year. Three others top 25. Lafayette finished the regular season ranked #12 last year. Probably should have been #10 as they defeated NKY's #11 Beechwood and finished runnerup to #9 Louisville Butler in the JCIVT(top louisville public tournament) much higher than #10 Louisville Male(never played Male though). NKY's #7 ranked Ryle was the top ranked public team last year and were even one spot higher than #8 Louisville Holy Cross, because they defeated them. Lafayette lost to Ryle in three early in the season, so they were right there with them. So in answer to your question, yes Lexington has caught up to Louisville and NKY, just not the big 7 catholic privates. http://www.khsaa.org/volleyball/cpoll.pdf Last years final coaches poll. Henry Clay, Tates Creek and Lafayette are all Lexington teams. Dunbar was top 25 earlier in the year but dropped out of the last one. Tates Creek upset Lafayette in the regional championship on their home floor and made it to the final Four of state. Not sure this years Lafayette team can hang with those three teams mentioned or not this year. Last year Lafayette beat Centennial twice and lost to Independence in a close one. Lafayette did lose six varsity seniors last year. They do have holes and I dont see this years team being as balanced overall as last years team, but the do have four solid players that dont come out, that includes a great setter and a HAMMER that will be tough to deal with.

I think it's interesting that Independence and Centennial seem to be just as closely matched as they were last year in the Page tournament. That Lavergne tournament this year should be a good one with Lavergne, Siegel, Centennial and Lafayette in it, just to name a few. Lafayette is off to a good start by going undefeated and winning a preseason tournament this weekend that had several teams in it that were top 25 last year.

Just wondering something, and one post to answer it will be sufficient as I certainly dont want to end up in a public/private debate, but can somebody explain to me the difference in why teams like Father Ryan and BGA are in Div II and Knox Catholic is A/AA. Aren't they all private schools?

Coach Clements seems like a very sweet young lady. I'll reserve judgement as to her coaching ability until after this season. Last year was her first year and the team was made up of mostly very talented seniors coach Hawkins recruited. She appears to have recruited extremely well. I'll be interested to see how this very young team responds to her coaching. I suspect they will do very well.

I've called line for so many matches I couldn't even begin to give an estimate of how many. I always marvel at how well those fans in the seats on the opposite side of the court see whether the ball does or does not hit the line. The line is IN whether it's my team that hits it or the other team. Last year AC fans moaned on two line calls I made against their team. The Ghost made at least one that went against our team. The balls I called were no more than 5 feet from me and they definately hit the line. I have no doubt the Ghost called his line correctly also. I'm not saying I've never missed one, but I'm fairly certain I didn't miss those. Now back on topic. Page deserves to be on that top 10 list with 4 actual championships. Greatness is measured on championships, not on being close. Nobody regards the Vikings or Bills as great NFL programs because they made it to several superbowls and lost. The Cowboys sure are though because they have won a few even if they have had good years and bad. Same with the Steelers and Patriots. KY, UCLA, NC and Duke are considered GREAT college basketball programs because they won numerous titles, but dont have great seasons every year. Titles are the real measure of greatness. Page definately belongs on that list somewhere in the top 5.

Met you briefly two years ago when I "thought" you told me your daughter was a senior. Met the Ghost too and really liked him. Our team never played your team that year, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you saw me line judge and dissapproved of what you saw. Last year, met Ghost again and it was my understanding from him that you were not at that tournament because your daughter had graduated the year before. Lafayette played AC for the very first time, and as far as I know you were not even there, yet you got on here "last" season and claimed our team had "weak" setters and could not "play up" to good competition like AC was capable of. I think I have shown remarkable restraint in responding to all of your somewhat sarcastic and negative posts. I've really got no problem with you, but you sure seem to have a problem with me. Not much I can do about that. I believe what I believe regarding the importance of club ball and you believe otherwise. No real reason we shouldn't be able to disgaree and remain civil though. That's my plan anyway should I continue to post here from time to time.

The best coaches here all coach club. Kordes from Assumption always coaches the KIVA 14 Red team. Garvey and Cecil from Mercy and Sacred Heart coach MAVA 13 and 14 Elite teams. Amshoff from Presentation KIVA 14 white. The reason for this is not just because they are the best at developing young talent necessarily, but because they are not allowed to coach any of their own high school kids during club season. By coaching 14 red Kordes adheres to the rules of not directly coaching his Assumption players even though most will attend Assumption the following HS season. Club may not be the only way a girl gets to play on a college scholarship, but you better be well over 6' otherwise. The times are changing and Bratman just doesn't accept it. I wont even debate whether it's a change for the better or not. That's irrelevant. The reality is club is growing and more and more players are dramatically improving their skills over those that dont play. These are the girls the college coaches want. If a college is counting on a smaller non club player at setter or DS they are going to struggle in todays game. As for the Bratmans opinion of me being a bad line judge, all I can say is I'm fairly sure I didn't cost AC enough points to lose 25-18, 25-17 to Lafayette last year. They lost because of poor ball control skills. Tallest girl on Lafayette's team was one 5'10" girl at MB. The rest about 5'7" or less. AC towered over them but got crushed by a team that controlled the ball better and therefore ran their offense better. Had AC's girls played in the off season as much as Lafayette girls did, they would have blown them off the court with their superior size and athleticism. VERY good athletes and seemed to have good coaching, but good passing takes more time than three months a year to develop. Lafayette played nine TN teams last year and Independence, Centennial, and BGA were all better teams because they all controlled the ball better than AC. I dont know it for a fact, but my guess is all three of those teams were made up of majority club players. For the record, Bryan College went 11-24 last year and finished 8th in their small NAIA conference. Georgetown went 40-9, won their conference undefeated and made it to the NAIA national championships in CA last year. They finished ranked in the top 10 nationally. Georgetown is made up of all club players and I suppose Bryan is not according to Bratman. I'm not slamming Bryan College. I'll bet if you asked their coach he would tell you he would prefer all his players were experienced club players. Makes it much easier to compete.

http://scoreboard.12dt.com/scoreboard/khsaa/kyvb5?id=20318 That team had a pretty good year too didn't they General! Second most total wins in the state to only Assumption and winners of 4 tournaments and runnerup in two. GO GENERALS!

Also, it should be noted that there is no way your daughter would be talented enough to play for Georgetown had she not been a club player. The girls that play there are AMAZING. I'll bet you are very proud of her, and you should be. Georgetown is a top notch program and very good academic school. Not much chance they would have even known that your daughter even existed without the national exposure club provides.

VERY well said!

I look at a list like this and am a bit jelous of the superior way the state tournament is handled in TN compared to KY. Because you have a three division system it allows smaller public schools to at least be discussed as top volleyball programs. I look at this list though and it strikes me that the reality is that this is not a list of the best teams, but actually the most successful programs within a division system the state has set up. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, and the teams mentioned are all very deserving of recognition, but the reality is if all these teams were qualifying for one all inclusive state tournament division like KY has, a few would not get very far yet alone win. A few would not even qualify as they would have to get past larger AAA schools or better private schools within their region just to get there.