Osage

Did Brentwood win their Florida tournament? Strength of east and west TN is in the private schools this year. Briarcrest and Webb, and maybe Baylor are all better than their Middle TN counterparts. I think the private school state brackets are going to be a lot more interesting to watch this year than the public school ones. Dobyns-Bennett and Houston will probably make it to Murfreesboro, and have a chance to win a game or 2, but Brentwood is in their own class.

Dickson County won the Knoxville event this weekend, and according to AES, they beat some real teams along the way. Williamson County is used to sending 2 teams to the State Tournament every year, because the District Winner and Runner-Up roll through Region and Sectional rounds. That's no longer a certain thing.

I take clifford's point. Truth is, the high school season is sprint, not a marathon, and 40 matches over the course of 2+ months is probably too many. TT, I had also forgotten the 3 (only 3?) play days before the season, so wow, that plus 4 tournaments plus regular season, plus your eventual playoff run, that is a lot. The reason why this is potentially problematic is that kids this age don't (and shouldn't) train for this kind of volume of activity. But also, if the body does start to break down, the athlete / family / coach usually don't realize it in the moment. Instead, you get things like stress fractures and shoulder issues that manifest themselves gradually, and only become real problems after the fact. I'm glad to hear everyone is healthy.

TT, how many matches is Brentwood going to play before the year is out, do you think? That seems like an awfully busy schedule.

Heaven only knows what is going on in that district, with the exception of Brentwood's continued dominance. (In other news, the sun rose today...) I just hope for Brentwood's sake their out of town play keeps them sharp. The in-district schedule seems monotonously easy for them.

But there was an important point VBDad615 made, and because he was subtle about it, I won't be: those rules only pertain to clubs who abide by USA Volleyball rules (and their Regional Presence, SRVA). Because the Sports Performance club director was banned for life from USA Volleyball, they do not register with USA Volleyball. Neither, therefore, does TPV. They could try out tomorrow if they wanted.

Nolensville

As I recall, the Summit coach is not well-liked. Which means nothing, of course. Russ Rose and John Cook are not well-liked either, but I don't think they, nor their administration, nor even the players care much. That said, this will be a telling season for him. He has (arguably) one of the top players in the state and a very, very good supporting cast.

Did Club West close their doors? Heard their director is now an Alliance coach.

Rough Day 1 for Williamson County... Independence lost to Dickson County, Summit lost to Lebanon... Franklin played up in White House, but I can't find a result for that. I think Brentwood and Siegel play tomorrow, that could be fun. Based on preseason play (and they played a lot), I would be surprised if Page is in the mix to advance out of District in October. They were pretty one-dimensional in their preseason tournaments. They have some good pieces to work with in addition to their workhorse: very good libero, good setting, good second middle. I think Ravenwood joins Brentwood again this year. They have maybe 10 kids who would start for any other team in the District, a lot of mix and match / plug and play pieces, and an outstanding coach. If not Ravenwood, it wouldn't surprise me if Indy comes out next, they have good size, 2 or 3 D1 kids, including an outstanding libero. Avri is good enough to win games all by herself for Summit, which makes them good enough to win on any given night.

I can't believe there was another preseason event this weekend. Some teams have played entire an entire season's worth of matches already, with the official start of the season slated for tomorrow. That said, anything interesting in the Brentwood Blastoff yesterday?

Blackman looked REALLY good. Given the earlier conversation about Siegel's injury issues, I think they may have a shot at that District. Lebanon will challenge for their region. I think Williamson County teams have regressed a bit back towards the pack. This is probably temporary... perhaps a factor of the 2019 and 2020 classes not quite as strong as previous years. Younger Williamson County kids (like those at Brentwood) are getting a lot of good, early experience at the varsity level.

Baylor has a 2020 middle who is the real deal.

It is surprisingly difficult to compare how Alliance and TPV did at AAU. Turns out there is not a single AAU age / division combination in which both clubs entered teams. So maybe the best way to compare them is to look at how they did against the targets they assigned themselves. The clubs are their own best judges in terms of their teams' competitiveness. Alliance, as I understand it, does not make any decisions in terms of where to enter its teams. Mizuno teams always play Open, Molten always play the next level down (Premiere, at AAU), and 3rd level teams play Club. Alliance does not enter teams in the lowest divisions (Aspire and Classic, respectively). The Sports Performance model means you enter teams in divisions where you expect them to win. For this reason, even the Mother Ship in Chicago does not enter younger teams in Open divisions, theory being the training model takes a few years to make the kids competitive. So long story short: Alliance entered teams in top divisions, TPV did not, and (though there were exceptions, as Clifford points out above), it was mostly a rough tournament for both clubs: less than half of Alliance (6 of 14) and TPV (8 of 18) finished in the top half of their divisions. Of those that did, there were some pretty good results: TPV placed 9th and 25th out of 75 in 13 Club, and 33rd out of 125 in 13 Classic TPV 18's finished 13th of 74 in 18 Club Alliance 15's and 16's (as mentioned above) had very good results Alliance 18's teams also finished strong (10th of 20 in Open and 13th of 37 in Premiere) What stands out the most is Alliance weakness in the 13's and 14's, and strength in the 15's and 16's. 9th out of 59 in 16 Open is really, really good for that Alliance 16's teams, placing them ahead of some outstanding teams. The exact opposite is true for TPV, with great results younger, and next to nothing in the middle age groups. If I were TPV, I would be trying hard to poach some kids off those 15's and 16's teams, so keep the illusion of competitiveness alive while those 13's evolve. I would have liked to have seen how those TPV 13's did against better competition, but back to the SPRI model: we'll have to wait a year or 2 to find out. There is certainly open-level potential there.

The main pro I see is a matter of injury prevention. There could be a secondary benefit of playing more freely, slightly (but not completely) free of the worry that somebody is going to end your season by taking your knees out. Lots of cons, tho... cost, discomfort, restricted movement chief among them. But if you go to an SEC game (or similar), most or all of the interior linemen are wearing external knee braces. So there must be value there somewhere. Discuss please. If you your kid is (or was, or theoretically would be) a high school varsity center, guard, or tackle, would he be wearing knee braces?

I'll bite, because I honestly don't know: what would have been better for the kid? D Line?

There was a Pre-Nationals Event in conjunction with A5 on the original schedules, but don't hold me to the exact verbiage. My point is that this had been in the works for a long time. In fact, it almost happened last club season, but A5 got cold feet because of uncertainty around the availability of A-Game. Hopefully the first of many.

SJ, we have 2 very different views on all this. The "nonsense" I was talking about was the idea that Alliance wanted to return to the Southern Power League this season, but were denied by those running that circuit. Maybe I am inferring too much, but I think you are saying that not only is that false, but further the denial is attributable to the (now former) Club Director. Do I have that right? If not, please correct me. If so, I stand by my statement, that it's silly to think that anyone associated with Alliance (parents, coaches, players, admin) enjoyed their experience in the Power league and were pining to return to it. If Alliance is permitted to return next year (and does), I will know I had this totally wrong. As an aside, it might not be the worst decision for Alliance to schedule against TPV more often, to give itself more opportunities to show how far apart the clubs really are in competitiveness. Joining the Power League would do that. As to the strength of the field in the Sweet Tea event, again, new management had nothing to do with this. These tournaments are planned months in advance. It was billed from the outset as a top-heavy, Open-level event. The field was available in AES even before this club season. Most of all, Alliance wasn't even the host; A5 was. We do agree that more events of this level are good, long-term, for Tennessee volleyball and for Southern volleyball as a whole.

Coach Webb very much still there.

I wonder if TPV shot itself in the foot with early messaging about competitiveness. It set some awfully high expectations, posting comparisons on their website showing the Chicago club's success, comparing it with Alliance and K2 and others. They also then aligned themselves with that organization by trucking up a bunch of kids and their families for a clinic. The message was clear: come play for us, and this is what you can expect. You set expectations like that, you'd better deliver. But with the lack of competitiveness, even in the face of a weak schedule, I don't wonder that a lot of TPV parents feel like they were sold a bill of goods. It will be interesting next fall to see whether this reveals itself in the school seasons. I don't hate the TPV training model, per se, but you can't implement it without the depth of coaches they have in Chicago.

The TPV 13-1 team is comprised almost entirely of last year's Alliance 12-1 team. Alliance badly mismanaged that group last year, and I don't think they were surprised to see them transfer. TPV is right to treat that team as a bit of a flagship, they'll be Open-relevant over the coming years. Speaking of Open-relevant, the only other TPV team that looks like it should be playing Open is the 17's team. Once again, we are talking a group of mainly Alliance transfers, a mix of first and second team kids from last year's teams. No other TPV team should be playing Open, and I question why they do. Nobody is getting any better losing (or winning) games 25-6. And I know TPV has a unique training model that should, theoretically, differentiate its kids over time, but the gap between TPV and the rest of the field in Knoxville is huge. I don't think TPV did itself any favors. K2's depth is at the older ages. It's real. And it is about to age out. To put them in the same level of depth as Munciana, KiVA and A5 is silly. Once the 2019 group graduates, I'd consider them more aligned with MidTen / A5 Chattanooga, top to bottom.

The idea that Alliance wanted to return to the Southern Power League and were not allowed to is nonsense. That said, the league predates TPV by a few years. It's an implementation of the idea Rick Butler had up in Chicago, to host a league that wouldn't be subject USA Volleyball oversight. It works up there, mostly, because the SPRI teams are so strong. Good teams attract good teams. The Mideast Power League (which K2 has participated in) is pretty strong, too. Southern Performance (the SPRI Satellite in Birmingham) was the original host club of the SPL. The idea is the same, but the reality is a very different thing. Birmingham is not suburban Chicago, and the Southern Performance coaching staff doesn't have the depth Chicago does. Hence, lots and lots of very low level teams. Who wants to compete against them? Other very low level teams. I think the Southern Power League had a chance if A5 had joined.

Which Patriots are we talking about here? Oakland?

They probably playing the closest to their ideal level of anyone in the tournament. Well-coached, intense and physical and solid on the ball defensively, but not deep. The Anti-East, if you want to think of it that way. I don't know any of them personally, but I would have to think MJ is probably in the "happy to be here" category.

East is a question mark for me. They are bringing more horses to the tournament than anyone in a long time. But the expectations put on this group might not have been fair. They had a lot of early season uncertainty around their roster and eligibility questions. That affects chemistry, makes people question their roles. Then they had a rough holiday spell where they learned maybe they weren't as good as everyone thought. (Simeon and University School I get, but Olive Branch?) Then they haven't been tested since. Is that because the schedule got light all of a sudden? Probably. Or did they just put it together in mid-January and have been The Machine ever since? Maybe. We'll find out. No TN team can take down East when they are right. Both Blackman and Bearden are good enough to beat them when they aren't.