K I L L E R TOURNAMENT

[ivolly]

Anyone wanting to see some great high school volleyball this weekend should make the drive to Huntsville. The Huntsville SportsMED Invitational Tournament this weekend should be a showcase of southeastern volleyball at its best. I can't wait. Play starts at 4:00 PM on Friday.

 

Last scheduled pool play match on Saturday begins at 1:30 PM. Single elimination tournament bracket begins immediately thereafter, with the finals scheduled for 7:00 PM. I don't know how many state championships are represented here, but at least 20 respectively from various states that I can count. Should be quite a show! Here are the pools.

 

Pool A - Homewood (AL), Sacred Heart (KY), Huntsville (AL), Hoover (AL)

Pool B - Grissom (AL), Cordova (TN), Vestavia (AL), Dupont Manual (KY)

Pool C - Harding Academy (TN), McGill-Toolen (AL), Oak Mountain (AL), Germantown (TN)

Pool D - Bob Jones (AL), Bayside Academy (AL), Spain Park (AL), Brentwood (TN)

[KYdigsTN]

Anyone wanting to see some great high school volleyball this weekend should make the drive to Huntsville.  The Huntsville SportsMED Invitational Tournament this weekend should be a showcase of southeastern volleyball at its best.  I can't wait.  Play starts at 4:00 PM on Friday.

 

Last scheduled pool play match on Saturday begins at 1:30 PM.  Single elimination tournament bracket begins immediately thereafter, with the finals scheduled for 7:00 PM.  I don't know how many state championships are represented here, but at least 20 respectively from various states that I can count.  Should be quite a show!  Here are the pools.

 

Pool A - Homewood (AL), Sacred Heart (KY), Huntsville (AL), Hoover (AL)

Pool B - Grissom (AL), Cordova (TN), Vestavia (AL), Dupont Manual (KY)

Pool C - Harding Academy (TN), McGill-Toolen (AL), Oak Mountain (AL), Germantown (TN)

Pool D - Bob Jones (AL), Bayside Academy (AL), Spain Park (AL), Brentwood (TN)

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I think Dupont Manual did fairly well last year in this tournament, but I dont look for them to do all that well this year. I believe they even beat your Brentwood team, but that wont happen this year. They lost three senior Div 1 players to graduation and should not be near as strong this year. Sacred Heart is down a little too, but they are still probably good enough to do fairly well there. Even a down Sacred Heart team is still a very good team.

[ivolly]

So, I got curious and tried to look up the number of respective state volleyball championships represented in Huntsville this weekend. I was WAY off guessing around 20. McGill leads the pack. There may be more, AL was listed from 1974, TN was only listed from 1997, and KY from 1997 on the KHSAA site. And I'm not sure but it looks like there is only one division in KY. Is that right Digs? BTW, what happened to Assumption in 2003?

 

Homewood, AL (AAAAA) - 2

Huntsville, AL (AAAAA) - 4

Grissom, AL (AAAAAA) - 6

McGill-Toolen, AL (AAAAAA) - 18 (whoa)

Bayside, AL (AA) - 13

Harding, TN (DII) - 1

Germantown, TN (AAA) - 6

Brentwood, TN (AAA) - 6

Sacred Heart. KY - 1

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Total = 57

Edited September 1, 2005 by ivolly

[clifford20]

So, I got curious and tried to look up the number of respective state volleyball championships represented in Huntsville this weekend.  I was WAY off guessing around 20.  McGill leads the pack.  There may be more, AL was listed from 1974, TN was only listed from 1997, and KY from 1997 on the KHSAA site.  And I'm not sure but it looks like there is only one division in KY.  Is that right Digs?  BTW, what happened to Assumption in 2003?

 

Homewood, AL (AAAAA) - 2

Huntsville, AL (AAAAA) - 4

Grissom, AL (AAAAAA) - 6

McGill-Toolen, AL (AAAAAA) - 18 (whoa)

Bayside, AL (AA) - 13

Harding, TN (DII) - 1

Germantown, TN (AAA) - 6

Brentwood, TN (AAA) - 6

Sacred Heart. KY - 1

-------

Total = 57

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your going to have to give us all the scoop on Germantown. I haven't heard much about them? I know they are good.

[KYdigsTN]

And I'm not sure but it looks like there is only one division in KY.  Is that right Digs?  BTW, what happened to Assumption in 2003?

 

Homewood, AL (AAAAA) - 2

Huntsville, AL (AAAAA) - 4

Grissom, AL (AAAAAA) - 6

McGill-Toolen, AL (AAAAAA) - 18 (whoa)

Bayside, AL (AA) - 13

Harding, TN (DII) - 1

Germantown, TN (AAA) - 6

Brentwood, TN (AAA) - 6

Sacred Heart. KY - 1

-------

Total = 57

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Only one state champion in KY. No seperate classifications here. Assumption ALWAYS wins with the exception of the one blip in 2003 to Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart was just VERY good that year.

 

KY post season playoffs are single elimination. The real shame of the KY playoff system is the fact that a team like Assumption did NOT even make the 16 team state tournament that year. SH and Assumption are in the same 5 team district(top two advance to regions) and region and only the regional champ advances to the state tournament. Basically that means the state champion is decided in that Regional championship game every year. SH could be the second best team in KY and even the second best team in the entire country but can only make it to state if they beat Assumption. That complete stinks when we will have at least 8 teams from the EXTREMELY weak Eastern Ky and Western Ky regions in the field. Right now all 4 teams in Lafayettes district are ranked in the state top 25 out of 240 teams. Only two will even be able to advance to regionals while...again the sucky districts and regions move on. If there is a worse playoff system in the country I'd be surprised.

Edited September 1, 2005 by KYdigsTN

[bd4vols]

KYdigsTN...Could you post a link to the KY state poll? Curious to see where some teams fall.

[KYdigsTN]

KYdigsTN...Could you post a link to the KY state poll?  Curious to see where some teams fall.

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http://www.khsaa.org/volleyball/cpoll.pdf

 

This is a preseason poll before teams had started playing yet. It will be updated as the season goes on. Lafayette has already beaten #11 Apollo and #16 Henry Clay.

[ivolly]

Friday Pool Play:

Pool A - 1 Sacred Heart, 2 Huntsville, 3 Hoover, 4 Homewood

Pool B - 1 Grissom, 2 Vestavia, 3 Manual, 4 Cordova

Pool C - 1 McGill, 2 Germantown, 3 Oak Mtn, 4 Harding

Pool D - 1 Bob Jones, 2 Brentwood, 3 Bayside, 4 Spain Park

 

Saturday Pool Play:

Pool AA - 1 Bob Jones, 2 McGill, 3 Grissom, 4 Sacred Heart

Pool BB - 1 Huntsville, 2 Brentwood, 3 Germantown, 4 Vestavia

Pool CC - 1 Oak Mtn, 2 Bayside, 3 Hoover, 4 Manual

Pool DD - 1 Harding, 2 Homewood, 3 Cordova, 4 Spain Park

 

1st Round:

Bob Jones def. Spain Park

McGill def Cordova

Sacred Heart def. Harding

Grissom def. Homewood

Huntsville def. Manual

Brentwood def. Hoover

Germantown def. Bayside

Vestavia def. Oak Mountain

 

Quarter-Finals:

Bob Jones def. Vestavia

McGill def. Germantown

Sacred Heart def. Huntsville

Grissom def. Brentwood

 

Semi-Finals:

Bob Jones def. Sacred Heart

Grissom def. McGill-Toolen

 

Championship Match:

Grissom def. Bob Jones (a bit of a surprise)

 

Well, this was a killer tournament indeed. The top 4 teams were identifyable early. The next 4-5 were noticeable too. But any of the top 8 could be interchangeable on any given weekend. It was truly a showcase of great teams. Brentwood lost in the quarter-finals to Grisssom, which was the third Huntsville area team to give them a loss. BHS also lost to Huntsville High and Bob Jones. Bob Jones may have been the best team in the tournament (although losing in the finals), beating McGill, Grissom, and Sacred Heart respectively. Bob Jones, Huntsville, and Grissom are stocked full of NASA kids whose 14 and 15 yr old club teams both faired well in Open at Salt Lake, and whose 17 yr old team won SRVA Regionals and made it to Salt Lake as well. Clearly, the best Huntsville volleyball is a step ahead of the best Nashville volleyball at this point, and I might dare say is well within reach of even Louisville's top teams. Huntsville's team is comprised mainly of NASA's 14 yr old team, and their setter is an 8th grader and she is very good. B'wood had a shaky tournament on Friday and early Saturday, and started playing like B'wood in the second game against G'town and rolled over Hoover. Germantown is good, though relying on MH #5 heavily. She did a great job powering 2's in the middle mainly to the right back corner. She got in trouble when having to hit to the left. Their OH's are not as strong as their middles, and they served nothing but deep floaters. But they can hang with anyone in TN for sure. Their match with BHS was very close, but B'wood won in two. Grissom is always good and the two teams battle back and forth year to year, so a close match ws expected. Both games were close, 23-25 and 20-25. B'wood plays in the Southeast Challenge in Southside, AL this weekend and has Bob Jones in their opening pool again. Should be a great opportunity to improve again, as they did this weekend.

[KYdigsTN]

Friday Pool Play:

Pool A - 1 Sacred Heart, 2 Huntsville, 3 Hoover, 4 Homewood

Pool B - 1 Grissom, 2 Vestavia, 3 Manual, 4 Cordova

Pool C - 1 McGill, 2 Germantown, 3 Oak Mtn, 4 Harding

Pool D - 1 Bob Jones, 2 Brentwood, 3 Bayside, 4 Spain Park

 

Saturday Pool Play:

Pool AA - 1 Bob Jones, 2 McGill, 3 Grissom, 4 Sacred Heart

Pool BB - 1 Huntsville, 2 Brentwood, 3 Germantown, 4 Vestavia

Pool CC - 1 Oak Mtn, 2 Bayside, 3 Hoover, 4 Manual

Pool DD - 1 Harding, 2 Homewood, 3 Cordova, 4 Spain Park

 

1st Round:

Bob Jones def. Spain Park

McGill def Cordova

Sacred Heart def. Harding

Grissom def. Homewood

Huntsville def. Manual

Brentwood def. Hoover

Germantown def. Bayside

Vestavia def. Oak Mountain

 

Quarter-Finals:

Bob Jones def. Vestavia

McGill def. Germantown

Sacred Heart def. Huntsville

Grissom def. Brentwood

 

Semi-Finals:

Bob Jones def. Sacred Heart

Grissom def. McGill-Toolen

 

Championship Match:

Grissom def. Bob Jones (a bit of a surprise)

 

 

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I guess I was right about Manual being much weaker this year. Looks like they probably only won 1 match against Cordova and lost the rest to go 1-6 for the tournament.

[becool]

Friday Pool Play:

Pool A - 1 Sacred Heart, 2 Huntsville, 3 Hoover, 4 Homewood

Pool B - 1 Grissom, 2 Vestavia, 3 Manual, 4 Cordova

Pool C - 1 McGill, 2 Germantown, 3 Oak Mtn, 4 Harding

Pool D - 1 Bob Jones, 2 Brentwood, 3 Bayside, 4 Spain Park

 

Saturday Pool Play:

Pool AA - 1 Bob Jones, 2 McGill, 3 Grissom, 4 Sacred Heart

Pool BB - 1 Huntsville, 2 Brentwood, 3 Germantown, 4 Vestavia

Pool CC - 1 Oak Mtn, 2 Bayside, 3 Hoover, 4 Manual

Pool DD - 1 Harding, 2 Homewood, 3 Cordova, 4 Spain Park

 

1st Round:

Bob Jones def. Spain Park

McGill def Cordova

Sacred Heart def. Harding

Grissom def. Homewood

Huntsville def. Manual

Brentwood def. Hoover

Germantown def. Bayside

Vestavia def. Oak Mountain

 

Quarter-Finals:

Bob Jones def. Vestavia

McGill def. Germantown

Sacred Heart def. Huntsville

Grissom def. Brentwood

 

Semi-Finals:

Bob Jones def. Sacred Heart

Grissom def. McGill-Toolen

 

Championship Match:

Grissom def. Bob Jones (a bit of a surprise)

 

Well, this was a killer tournament indeed.  The top 4 teams were identifyable early.  The next 4-5 were noticeable too.  But any of the top 8 could be interchangeable on any given weekend.  It was truly a showcase of great teams.  Brentwood lost in the quarter-finals to Grisssom, which was the third Huntsville area team to give them a loss.  BHS also lost to Huntsville High and Bob Jones.  Bob Jones may have been the best team in the tournament (although losing in the finals), beating McGill, Grissom, and Sacred Heart respectively.  Bob Jones, Huntsville, and Grissom are stocked full of NASA kids whose 14 and 15 yr old club teams both faired well in Open at Salt Lake, and whose 17 yr old team won SRVA Regionals and made it to Salt Lake as well.  Clearly, the best Huntsville volleyball is a step ahead of the best Nashville volleyball at this point, and I might dare say is well within reach of even Louisville's top teams.  Huntsville's team is comprised mainly of NASA's 14 yr old team, and their setter is an 8th grader and she is very good.  B'wood had a shaky tournament on Friday and early Saturday, and started playing like B'wood in the second game against G'town and rolled over Hoover.  Germantown is good, though relying on MH #5 heavily.  She did a great job powering 2's in the middle mainly to the right back corner.  She got in trouble when having to hit to the left.  Their OH's are not as strong as their middles, and they served nothing but deep floaters. But they can hang with anyone in TN for sure.  Their match with BHS was very close, but B'wood won in two.  Grissom is always good and the two teams battle back and forth year to year, so a close match ws expected.  Both games were close, 23-25 and 20-25. B'wood plays in the Southeast Challenge in Southside, AL this weekend and has Bob Jones in their opening pool again.  Should be a great opportunity to improve again, as they did this weekend.

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I agree Huntsville volleyball is ahead of Nashville volleyball. They should be. They have at least two strong club programs, NASA and RCVC, and maybe one or two more in the area. In addition, those girls go straight from their club programs into high school programs where the coaches are, in many cases, the coaches from NASA and RCVC. In addition, McGill Toolen's (great team from Mobile) coach was the coach at Spring Hill College. You can't hardly compete with that. I only know three programs in the Nashville area, Franklin, BGA and Harpeth Hall, that have coaches with strong volleyball coaching background. As far as club programs in Nashville go, their weakness lies in the lack of great coaches available in this area. There are only a handful of quality coaches for a large number of teams.

You are right about Alabama volleyball getting closer to Louisville volleyball. I believe one reason is that volleyball is appreciated, respected and reported on in both those states. Great athletes are attracted to the sport. From what I've seen, only the Chattanooga papers do a decent job of following high school volleyball in Tennessee. I rarely see articles in any Tennessee newspapers about our college and university volleyball teams.

You do need to do a little homework on one comment you made. Huntsville High School volleyball is not made up mostly of NASA's 14 year old team. That makes for interesting reading but is simply not true. They have one 8th grader, one freshman and four or five seniors and the rest juniors and sophomores. Their junior setter is injured.

[ComPassion]

I believe one reason is that volleyball is appreciated, respected and reported on in both those states.

 

Thank you BeCool. Good point that is further demonstrated by Huntsville's dedication to volleyball by the city itself. They have a great park and rec dept (the military "demands" that) and the city shows it's dedication to growing VB by giving alot of good gym time and resources to the clubs. Our city could care less and many of the AD's still view VB as an irritant that hurts the win/loss record of their BB and SB coaches.

 

..and NASA tends to put their best coaches with the young ages, most of the rest of us dummies aren't willing to do that ..and predestine ourselves to keep losing to them.

 

Maybe our press is better than other areas but the paper has one part-time reporter assigned to VB and only gives her one small article to cover the 15 matches or so ..so that they can have plenty of room to cover the interesting details about sorry UTC's football PRACTICE ..and of course leave a full page for how best to shoot a deer.

 

When Paul and I sat with reps from the Greater Chattanooga Sports and Events Committee about bringing 1500 kids and their families to the convention cnter for Regionals it was ONLY about money ..they were willing if the USAV would be willing to lose money while they raked in 10's of thousands or more for their center, hotels and restaurants. There was no talk about kids' growth, something positive for the community or sport development.

 

So, yes, where you put your $, coaches and press says alot.

[ivolly]

Okay, we're just going to have to agree on some things and not others. I don't know what you are basing "strong volleyball coaching background" on, but there are plenty of talented coaches in Nashville. Especially if you are talking about club coaches as well, and then include Murfreesboro and the other surrounding areas. We have MANY coaches with either collegiate coaching or playing experience. By the way, collegiate coaching experience does not neccessarily mean better coaching. I know of at least one former college coach that I wouldn't want anyone learning from. Also, I know for a fact there are coaches in the Nashville area who could have coached in college if they wanted to, and had offers. Sometimes working with the younger kids is more rewarding than the bucks and notoriety. I've actually had some experience at both levels, and prefer the younger kids because they are generally more coachable, and there is the instant gratification of seeing them learn something and then applying it in a game situation. Yes, there absolutely could be better coaches and more of them here, but I'm not convinced Huntsville's success is strictly because of the coaching or club situation. Granted, there are many good coaches in that area who work with the kids throughout the year. But the initial age of beginning player development, family pre-involvement in the sport, a focus on the sport instead of basketball and softball, media input (maybe), and TALENT are the biggest influences. Then, once you have all those variable in place, great coaching will take them to the next level.

 

Maybe I was off on the roster of the Huntsville team. But I coached against the NASA 14's and 15's this past year, and I know one middle was from the 14's and I could have sworn there were at least a couple more. I know the setter was on the 15's. Anyway, my point initially was that they are very good, and very young and going to be difficult for most schools to deal with in the future, much like Independence here in Nashville.