One good thing about the top teams missing a tournament now and again to participate in international competition is that we get to see some new faces in the top spots. This past weekend while Kessy and Ross were winning the World Championships, the AVP tour crowned a new champion in Coney Island.

Carrie Dodd, 35, and Dianne DeNecochea, 41, defeated Jennifer Fopma and Brittany Hochevar to become the oldest pair, men or women, to win an AVP title with a combined age of 76 years, nine months and three days.

OK, so it is not the record you dream of breaking as a child, but it is still a record and an amazing feat. Dianne and Carrie took out their younger competitors for their first win as a pair and proved that you can keep improving no matter what your age. Congratulations, ladies. You've still got it!

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser forfeited one of their matches at the FIVB's World Championships last week due in part to Todd's back pain, but also to protest the FIVB's decision about bonus pool money, which is half the money the players receive from FIVB events.

According to Todd's blog, the FIVB has dealt the U.S. players a serious blow and he wants people to know it.

Rogers says the FIVB agreed late last year to distribute 70% of a player's total bonus pool money if the player attended four international events. They could earn the rest if they attended more tournaments.

But after Beijing, the handover of power from FIVB President Ruben Acosta to Jizhong Wei after Beijing led to more changes in leadership. Ari Graca, the President of the South American Volleyball Confederation and the Brazilian Volleyball Federation became FIVB Vice President.

Rogers says that in March, Graca arbitrarily decided that players would have to attend several more FIVB tournaments to receive just half of the pool money. Makes sense from the FIVB standpoint of getting more players to attend FIVB events. But according to Rogers, the new rules hurt only the American players.

Does he have a point? Definitely. Brazil and the U.S. have the strongest domestic tours and it is no coincidence that the two countries dominate the medals at every Olympics. Conveniently, Brazil's tour takes place in a different part of the year so it is not in conflict with the FIVB season. But the American players will have to miss several AVP events to comply with the new rules which would hurt the league significantly.

Though there has never been any love lost between the FIVB and AVP, it seemed the players and national bodies had finally come to some sort of agreement. It would be a shame to take relations back to square one.

Halfway through World League pool play, the U.S. men are sitting pretty atop Pool A with a 5-1 record. Currently they are third in points behind Brazil (undefeated) and Cuba (5-1.)

After a shaky opening match loss to the Netherlands, the young U.S. squad settled down and rattled off five wins. They'll see each of the other three teams twice more before the end of pool play and there is no reason why they can't end up with an 11-1 record.

Olympic MVP Clay Stanley rejoined the team in San Jose and played sparingly, but managed to rattle off three service aces in a row at one point against China's libero. He will likely be a difference-maker as the tournament progresses and as the U.S. team fights to defend their 2008 title.

Surely our nation's greatest strength is its diversity. Folks from every nation make the U.S. their home and they add to the fabric of our experience.

But is our nation's greatest strength also our national team's biggest disadvantage? The fact that Americans come from all over the world could be the very reason why we can't seem to get our act together in the fan department the way other nations can. Because when it comes down to it, it seems that you can change a person's location, but you can't change their loyalties.

It is totally understandable to me. If I suddenly decided to make Brazil my home, I would certainly not be able to cheer for the Brazilian team when the Americans came to town. I would make sure the next generation of my family cheered for the American teams as well.

But the difference is that we would be a handful of Americans in an enormous Brazilian arena. Our lone chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" would likely go unnoticed under the singing, dancing, drumming and cheering of the dedicated Brazil fans.

We may be the only country where it doesn't matter who we play against or which city we choose to play them in, our opponents will always be able to find a crowd of die hards who will beat the drums and sometimes out-cheer the home team's fans. And chances are, they're more easily reachable and more organized than we are.

This past weekend in San Jose, CA, the men's team played China. With a huge Chinese population in the Bay Area, it is no surprise that our opponent's fans came out in force. The Chinese media pumped the match for weeks beforehand and covered the results afterward. The mainstream Bay Area media? Not so much.

But the ability to fill the San Jose Event Center is likely one of the reasons that the Bay Area was chosen for the match. Men's volleyball in the U.S. is hurting, with many collegiate programs cut and many others on the chopping block. Thank goodness for the gold in Beijing for renewing interest or who knows where we'd be.

The result last weekend was a great bipartisan crowd which was near capacity on night one and sold out on night two. If we had relied on just USA Volleyball fans, our team would likely have played in a half empty arena. Maybe we should be grateful. We may not be able to get an arena chock full of fans who cheer for us, but we can still fill an arena with fans. That's something.

Next weekend when the men's team heads to China, they'll be lucky to see ten Americans in the crowd. The Chinese fans will be making so much noise, they will not be able to hear themselves think. The same will happen in just about every country to which they travel.

Should we be taking notes? What would it take to get enthusiasm and dedication like that within our own shores?

Winning a gold medal at the Olympics does have its advantages. Several World League matches will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU in the coming weeks. It will be tape delayed of course, but at least we get to watch! Click here for the schedule.

Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett will be our announcers. Let's hope Barnett can manage to be a little more positive than he was during the Olympics. I mean, if you can't manage to be positive when we're winning gold and silver, when can you be?

The men are off to a good start in their World League Pool, securing a 3-1 record after beating Italy twice last weekend in four games.

Coach Knipe is sticking with the line up he created in Game 2, but the majority of the second team is getting playing time in each match which should help them out as the tournament continues.

Up next is China who got smoked by the Netherlands 3-0 twice this past weekend. Our men split with the Netherlands in the first weekend of play, so they should also be able to handle the Chinese. It won't hurt that they'll be playing in the U.S. this weekend, hopefully in front of a big home crowd in San Jose, CA.

I had a chance to watch the USA Women's Blue and Red squads scrimmage in Southern California over the weekend. Silver medalists Scott -Arruda, Jennifer Joines, Tayyiba Haneef-Parks, Heather Bown and Stacy Sykora were among the players present at the fundraiser at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano. We also got a glimpse at some of the newcomers to the team who are hoping to grab a spot in 2012.

Considering it is the year after the Olympics, the team looked strong which is a great sign for the future. The Blue team won the match in four games, but both teams moved well and played hard to win. Scott-Arruda plans to return for her 5th Olympics in London. The games will take place just before her 40th birthday which has got to be some sort of record. But her body is holding up nicely and she says she has no issues with injury which is also incredible.

The team is likely to see lots of roster changes in the coming years with many of the women playing overseas intermittently, but it looks like when the Olympics comes around again, we will once again field a strong squad.

The USA men's team began its first major post-Olympic competition with two World League matches in the Netherlands. Eight players return from last year's World League and Beijing gold medal-winning squads.

The look of the starting line up has changed significantly which is not uncommon the year following the Olympics. Four starters from the Olympic team will not be participating in the six-week competition. Setter Lloy Ball and opposite Gabe Gardner retired and middle blocker Ryan Millar and outside hitter Reid Priddy are taking the summer off.

Middle blocker David Lee and libero Rich Lambourne are the only returning starters for this competition. The bench looks different too with new coach Alan Knipe at the helm after taking over for former head coach Hugh McCutcheon.

The team opened the competition with a quick 0-3 loss. But it is a good sign that after studying the tape and making some line up changes, they managed to turn it around two days later, winning in five. Knipe replaced setter Kevin Hansen with Donald Suxho and outside hitter Scott Touzinsky was replaced with Matt Anderson.

World League is a long and brutal tournament with six weeks of competition and travel to all corners of the world, but it will supply some great match experience for the new national team and a good showing may bring them some confidence for the team's future.

It's contagious. There are representatives of just about every sport utilizing Twitter to reach their fans. When is volleyball going to join the Twitterati?

As slow as I was to embrace the phenomenon, I now realize that it can dramatically enhance a fan's enjoyment of a sporting event. Lebron, Kobe and Shaq sharing their thoughts about the playoffs is fascinating. I'd like to see volleyball utilize social media more.

As a cycling aficionado, I joined Twitter to follow Lance Armstrong's comeback and get to know his heir apparent Levi Leipheimer. Following the racers and their coaches provides me a peak inside the sport in a way I haven't seen before. I get behind the scenes pictures, clarifications of rumors that are going around and stories I didn't hear on TV. It makes me feel like I am at the race with them.

Granted,there is something strange and stalkerish about the more personal posts followers also get. Do I really need to know when Lance is picking up his kids from school or sitting down to watch a movie? Probably not, but it is entertaining and fun anyway.

World League is just around the corner. I'd love for the men's team and coaches keep us informed from the road about what they're doing and how things are going as they defend last year's title since we're not likely to see it on TV.

USAV announced this week that former men's national team coach Hugh McCutcheon won the USOC's National Coach of the Year award. He is the first volleyball coach to earn the honor and it is well-deserved.

McCutcheon was at the helm when the men took home the first World League title ever and he created a team and coaching staff so solid that it ran like clockwork in Beijing despite an unbelievable tragedy that removed their head coach from the bench for the majority of the games.

Who among us could have blamed them for imploding after living through that ordeal? But they didn't. Our men handled adversity like the champs they are and you have to credit what Hugh built for their resiliency and focus amidst distraction.

So congrats, Hugh, for a job well done. Now you can concentrate on coaching the women to their first Olympic gold medal ever. I have faith.