NCAA Sand Volleyball
Colleges may be seriously considering the idea of adding sand volleyball to their athletic programs. A very interesting development indeed. And not just because of the debate over what they’ll wear. My guess is that the women will be in teeny bikinis and the men will be in full-length parkas just like at the Olympics. But don’t get me started. That’s a subject for another day.
My main concern is how this addition will affect indoor volleyball. I mean, since the inclusion of beach volleyball into the Olympics in 1996, indoor has been competing against the lure of the outdoors. Let’s face it, sand volleyball has a glamour that indoor lacks and that bright and shiny appeal may rip some fantastic indoor players away.
Fresh air instead of a musty gym? One teammate as opposed to 11? More playing time? Less coach interference? More TV appearances? Who could resist? And where will it lead?
Will there be sand volleyball club teams and junior tournaments with college scouts? Elite youth beach volleyball training programs and pipelines to the national teams? If so, maybe young players will skip the indoor game altogether and go for a scholarship playing on the sand.
This is great news for the beach game – it means more great, well-trained athletes to choose from and they can say goodbye to that awkward transition period indoor players sometimes need in order to adapt to the nuances of playing on the sand.
That’s all wonderful. But not having that certainly hasn’t hurt us. U.S. beach teams have won medals (at least one gold) in each of the last four Olympics with players who transitioned from indoor. The indoor side, however, has struggled much more at the Olympics and could certainly use all the young talent it can get in the coming years.
Granted, this is not a development that will likely occur right away -- there aren’t a whole lot of universities looking to add sports in this economy. But it may lead to some very interesting developments in the near future.
My hope is that if college sand volleyball becomes a reality, it won’t ultimately lead to players vacating gyms all over the country in droves. Because that would be a crying shame.
Comments
There already are sand volleyball clubs around…see http://www.beachdig.com . There are also USAV and AAU youth sand volleyball tournaments. The only thing missing is college scouts!
Yeah!!
i think that it would be cool if we had an athetic program that involved sand volleyball
Check out club beach at scvabeach.com! It’s scva-sanctioned beach volleyball–meaning there will be refs and all. Now that Women’s sand volleyball is an NCAA sports, expect the scouts to start be at these tournaments in the next couple years…
Creting more opportunites for students to play the sport of volleyball indoors or on the sand is great. At the present time the majority of players on the sand are coming from the indoor game, but already players are growing up and playing on the sand. Having the sand game has not hurt the USA at the Olympic level, as show in the past Olympics. Time for some to get there head out of the sand and feet in the sand. More exposure for the game of volleyball, what can be better.
As someone who has 20+ years of experience conducting beach volleyball events I can tell you that players that simply cannot make their college indoor teams due to their physical stature stand a very good chance of being the best beach players for those same colleges.
If you get the student spectators excited about the beach game, the hottest ticket at the olympics for the past how many years?, they will eventually end up watching the indoor game in the middle of the winter.
It should be a win win for both teams, indoor and sand.