My team could beat an NCAA Final Four team. Really.

Okay--my LLCC team, really could beat an NCAA Final Four team, but there are a couple catches to all this.

A couple weeks ago, I was talking with Sandy Hamilton who played at Illinois as Sandy Scholtens a couple years before I got to work with the Illini volleyball team.  Her senior year, Illinois went to the Final Four for the second time.  They were a great volleyball team, probably the most dominant team in the Midwest, certainly east of the Mississippi.

My comment to her was, "If you suddenly teleported your team forward to now, we'd beat them."
Sandy: "No way."
Me: "Yup, I don't mean that cocky.  Think about volleyball today."

The Illini lineup-1988
S:       5'7
RS:    5'9
MH1: 5'10
MH2: 5'10
OH1: 5'8
OH2: 5'8
(I put Mary Eggers at an OH, Bush and Brookhart as the MH for posterity)

LLCC lineup-2014
S:        5'7
RS:     5'11
MH1:  5'11  or 6'1
MH2:  6'1
OH1:  5'10
OH2:  6'1   or 5'10
We're a two-year college and 26 years later, I've got a height advantage almost everywhere.  Just as important, I remember most of those Illini players, and at least two of my kids absolutely hit harder, probably two others as well.  See why I say that?   I think that says a lot about how volleyball has changed--just as importantly, how girls and women's athletics have changed for the better.  What was once a collection of all-American NCAA talent, one of the four most dominant teams in the US, now would be the equivalent of a Top 15-20 NJCAA team.

Of course, if you put LLCC up versus the 2014 Illini, my goal's to get to ten points in a game.

Illini lineup-2014
S:        6'1
RS:      6'6
MH1:  6'4
MH2:  6'4
OH1:   6'1
OH2:   6'2
6'1 and taller across the board and while I've got kids I know hit harder than what the '88 team did, I'm not sure they hit harder than the '14 Illini players--not to mention my OH are giving up 6" of height against the RS block, and are shorter than even the setter.

So it's all perspective.  And for the better.

In 1988, Midwest teams, East Coast teams, had never won a title.  And then the dam burst--Nebraska...a lot of Penn State, etc.  Ohio State's been to the Final Four, Michigan, Florida State, bunches of teams now beyond the West Coast.  There are no longer four or five great programs, now there are twenty or thirty, and on any given night, those teams are capable of beating the other top teams.

USA Volleyball preaches (rightfully) that there's room for the game to expand (hence 'grow the game').  The above is a small example of how the game has changed, how the skill is improving as well as the athleticism of the women involved (I'd bet much of this is true for the men's side though I have no experience with it--but would love to hear thoughts on that).  The NFHSA says volleyball is still growing.  As that happens, and as the level of coaching improves through experience, the quality of the game will pick up.

* * *
In the 1960s-1970s, there were only a few dominant men's basketball teams...mainly Wooden's UCLA team.  The NCAA Tournament wasn't that big either.  With increased revenue, increased TV coverage, men's basketball has grown so that you can see amazing athletes at smaller colleges, and there's always one sleeper school advancing nowadays.  I think volleyball's at that 1960s-1970s point in time.  Yup, if history repeats itself, we're on the cusp of a golden age...we just have to keep pushing because once that ball gets rolling, be ready for a ride because it won't stop!

And now, off to the AVCA Convention and Final Four....after a talk to 5th graders on the value of education and an LLCC Athletics Staff Meeting.