Mildura cancelled.

but thank god for tournaments

At AVSC last year, someone slipped a photocopy of a handwritten flyer to my club’s junior coordinator. It was like something you used to get pre-word-processing days and refershingly low-fi. The flyer was for a new tournament in mildura for junior aged kids (U13, U15, U17).

Both the club (henley hawks) and school (willunga) i coached for started organising teams. Without much time between the start of school and the tournament, we couldn’t get the numbers to send over a team from willunga. Unfortunately, Willunga’s problems weren’t unique and the tournament has been cancelled. It probably didn’t help it being scheduled on the same weekend as Warrnambool.

* * *

I’m not sure what it’s like in the other states, but there were more forfeits in junior and state league competitions in SA last year than possibly ever. VollyballSA sent out questionnaires to see how it could be better this year. I think there was a strong sentiment that this may be a generational thing. why don’t our current generation of players (gen y) want to play junior and state league?

Well, my theory is the concept of league, like scheduled television programming and movie sessions is becoming outdated. recently, i watched a documentary on Soccer, and a point was made that the growth of League football came from the industrial revolution when people started getting the weekends off and wanted something to do. Regular gate receipts from spectators helped football clubs and league grow. And it worked around the industrial routine – 9-to-5, monday-to-friday.

We’re not in the industrial age anymore.  And the modern consumer wants things delivered different. gen y’s want things “on-demand”. i had a player who had started the season late who was disappointed it ended so abruptly!

They also want meaningful experiences. the week-in-week-out grind of league competition tedium just doesn’t cut it anymore. in terms of extra currcular activities and volunteering, research has shown that boomers like “regular” commitments, X’ers like “projects” and Y’s like “one-offs”

Which is where tournaments come in. The AVSC will only keep growing. It’s a bunch of Gen Y’s loving the one-off festival, being coached by Gen X-ers who treat it like a project. and country tournaments end up being pleasant weekends away. who can resist that?

* * *

After the Willunga U15 Honours Girls took the bronze last year i was asked by the programme’s head coach “how can we keep enjoying watching these girls play at this level over the next few years”. I didn’t have an answer he’d like. U15 honours is their best window. after that they’re up against kids that play club and state, and unless they keep up, the playing field becomes less even. a couple of the kids might make state teams but the rest wouldn’t get the practice they needed to keep up. being so far away from the city and with the expense of indoor volleyball made it hard enough.

And then there was netball. i tried for years to woo kids over to volleyball from footy and netball but have given up. it’s a battle you just can’t win in the country. And it can work. after all, a large part of our girls success came from the fact that about 7 of them were also the state netball champions. i’ve probably never had a better team of athletes to train.

When i got the flyer for mildura i had a perfect solution. let them get fit playing netball in the winter and have them play a tournament every three months (including state school’s cup). in essence they’d give up only 2 weekends and get about the same amount of quality match practice, and you would get to monitor the progress of your training. there might be hope yet!

Mildura might be moved to October now. Pity because a junior march tournament sounded good. still, there’s always warrnambool, and it’s bloody nice there in march!

Eldo not coaching U16s

While asking for info on state trials this year i received the lamentable news that Eldo has declined to coach the U16 State Schoolgirls team this year.

Of course, life goes on, and I’m sure his successor will do a sterling job, but it’s always sad when a familiar institution ends. To tell you the truth I don’t even know if he’s taking a year off or passing the torch indefinitely. In either case, it was a good opportunity for a bunch of kids at the club and schools i coached to get taught by one of the best.

Eldo took over the programme from another legend – Sue Dansie. In his tenure, some fanstastic players and athletes went through the programme – Raelee Vick, Jessica Peacock, Anna & Renee Maycock, Fleur & Victoria Holmes, Bea Daly, Mel Hopkins just to name a few. There are decidedly big shoes to fill and an opportunity for the next coach to add themselves to a list of legends.

The U16 programme is still in my opinion an excellent programme – the kids get more time in preparation and training, and more attention at the tournament (one team per state, one age group).

If last year was indeed Eldo’s last, then i consider myself extremely fortunate to have had a chance to watch how we worked and help out. It certainly made me a better coach, and it was well worth getting up early every sunday and missing out on some sleep. One of my favourite anecdotes was when the team discussed which movie they should go watch together in their time off during the tournament. Eldo recalled taking one of his first state teams to see Pretty Woman. For the players listening to the story – made up of kids born no earlier than 1994 – it may as well have been Gone with the Wind. Time flies huh?

Is the NFL 16% racist?

OK, this isn’t volleyball, but I think Ben Graham’s participation in the Superbowl was of good general sporting interest…

Unfortunately, Graham’s Arizona Cardinals lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the last minute or so. bummer. On googling the Steelers, they’ve been owned by the Rooney family since they started in 1933. Their current owner, Dan Rooney, who is also chair of the NFL’s diversity committee, introduced “The Rooney Rule” in 2006, which required all teams interviewing a head coach position to interview a “minority” candidate.

As a result, within a year, African American head coaches went from representing 6% of head coaches to 22%. In real terms, the 32 team NFL went from having 2 African American head coaches to 7 (including the Steelers’ current coach who led them to the superbowl). The Rooney Rule didn’t require any of these “minority” coaches to be hired, just interviewed, so it’s not really affirmative action. But without the rule, would they have been interviewed at all?And if they got rid of the rule, would it go back to the way it was.

In either case, The Rooney Rule seems to be a good alternative to systemic discrimation and retarded reactionary affirtmative action policy (yeah as a “minority” i’m not a fan of affirmative action). 16% progress i suppose.