StarTrib: Minnesota a Volleyball Hotbed

[Ignatius L Hoops]

http://www.startribune.com/volleyball-is-no-1-in-many-ways-for-minnesotans/461165003/


Minnesota has become a national volleyball hotbed, and the temperature keeps rising, with college programs thriving at all levels, fueled by a pipeline of in-state talent ranking among the nation’s best.

Volleyball is now Minnesota’s most popular girls’ high school sport, drawing more participants (16,222) last school year than track and field, basketball, softball or hockey.

When it comes to high-end talent, UCLA coach Mark Sealy said Minnesota is “definitely one of the top three to five states out there.” Texas and California are widely considered the best, but coaches are beating a well-worn path into Minnesota’s volleyball gyms.

“The good news is I’ll be looking there continuously,” Sealy said. “The bad news is I’ll be standing next to every other Top 25 team looking there also. Minnesota’s no secret.”...


...The secret of Minnesota’s booming high school talent already was leaking out by 1996, when former Gophers women’s athletic director Chris Voelz hired Mike Hebert, who had steered Illinois to two Final Fours and four Big Ten titles.

“Minnesota was already established as an important pin on your map,” Hebert said. “Particularly the Twin Cities area, there was really a lot of interest in the sport.”

Hebert built up the Gophers volleyball booster club and held free clinics for the growing number of club teams in the Twin Cities area. Under his guidance, the Gophers made the Final Four in 2003, 2004 and 2009.

Samantha Seliger-Swenson was a 7-year-old, watching on TV, when Minnesota made its run to the 2004 NCAA title game before losing to Stanford. She had a poster of that team, autographed by every player, on her bedroom wall. Ten years later, she ranked as the nation’s No. 8 recruit and knew she wanted to play for Minnesota.

 

[MplsGopher]

Is Texas that good for high school players? I feel like more Texas college teams would be good at the sport if that were true. U of Texas is great of course, and helped by playing in a weak Big 12, similar to how Florida is helped by playing in a weak SEC.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

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A good Texas player headed our way.

 

[MRJ]

I would think if you go per capita, Minnesota probably produces almost as much high level volleyball talent as any state in the country. The beauty of having a coach like Hugh is that he can also attract really high level talent from other states as well (Hart, Pittman and in coming years Rubright, Landfair and Shaffmaster). And that's not taking into account the international players, like Santana and Rosado, who have obviously come in and contributed to the program in a big way also.

It's nice to have such high quality prospects coming out every year for the Gophers to recruit. But Hugh is truly a national level coach and the program attracts players from all over. There's little doubt he'll continue to try to keep the best Minnesotans home however. With C.C. McGraw, he's doing just that.

 

[MplsGopher]

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A good Texas player headed our way.

Of course. A state with 28 million people, as opposed to Minnesota's 5.5 million, would have have to produce a few stars.

But as I think is clear, the point is about the total number of high level players. So as I was saying, if TX produced a lot of really good vball players, and using the simple, general idea that players tend to prefer to stay closer to home on average, then it would seem like a lot more Texas college teams would be good. But since that isn't the case ...

 

[Word]

Of course. A state with 28 million people, as opposed to Minnesota's 5.5 million, would have have to produce a few stars.

But as I think is clear, the point is about the total number of high level players. So as I was saying, if TX produced a lot of really good vball players, and using the simple, general idea that players tend to prefer to stay closer to home on average, then it would seem like a lot more Texas college teams would be good. But since that isn't the case ...

We only have one D1 team in the state. How many are in Texas? Wikipedia tells me (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_college_athletic_programs_in_Texas) there are 23 d1 programs in Texas. Don't know if they all have volleyball, but even if it's 1/2 that would dilute that talent pool quite a bit.

 

[beavergopher]

Of course. A state with 28 million people, as opposed to Minnesota's 5.5 million, would have have to produce a few stars.

But as I think is clear, the point is about the total number of high level players. So as I was saying, if TX produced a lot of really good vball players, and using the simple, general idea that players tend to prefer to stay closer to home on average, then it would seem like a lot more Texas college teams would be good. But since that isn't the case ...

Almost all programs recruit Texas. Even the PAC-12, with CA being the main footprint, has a large number of Texans on rosters.

 

[MplsGopher]

We only have one D1 team in the state. How many are in Texas? Wikipedia tells me (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_college_athletic_programs_in_Texas) there are 23 d1 programs in Texas. Don't know if they all have volleyball, but even if it's 1/2 that would dilute that talent pool quite a bit.

Would think good players would rather win than go to a team like Texas Tech or something like that.

Where are the DII and DIII Texas powerhouse teams. That was the point of the thread: there is such an abundance of volleyball talent in Minn, that it spills over to the DII and DIII teams.


If there were such an abundance in Texas, the same should be true.


Again, I am not questioning that Texas does produce very high level players every year. Clearly they do.

 

[adchester]

Would think good players would rather win than go to a team like Texas Tech or something like that.

Where are the DII and DIII Texas powerhouse teams. That was the point of the thread: there is such an abundance of volleyball talent in Minn, that it spills over to the DII and DIII teams.


If there were such an abundance in Texas, the same should be true.


Again, I am not questioning that Texas does produce very high level players every year. Clearly they do.

Lol that makes no sense....the same shouldn't be true because there's 23 D1 teams to fill in the state compared to 1. It's a lot easier for borderline D1 talent to overflow to D2 when there's only 1 D1 program instate vs 23.

 

[MplsGopher]

You'd have a point if MN players of the full range of talent didn't go outside the state to programs at the DIII, DII, and DI levels.


At this point, I think I would only be successful in validating my point if I get really far into the weeds: looking at how many high school volleyball programs and participants exist in both states, and looking at how many players from each state went to NCAA vball programs, how many at each level, and where, the past few years. I just don't think I'm going to have the willpower to spend that kind of effort.


So let's move on --- as the thread states, Minnesota is clearly a volleyball hotbed.