2022 Volleyball - Stacked as Hell

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

On 6/15/2023 at 9:05 PM, Chicken fried bacon said:

Callie Kruger DS/L  from Cedar Park and Austin Skyline  committed today

PWO. Very connected family. Think about what it means when a PWO commits this early.  She will never see the court.

Also the same family is invested in prepdig so don't drop those rankings here.  

[Chicken fried bacon 46]

1 hour ago, Gardner Barnes said:

PWO. Very connected family. Think about what it means when a PWO commits this early.  She will never see the court.

Also the same family is invested in prepdig so don't drop those rankings here.  

Don’t get me started on PrepDig.  I have seen girls on the 4th or 5th teams at a large club get a write up like they are top D 1 talent.  Just pay to go to there camp and buy a membership. 

[Mittens 8256]

https://usavolleyball.org/athlete/abby-vander-wal/

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/17273724/646f88919a92d317ac3447b9

 

 

[SL Xpress 7513]

8 hours ago, Mittens said:

https://usavolleyball.org/athlete/abby-vander-wal/

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/17273724/646f88919a92d317ac3447b9

 

 

Those Hudl highlights are worth watching simply for some of the DS reactions. 

[Js1 85275]

Cursty Le Roux is the new assistant coach (the third full-time assistant)

Formerly at Long Beach and UNLV and USA Volleyball for the U19 team.  Played at UNLV and Arizona

[shadow_operative2.0 15947]

That is quite the name for a female. 

[Js1 85275]

7 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

That is quite the name for a female. 

My phone keeps trying to autocorrect to Curtsy Le Roux which sounds like a porn star. 

[shadow_operative2.0 15947]

I texted, & it corrected to Crusty. That's even worse. 

[SL Xpress 7513]

It’s mildly interesting to me that instead of taking a former Long Beach national champion to their home arena (Jessica Brennan) we’re now taking someone who spent last year on their staff, lol. 

I find that hilarious, btw. 

Really love this hire. My ideal hire would have been a former Longhorn, but this works great. 

I wonder how the marriage works with her husband? It’s none of my business. Trying to balance careers with a son involved cannot even be remotely easy. 

So glad to have her on staff!

[SL Xpress 7513]

Addison Gaido, 6’4 (maybe 6’5) opposite out of Georgetown HS and club Austin Skyline announced her commitment. 

With libero Krueger and OH Vander Wal that brings the 2025 class up to 3 

[Steven Avery 19]

How many of these three are walk-ons ?

[SL Xpress 7513]

2 hours ago, Steven Avery said:

How many of these three are walk-ons ?

My guess is none of them, but there are doctoral theses written regarding which players on the Texas roster are walk-ons and which ones are on scholarship. There’s no Jack Texeira working within the volleyball support staff, I can tell you that much. 

Unlike every other full scholarship sport, you can’t even realistically run a roster with just the 12 scholarship players. But you can’t give partial scholarships either. So the sport has these asinine 3+1 and 2+2 deals, where players walk on part of the time for a handshake agreement to give them a full scholarship later down the road. I wish they’d just make it 15 scholarships like women’s basketball. But a lot of programs can’t afford that, so here we are.

Last year’s roster had 14 true legitimate, hard core scholarship level players, plus a couple of other players who could earn a scholarship at other schools. One of them - middle blocker Deandra Pierce - apparently now has a scholarship with Georgia Tech after being a walkon at Texas for two years. OH Kendra Miller could start at a number of lower tier Div I schools. Crownover probably could. 

Caffey was a late enrollee because of shenanigans at Nebraska I won’t bore you with. She was a 2nd team All American on Nebraska’s national championship finalist team but earned a graduate certificate at Texas over a semester as a walk in with NIL money. 

Same thing with long time starter Jenna Ewert from Colorado, who transferred to Texas at the start of summer. 

My point is that it’s not EVER completely clear who is on scholarship and who isn’t at Texas, much less what the future roster will look like in that regard. Very talented players are willing to walk on at Texas, whether because they’re a legacy, they want to be a part of a championship program, they hope to earn a scholarship in the future, or some other reason. Or they’re willing to forgo scholarship money with NIL money partially replacing it.

But in terms of talent, all three of these players SHOULD be scholarship players. They certainly have full ride offers from other schools. My GUESS is that they’re all going to be on scholarship. But who the fuck knows? People love asking how many players we’ll take in this class. I don’t know  All of them? For sure we’re holding a scholarship for Macaria Spears. It’s likely we’re holding a spot for a middle. The big recruiting weekend is Labor Day weekend, with the national championship banquet/gala on Friday and the Stanford match on Sunday  

So we’ll see who shows up for that and what the class looks like afterwards. 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by SL Xpress

[shadow_operative2.0 15947]

First post on this page. (Krueger) 

On 6/17/2023 at 8:26 AM, Gardner Barnes said:

PWO. Very connected family. Think about what it means when a PWO commits this early.  She will never see the court.

Also the same family is invested in prepdig so don't drop those rankings here. 

[SL Xpress 7513]

The national championship will be televised on ABC. Both semifinals on ESPN.

 

[Js1 85275]

Big props to ABC, as it has picked up the volleyball champ match, some of the WCWS games and the NCAAWT final / some of the non-F4 games 

[shadow_operative2.0 15947]

3 Eastern against NFL week 15 will not go well though. Saturday night again would be better. 

[SL Xpress 7513]

1 hour ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

3 Eastern against NFL week 15 will not go well though. Saturday night again would be better. 

Cowboys versus the Bills. 

The fact is indoors has more competition in December than women’s basketball in March or softball in the summer. From a network perspective its value is going to end up being in part its ability to draw a demographic not as interested in the NFL. It’s not ideal, but it doesn’t mean it’s doomed to failure, either. There’s an unfortunate ceiling to its growth In terms of viewing numbers unless it can successfully navigate that dynamic. 

There are also issues with the final being played the day after the semifinals. Whoever plays in the early match is going to have a competitive advantage. It would be better to have a day separation regardless of when the final is played. 

Another problem is the AVCA convention. I wish they could separate the two events, simply because joining the convention and the final four event constrains where the final four can be held. They need cheap hotel and convention space that’s within walkin distance of the arena hosting the event. No other sport works with the same kinds of restrictions. A Sunday start then loses some of the coaches who don’t want to book a late flight after the convention has concluded, which loses some of the incentive for the event to have the two intertwined in the first place. 

That said it’s progress to get locked in on ESPN and ABC. We’ll see how the numbers look. 

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

Addison Gaido, 6’4 (maybe 6’5) opposite out of Georgetown HS and club Austin Skyline announced her commitment. 
With libero Krueger and OH Vander Wal that brings the 2025 class up to 3 

Gaido is legit. Needs a year in the weight room but she will contribute.

Krueger will never see the floor. And is a PWO. She is not taking an offer. There is a lot here but I can’t post it publically. If you want to know the deets here send me a DM.

[YGIFS 19449]

It actually varies year to year from 11am to early evening...anybody know what time our O&W scrimmage on 8/12 is gonna be?  Have a back to school thing that Saturday and would like to knock out both as the oldest is starting to get more and more into volleyball...but the usual 7pm matches are too much for her come third set.  

Thanks!