State Volleyball Playoffs

IMO the GGCL success is likely traced back to stable two parent households with income allowing for club volleyball. In order to compete at the highest level, it takes year-round players and top coaching. You need an abundance of club volleyball talent on one team in order to succeed.
 
Not every GGCL school pulls girls from all over. Seton (and Mercy when they had a school) in particular, has a roster of players from only a handful of catholic westside feeder schools.

Very accurate and think also helps these Catholic Westside Feeder Schools have been playing Girls Volleyball for a pretty long time. Think your also right about cost of Club Volleyball or any Club/Select level sports and travels these days.
 
It's interesting you say this. I was thinking last evening when I saw the GGCL sweep SW Ohio...Is there a girls sport in Ohio that is dominated more by private schools than volleyball? Anyone have a theory as to why?


I have talked to numerous folks about this, private/public school parents & students, and there are a couple common threads to the theme:

1) Most importantly there is a rather large tradition factor in the sport and in particular the all girls High Schools. Historically speaking catholic grade schools and single sex high schools have always had volleyball as part of their gym curriculum and it transitioned to being the primary CYO/Varsity sport with advent of Title IX in the '70s. I cannot think of a single public grade school that has a 3rd or 4th grade volleyball team like a Catholic grade school. On the flip side fastpitch is the domain of the pubs as they tend to start developing interest while playing as little girls in city rec leagues and this transitions into the public schools.

2) No doubt $s are a big component too. Folks that can afford a private school education can usually afford at least American level JO and these level players are the depth that make a team a state title contender.

3) Public school backers are going to initially jump all over me on this one but the community aspect of the sport is perfect for a Catholic school. Too many think a community is only a geographical idea but according the definition of community it is also a social unit with commonality such as norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. The volleyball team at many of these catholic schools are very much like a sorority and they have many aspects that never would never work at a public school where football dominates the landscape on the fall calendar. The girls I have spoken to claim this as the important factor when they decide to go to a particular Catholic school, especially tall girls that feel socially out of place with their bodies at 14.

4) Finally a big issue with public schools is coaching. Many pubs require a union teacher from their district to have 1st dibs on a coaching position and too many view this as a nice supplemental pay check. I have a feeling that the GGCL is the same way but I think all former NCL teams in NEO are all head coached by National level JO coaches that are only in the building to coach volleyball. Their assistants are JO coaches too and they can bring in specialists like setter and passing coaches.
 
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Great points made by Auggie but to add

1. This is a tough sport as there are really no parallels to how the game is played
  • This makes the coaching approach even more important – ping pong vs three hits.
  • The spectators appreciate a great three hit attack at a 3rd grade level which reinforces paying the game the correct way. Girls that take both her arms between her legs and hit the ball over on one hit might work when you are in the 4th grade but once you get to the 6th grade, the ball is being spiked back at you.
2. While $ may be a hurdle, most clubs will work with people. It is not knowing that you need to get your daughter into a club early that hurts. By the time public school starts getting into volleyball around the 6th grade, there is a slim chance the girl can make a top level team in these top clubs as most of the parochial school girls have been playing in these clubs for 3 years

3. These girls at a young age are playing competitive league games & tournaments early on. At 3rd/4th grade school tournament on the westside of Cincy, you will see close to 50-60+ people at a gym watching a match and it is loud. I have seen 5th thru 8th grade school finals where the gym was a loud as a high school match. This brings enthusiasm around the sport early on.

4. The legacy/culture is the most important
  • in the GGCL - Mercy started the dominance in 1977 with the first State Championship and it has continued with all the other GGCL schools. It is not uncommon to look around a catholic grade school gym and see a coach, mother, aunt, ref, concession worker, score keeper that didn’t play on a very good high school volleyball team
  • Also going back to coaching, grade school coaches are not paid, they volunteer and most of the volunteers are not coaching their own kids. They are doing it for the love of the game
 
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Great points made by Auggie but to add

1. This is a tough sport as there are really no parallels to how the game is played
  • This makes the coaching approach even more important – ping pong vs three hits.
  • The spectators appreciate a great three hit attack at a 3rd grade level which reinforces paying the game the correct way. Girls that take both her arms between her legs and hit the ball over on one hit might work when you are in the 4th grade but once you get to the 6th grade, the ball is being spiked back at you.
2. While $ may be a hurdle, most clubs will work with people. It is not knowing that you need to get your daughter into a club early that hurts. By the time public school starts getting into volleyball around the 6th grade, there is a slim chance the girl can make a top level team in these top clubs as most of the parochial school girls have been playing in these clubs for 3 years

3. These girls at a young age are playing competitive league games & tournaments early on. At 3rd/4th grade school tournament on the westside of Cincy, you will see close to 50-60+ people at a gym watching a match and it is loud. I have seen 5th thru 8th grade school finals where the gym was a loud as a high school match. This brings enthusiasm around the sport early on.

4. The legacy/culture is the most important
  • in the GGCL - Mercy started the dominance in 1977 with the first State Championship and it has continued with all the other GGCL schools. It is not uncommon to look around a catholic grade school gym and see a coach, mother, aunt, ref, concession worker, score keeper that didn’t play on a very good high school volleyball team
  • Also going back to coaching, grade school coaches are not paid, they volunteer and most of the volunteers are not coaching their own kids. They are doing it for the love of the game

A couple follow up points to this post>

1) Raise your hand if you remember the gym game called Newcomb. We had a gym teacher that started off the kids in 1st grade with this to learn some of the strategic principals of volleyball.

2) This I disagree with you on. Most JO clubs will always find a place for an athlete on a high level team from 12s to 14s, as at 14 most girls are usually where they will be body wise. As a wise man once said, you cannot coach height.

3) It seems like there are now more spectators at an 8th grade city championship in volleyball than football.

4) This goes back to the tradition factor. You can also add the very Catholic MAC schools into this model.

By the way, you get your volleyball card taken away for using the word spike instead of kill :)
 
Back to the action from NEO>

Padua looks like it should steam roll through the Region but I am not so sure about after that, still think the champ will be from Cincy.

Kudos to Tallmadge for pulling off the upset against Beaumont. While their offense was basically 1 girl and a nice setter they were focused, especially on passing, and made favored Beaumont get tight and make a ton of unforced errors. Not sure what Coventry brings but whoever comes out of that match will be a heavy dog to the Lake Catholic v NDCL winner. The Gilmour v. Hartley match should be solid and could be a heck of a match.

Still feeling Independence and Huron in Div III.
 
A couple follow up points to this post>

1) Raise your hand if you remember the gym game called Newcomb. We had a gym teacher that started off the kids in 1st grade with this to learn some of the strategic principals of volleyball.

2) This I disagree with you on. Most JO clubs will always find a place for an athlete on a high level team from 12s to 14s, as at 14 most girls are usually where they will be body wise. As a wise man once said, you cannot coach height.

3) It seems like there are now more spectators at an 8th grade city championship in volleyball than football.

4) This goes back to the tradition factor. You can also add the very Catholic MAC schools into this model.

By the way, you get your volleyball card taken away for using the word spike instead of kill :)


2) - you are right, when all else is equal or close - height always wins out but if you aren't blessed with height - it is a tough road to get noticed when you are late to the game

3) - there are more than 50 people at a grade school catholic city championship game :)

Hopefully I can earn my card back at some point :)
 
The Gilmour v. Hartley match should be solid and could be a heck of a match.
I know Regional sites are determined well in advance, and there's only so many Division 'X' teams per district/region, but Sandusky (1:21), Maumee (1:55), and Gilmour (1:36) travelling to Lexington? Sheesh.
 
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An interesting observation about volleyball dominance and public vs. private. I think we should recognize that it has a lot to do with the inherent nature of the sport too and the unlikelihood of exposure to it outside of gym class. Kids in the summers playing outside just need a field and a ball to play a pickup game of football or soccer to develop interest in the game and build a basic skill set on their own unsupervised. Similarly with basketball, kids need a ball and a court to play on but those are fairly widely available at parks, and they don't even need a net to work on their ball handling on their own either. Not many kids running around in the summer are going to even be exposed to volleyball to become curious about the game to begin with unless its beach volleyball I suppose (which is still not common).

And UA beat Seton in 3 sets? That is a stunner (this year at least)....
 
Padua played tight in their 1st two sets against Riverside but then cam alive and blew them out in the 3rd.
 
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Northeast Division I Region 1 (Hudson)
(1) Padua def (7) Painesville Riverside 25-23, 25-22, 25-7
(1) Massillon Jackson def (2) Nordonia 25-14, 21-25, 25-23, 25-18
 
Northeast Division II Region 5 (Stow)
(3) NDCL def (5) Lake Catholic 25-19, 25-13, 25-22
(3) Coventry def (4) Tallmadge 25-14, 25-18, 25-16
 
Northeast Division III Region 9 (Barberton)
(1) Independence def (3) Kirtland 25-16, 25-20, 25-11
(2) Smithville def (1) Columbiana Crestview 25-17, 25-13, 25-22
 
Northeast Division IV Region 13 (Uniontown)
(1) Monroeville def (2) Wellsville 25-17, 25-12, 25-22
(2) Dalton def (1) Mineral Ridge 25-18, 25-14, 25-23
 
I know Regional sites are determined well in advance, and there's only so many Division 'X' teams per district/region, but Sandusky (1:21), Maumee (1:55), and Gilmour (1:36) travelling to Lexington? Sheesh.

And in Div I Region 2 St. Joseph Academy and Olmsted Falls, two schools literally 15 minutes apart, have to truck out to Port Clinton which is 1:10 away from St. Joseph. Now if there was a Toledo team involved Port Clinton makes sense but there is not. Maybe its time to dump the predetermined sites for volleyball and go the football route and pick a gym that makes sense to location of the schools involved.
 
The two teams that played St. Joseph and Olmsted Falls were from Toledo and Sylvania, respectively, so I understand why they did that for the semis. I know Toledo SUA and Northview were originally supposed to play in Ashland in district semis, but moved the game to Anthony Wayne after Ashland lost. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a last minute venue change that would benefit both teams for the regional.
 
The two teams that played St. Joseph and Olmsted Falls were from Toledo and Sylvania, respectively, so I understand why they did that for the semis. I know Toledo SUA and Northview were originally supposed to play in Ashland in district semis, but moved the game to Anthony Wayne after Ashland lost. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a last minute venue change that would benefit both teams for the regional.

I'm pretty sure this is how it worked.

The district games were always going to be played at the highest remaining team's site after sectional play.

The sectional was played at Ashland, but the only way the district would have been played there is if Ashland would have beat SUA and Anthony Wayne #1 would have to of lost in the sectional. That would of left Ashland #4 as the highest remaining seed since the 2 and 3 seeds were in the other district.
 
Northeast Division I Region 1 (Hudson)
(1) Padua def (1) Massillon Jackson 19-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-13

Northeast Division II Region 5 (Stow)
(3) Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin def (3) Coventry 25-27, 25-18, 25-16, 25-13

Northeast Division III Region 9 (Barberton)
(1) Independence def (2) Smithville 25-19, 25-12, 25-22

Northeast Division IV Region 13 (Uniontown)
(2) Dalton def (1) Monroeville 25-19, 21-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-8
 
No real surprises to me in the final fours, especially among the top 2 Divisions.

In Division 1 its a shame that St. Joseph's best player is on the DL, they probably will get rolled by Mt Notre Dame. Padua v Watterson should be a good match with a slight nod to Padua. All teams are catholic :eek:

For Division 2 it appears that NDCL and Gilmour are on track to meeting in the finals. Caroline Jurevicius is one of the best players in the country for the class of 2023 and could carry NDCL to the title.

Division 3 is where the pubs look much better. Not sure about Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, they beat everyone they should but struggled when they stepped up in class, the same can be said about Independence. I say this is the Division that is most wide open.

Not sure about Div IV other than it's usually a safe bet to go with the MAC school.
 
My 'educated' guesses for the semifinal winners (in bold):

Division I
Columbus Bishop Watterson (17-6) vs. Parma Padua Franciscan (20-0)
Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame (21-2) vs. Cleveland St. Joseph Academy (16-9)

Division II
Plain City Jonathan Alder (22-0) vs. Chardon Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin (13-4)
Tipp City Tippecanoe (27-0) vs. Gates Mills Gilmour Academy (21-1)

Division III
Zoarville Tuscarawas Valley (27-1) vs. Independence (N/A)
Huron (23-2) vs. Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (20-7)

Division IV
Newark Catholic (20-5) vs. New Bremen (24-3)
Tiffin Calvert (27-0) vs. Dalton (18-8)
 
My 'educated' guesses for the semifinal winners (in bold):

Division I
Columbus Bishop Watterson (17-6) vs. Parma Padua Franciscan (20-0)
Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame (21-2) vs. Cleveland St. Joseph Academy (16-9)

Division II
Plain City Jonathan Alder (22-0) vs. Chardon Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin (13-4)
Tipp City Tippecanoe (27-0) vs. Gates Mills Gilmour Academy (21-1)

Division III
Zoarville Tuscarawas Valley (27-1) vs. Independence (N/A)
Huron (23-2) vs. Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (20-7)

Division IV
Newark Catholic (20-5) vs. New Bremen (24-3)
Tiffin Calvert (27-0) vs. Dalton (18-8)

Thanks!

Is it decided in advance which region is playing one another or do they wait until teams are identified?
 
Is it decided in advance which region is playing one another or do they wait until teams are identified?
Yes, the matchups of regions is determined before the season starts. Also, the sequence in which the Divisions play at State is a pre-determined rotation. In 2020 it goes 2-1-4-3, in 2021 it will be 1-4-3-2, in 2022 it will be 4-3-2-1 and then in 2023 the final rotation will be 3-2-1-4.


vballregiondraw1.JPG
 
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