The off-season update concluded

I slogged through the rest of early 2009 posts and this is what I have for you:

Destinee Hooker's getting married (maybe the happy nuptials have already taken place). OverandUnder lost patience with the ensuing puns. It happens. I myself have occasionally opened Pundora's Box, with results of which I am not the least proud.

Nikki Allen fainted on Amazing Race. Nice to see a volleyball player representing the sport with distinction on national TV. I’m afraid I only watched bits and pieces of the season, and all of it after this episode. Was she also the contestant who came close to a nervous breakdown in the pool, or was that her partner?

Salima Rockwell has jumped ship, leaving the luxury liner at Penn State for the ... well, the luxury liner at Texas. Salima, then Davidson, was setting at Penn State when I first started to closely follow the college game. This fact is neither here nor there, but it is a fact. I wonder if she’s invited to Destinee’s wedding?

Crocs' finances have apparently gone the way of plastic purple shoe manufacturers everywhere, and some wondered how this would affect the AVP, since Crocs was a major sponsor. I don’t have the answer to this question, basically because I really don’t care about the AVP. Did it fold?

Mike Whitmarsh, speaking of the AVP but something I do care about, took his own life this past spring. This is terribly sad, of course. I enjoyed watching him play with Mike Dodd, back when the AVP was much more interesting.

Two more Final Four locations were picked: 2010's will be in Kansas City and 2012's will be in Louisville. For some reason, 2011's was already known. I have, of course, forgotten where it is, however. San Antonio again? Beats me.

Various post-season banquets were detailed. That was just about as exciting as you’d think it would be.

Lindsey Berg was named USA Volleyball’s POY. Woo-hoo! I swear I heard an advertisement on local radio (KFAN) for some event featuring Lindsey and Larry Fitzgerald (Junior, I assume). If I heard correctly, how cool is that? If I heard incorrectly, never mind.

tenniscraze started a thread entitled "The Greatness of Erin Waller." Yes, he did. I confess I did not read any of it, as enticing as that title is.


That was about it. I hope you feel caught up. I know I don’t.

I, for one, think the 2009 season cannot arrive too quickly.

The off-season update

If you were like me and spent most of the past 6 months either drinking or sleeping or some combination of both, you may have missed out on some of the goings-on in the volleyball world. You may have lost your job and your significant other as well, but that's Life.

[To clarify: I have not lost my job or my significant other during the off-season. The job was lost during the season and the significant other stopped paying any attention to me back in 2002. She is still, however, significantly my other.]

So what happened? A better question is: How does one go about finding out what happened? My idea was to scroll through six months of posts on Volley Talk and then blog about it. In retrospect, this was beyond insane. I am able to reach this conclusion even though I only made it back to April.

[To clarify: I am not a psychiatrist. When I use the term "beyond insane", I am engaging in rhetorical hyperbole, not any sort of medical diagnosis. I also have no idea what that means (what I just wrote), but I'm beyond insane, so what do you expect?]

PrepVolleyball.com declared Minnesota's recruits the top class of 2009. This was interesting, exciting even, especially for Gopher fans. But what had Volley Talk all hot and bothered was the debate over whether to post the list or not.

[To clarify: The Volley Talk community is putty in John Tawa's hands.]

Volleyball magazine has revamped itself, again, with "vamp" being the operative word. For some inexplicable reason, this meant Logan Tom was on the cover wearing her underwear and the American flag. We wish them luck with their venture into soft porn.

[To clarify: I will take it all back should Volleyball magazine hire me. For anything, including soft (or hard) porn.]

Charlie Wade left Pacific after I forget how many years (three?) to take the head coaching job at Hawaii. No, he's not replacing Dave. It's the men's program. Apparently, those tropical breezes were more addictive than he thought. Does this mean we go back to speculating about his availability for every coaching opening that pops up?

Sand volleyball has been put on the fast track for something. It's way too confusing for me and I have seriously tried to figure it out. Now I'm hearing there may be some major roadblocks on this "fast" track. My interest in all of this is barely rates a blip on whatever instrument they'd need to hook up to me to measure my interest in stuff.

Transfers are always a fun part of the off-season. As of today, it would appear the Gophers also have the most noteworthy of these. Taylor Carico is departing USC to spend her senior year in Minneapolis. Others? Piggot from UCLA to UCI and Haverly from Nebraska to Indiana are the two who generated some buzz. Buzz. That's not a word I use often. Perhaps it'll never happen again?

USAV nationals were in Minneapolis and were noteworthy for the success of the Washington Huskies' squad. The Huskies went undefeated. Did they lose a game? I think they did, but I may have misremembered that tidbit. If they did, it was only one game. Misremembered is another word destined for the trash can.

Kerri Walsh had a baby boy, disappointing women's volleyball coaches throughout the land. The watch begins for pregnancy #2.

Haley Eckermann, 2011's top recruit we are told, has, we are also told, narrowed her choices to Texas and Nebraska. Haley is from Iowa, by the way.

UCLA signed a Norwegian for the 2009 season, which has to be a first. Definitely a first for the 2009 season. Has the Scandanavian pipeline been opened? Rumor had this athlete headed to Stanford. Minnesota was also rumored a while back. Just goes to show you something. I have decided to leave the name alone, in case you were expecting I wouldn't be able to resist.

Karch Kiraly has agreed to join Hugh McCutcheon as an assistant for the USA Women's program. Personally, I think this is very cool, but that's just me.

Quinnipiac apparently tried to drop their volleyball program and were taken to court where they were told "Not so fast, Quinnipiac." Something like that.

Bond Shymansky somehow ended up at Marquette, after being let go by Georgia Tech. Another one of those volleyball mysteries, I guess.



This is where I pretty much ran out of gas. I have no doubt there were other items of interest from January through March, but it's just too damned much work.