Random Thought Thursday: Recap of NCA All-Star Game & a Broadcasting Blemish
Tuesday night’s Nebraska Coaches Association All-Star Match was its usual impressive self at Lincoln North Star High School.
The gym was packed full and the best high school volleyball players in the state gathered for an impressive display of skill. The teams definitely didn’t disappoint. The Blue team was in control most of the match in taking a 25-17, 25-22, 16-25, 25-13 win behind the play of Waverly’s Olivia Boender, North Platte St. Patrick’s Brittany Lawrence and Omaha Marian’s Sydney O’Shaughnessy.
I’ve always been a huge fan of NET and the work they do to promote high school sports in Nebraska. As a kid, I would be glued to the TV during broadcasts of state championship events and as the years have gone along, NET continues to get better and better with all its coverage.
Can you feel a but coming? But, I was actually pretty disappointed when I returned home Tuesday night from the match and watched a recording of the broadcast of the match. I feel like the broadcast team really lost its focus and did a great disservice to the match itself during the second set of the contest.
University of Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook joined the broadcast at the start of the second half. I feel like Cook brought a lot of good things to the broadcast and, frankly, it was good of him to sacrifice as much time as he did to provide some great insight to the broadcast.
My problem, however, is in the fact that the broadcast team for NET turned the vast majority of the second set of the match into an infomercial for Husker volleyball and the University itself. In fact, the score was 3-2 before a broadcaster ever mentioned a player in the match by name – and that was Lawrence – and only after Cook initiated the comment by complimenting her.
The NET broadcast team went on to ask Cook about such useless things as food choices the Husker volleyball team made during its trip to China, noise in the Devaney Center offices during construction and the Husker volleyball camps that were taking place. During the first 14 minutes-plus of the broadcast of the second set, only five players in the match had their name mentioned and twice it was only because Cook himself brought up the player for making a great play. Thank heavens for Cook paying attention to the match, because it seemed like nobody else involved in the telecast was.
It wasn’t until the score of the second set was 20-17 – and nearly 17 minutes into the broadcast – that the focus of the announcers was back on the match being played. In all – minus commercials – the broadcast time of the second set was 21 minutes. Only seven of those minutes were actually spent on the match. Of the roughly 14 players who saw playing time in the second set, the broadcast team only mentioned nine of them.
Here is why I have such an issue with the broadcast team taking attention away from the athletes in the all-star match. The rules of the contest state that the teams basically break into two factions with the first playing the first set and the second playing the second set so that everyone has gotten ample playing time within the first two sets. After that, there are no requirements, but the coaches always do an exceptional job balancing out playing time.
For half the athletes, they did not get to play in the first set, so the second set was their opportunity to shine on the grandest stage we basically have for high school volleyball in Nebraska. The athletes playing the game deserved the attention and focus to be on them.
How many people gathered around the TV sets in small towns – and big towns – across Nebraska to watch their high-school hero play in the state’s showcase event, anxious to hear what might be said about their favorite player only to have the broadcast team absolutely ignore what was going on.
There are plenty of Nebraska volleyball fans across the state that I am sure enjoyed hearing some updates about the program. But NET is a state-wide organization, and there are also plenty of fans of Creighton, UNO, Wayne State, Chadron State, Midland University, Hastings College, etc., that could have done without the broadcast team going on Husker overload.
There will be plenty of opportunity to talk about Husker volleyball during broadcasts of their matches, but not during a high school showcase event. I doubt any broadcast team this fall will spend an entire set of a Husker match talking about high school volleyball in the state. That’s commonsense. Unfortunately, commonsense escaped the broadcast team Tuesday night, as well as the rest of the producers/crew, which should have been putting a bug in the broadcast team’s ears much, much earlier about returning the focus to the match.
I give coach Cook a lot of credit for the time he spent on the broadcast. He can only answer the questions that are asked of him. He seemed to try to bounce attention towards the match and players quite often and was very complimentary of other schools in Nebraska and players who will be playing places other than Nebraska. He voluntarily did that, because again, the broadcast team never asked him about such things. Cook deserves a lot of credit for going out of his way to mention those things when he certainly didn’t need to.
In fact, I thought Cook provided some great insight about Creighton recruit Marysa Wilkinson and her development and O’Shaughnessy and her commitment to UNO and I would have loved for the broadcast team to ask his opinion on other players, but they never did. The broadcast team could have really improved its coverage by utilizing Cook in a better way than it did. In the future, hopefully Cook – and even other college coaches – will be utilized in the broadcast and used to enhance the broadcast.
At the end of the day, the broadcast and the event was supposed to be about honoring great high school volleyball players in our state, and it was disappointing the NET broadcast team lost its focus of that for a vast majority of the second set.
Highlights from the match
The usual suspects were outstanding in the match. Boender – with six kills, including a perfect roll shot over a double block to end the first set – was as expected. Kasey Hohlen of Norris controlled the middle of the net when she played and O’Shaughnessy played like her hair was on fire like she always does for the Blue squad. Toni Tupper and Wilkinson each had a match-high 10 kills, showing the ability that made each of them a Creighton recruit. Shayla Conner of Kearney Catholic fed her hitters perfect ball after perfect ball all night in racking up a match-high 23 assists.
There were a few “under the radar” players who I thought were impressive Tuesday night as well. Lawrence, to me, was one of the best players on the court. The Creighton recruit from North Platte St. Patrick has been under the radar for a lot of fans because her team did not make it to state and she does not play major club volleyball. Our Class D-1 Player of the Year flashed plenty of the skill in getting six kills and four blocks. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact she makes at Creighton.
Blue Hill’s Maci Coffey looks like a steal for Iowa Western. She demonstrated great serving during practices and the match and finished with four kills and a block. Being a 5-foot-11 lefty bodes well for her and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Iowa Western develops her into a good Division I prospect. Grand Island Northwest’s Katie Placke has a chance to be a very special player at Hastings College, as does Lincoln Lutheran’s Tara Ziegelbein at UN-Kearney.
Liz Loseke of Columbus Lakeview finished the night with eight kills. She’s a tremendous player and if she were three inches taller, she would have likely been able to go to college for free. As it stands, her last volleyball match before heading to UNL as a student showcased just how good she is.
I can’t think of more deserving players for the Most Outstanding Teammates Awards than the winners – Kenzie May of Southwest for the Blue team and Conner for the Red. They are both natural leaders and easy to like. In many ways, they are both the epitome of high school volleyball in Nebraska. They’re both a little undersized for their position, but will fight, scrap, claw and bleed to the bitter end on the court. They lead by example, bust their tails, have incredible school and community pride and are multi-sport athletes for their schools.
It’s not uncommon to see kids who are blessed with great height, speed, power, etc., go through the motions and give less than max effort on the court. Conner and May don’t play that way, and it was great to see them both recognized for the intangible things they do so well.
Berk Brown of Nebraska Prep Volleyball has won 19 awards for his journalistic work during his career, including awards from both the Nebraska Press Association and Minnesota Newspaper Association. He has covered, coached and been involved in volleyball for the past 24 years and also wrote for ESPN.com in the early 2000s. You can reach him at Berk@NebraskaPrepVolleyball.com.