Volleyball Coverage

[WuDrWu]

Is this really the second big weekend of ZERO Volleyball coverage in the local fishwrap?????

I know they aren't going to send a truck and team of 7 to follow the ladies to the ISU roadie but is it really too much to expect to at least get a blurb in the WSU section?

Nothing against men's golf (I am a HUGE GJ fan) but for crying out loud, it's really the off season for golf. They don't compete for the team championship until the spring.

It just can't be that hard to prepare to make a phone call, knowing the games are going to be played.

:-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x

[tgcshock]

The sad thing is that if KU were top ten in the country in attendance in underwater basketweaving they would probably get coverage in the Eagle. There really is no excuse for the neglect given the level of interest in the community over Shocker Women's VB.

[1972Shocker]

Doc, you are right, it certainly does not take a lot of effort to come up with match results even for road matches.

You can make a telephone call as you say.

You can sign on to ShockerNet and get a pretty good sense for the match.

GoShockers.com probably gets the box score and write-up posted about as quickly as any College web site I've experienced.

The information is available. The message the Eagle is really sending is that Women's VB is strictly a minor sport, good for filler when there isn't much else to report on the major sports. The avid fans (like the handful of ShockerNet posters) that follow WSU VB closely are just too few and far bwtween to be worth the effort. The Eagle knows that the avid fans know the story and the rest don't care that much. I hate to say it, but maybe they are right.

Now if we were drawing 5 - 6 thousand fans per match that might be different. Unfortunatley, I don't see that happening.

I do see attendance at the VB matches as a way to help with Basketball recruiting. This is a time of year a lot of recruits make on-campus visits (see today's Eagle article on Clevin Hannah). I'm sure that more than a few drop by for at least part of the VB matches if the Shocks are at home. You see a lot of the men's basketball team at the home matches. What better way to make a big positive impact than to have them see a big crowd, loudly supporting a "minor" sport. I know Greg Marshall was very impressed with the K-State match.

I look at my support of Women's sports as a way I can contribute to the health of our main sports, Men's Basketball and Baseball. Every dollar I spend on these sports is $1 less dollar of drain from our big revenue producers. In the meantime, I am getting a great deal of entertainment, especially with the Women's VB team and I am also contributing to the success of WSU in bringing home the All-Sports Championships which I think is a worthy accomplishment and goal.

So, if you want to support the Men's Basketball program in the off-season and have a heckuva lot of fun at the same time attend the VB matches.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[SpanglerFan316]

Did you notice that there was coverage of KSU volleyball (but not WSU volleyball) in the Sunday Eagle? :-x

[dregn]

What comes first the media attention or the attendence? Women's basketball gets better coverage with about the same attendence. It's also obvious that the school treats it as a lesser sport by the atmosphere they attempt to create compared to women's basketball. Both the media and the school have room for improvements that could help the attendence.

[1972Shocker]

Did you notice that there was coverage of KSU volleyball (but not WSU volleyball) in the Sunday Eagle? :-x

Was that in the print edition? I did not see anything in the online edition.

In any case, I'm not quite as down on the media. They are going to print what they think will attract the most eyeballs and subscribers.

Furthermore, the Eagle does not totally ignore WSU VB. I've noticed they will do an article on a certain player mid-week (i.e. Kelly B. this week) and they will probably report the scores for road matches on a delayed basis. In any case, there have been numerous nice articles on the VB program. It is not the Eagle's job to promote any particular sport or program IMHO.

Channel 12 sports reported the Illinois State results on their Friday 10:00 PM Sportscast. I did not catch the Saturday Sportscast. Generally, thougth Channel 12 does a decent job.

I agree that perhaps the University could do some more, but again they may have budget restraints that limit how much they can do. Perhaps more cross-promotion with the Men's Basketball program would help. For example, with each season ticket purchase for Men's Basketball include a couple of coupons for free admission to a couple of VB games of holders choice to be used in the following VB season. Clearly, we are not getting that much crossover support for VB from the Men's Basketball fan base.

Not sure what you need to do to generate more enthusiam among the student body. The admission is already free and they earn double points towards their Shocker Maniac prizes and bonuses.

I'm beginning to sense that we have pretty much established our core following for VB. Of course, we could pick up some bandwaggoners if the Shocks were to happen to make a deep run into the NCAA Tournament.

It will be interesting to see how we draw for our upcoming home matches with Evansville and SIU. I think will see a combined attendance of about 4,000 for the two matches.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu: