Change in volleyball tourney

One thing is certain when the state girls volleyball regional and sectional championships are held this season.

The Class 3A and 4A champions will have earned their crowns.

Why?

Because unlike the past 33 years of the state tourney, the Illinois High School Association has announced that regionals and sectionals will be decided in one day rather than two with a break in between.

With four classes, that helps cut down on additional travel, especially benefiting downstate schools that must travel longer distances because they are located farther apart than Chicago area schools.

Some area coaches feel travel distance should not be an issue for the 4A tournament where many of the schools involved are much closer geographically.

Area coaches on a whole do not relish the idea of playing two matches back-to-back on the same day to win a regional or sectional plaque.

Even though they'll play five consecutive matches in Saturday's tournaments during the regular season, some coaches feel a state tournament is a whole new ballgame.

They believe in a win-or-you're out situation, the possibility of playing back-to-back matches against two powerful teams might not be all that fair.

But others see it as a potential advantage.

"You can look at it two ways," said Elk Grove's Joe DiSilvio. "If you have to play back-to-back matches, it might be to your advantage.

"While the other team has to sit and wait, you're still on the momentum from the previous match. "

"I don't mind it," said Maine West coach Randy Tiller. "Because I come from club volleyball experience where sometimes you might play seven matches in a day."

One local assistant coach used to be a head coach in Kansas six years ago. Elk Grove's Dan Windholz was the girls volleyball head coach for Thomas More Prep Marian High School in Hays.

"To get downstate, you have to win three matches in one day," he said. "They call them sub-states. The eight winners of each sub-state head to the state quarterfinals. There are fewer schools in Kansas, so you need to win only three matches to get the Elite Eight."

In Illinois, you must win five matches to reach the Elite Eight.

"Because ever since the tourney started in Kansas it was that way, playing three matches in one day was never an issue," Windholz said.

"You just hope you can draw a No. 1 seed in the sub-state," he added. "Then you get more of a break between your matches. The top seed plays in the first quarterfinal of the sub-state and then gets that break waiting for the next three quarterfinal matches to be played."

Hall of Fame Conant coach Peggy Scholten, now in her 31st season, has seen her share of change in high school volleyball.

"After we see how it goes this year, maybe the IHSA will reconsider and restructure the regional and sectional timeline again," she said.

"I think all the changes they have done for the sport in the past have been great. This is just so out of the realm.

"I wish there was more time between the semifinal and championship matches. We'll see how it goes after this year. Maybe some people will like it."

Jeanette Pancratz, who has won 628 matches in her career at Resurrection and Schaumburg, feels the players are being cheated.

"Tell me what it does to benefit the kids," she said. "You are talking about a do-or-die situation and you might have to come off a tough match and play right back.

"It does nothing for the sport, nothing for the kids, in my opinion. I know there are certain parts of the state that need this to occur, but why can't they just adjust it for their sectionals?

"It does nothing for the underdogs. In a highly- competitive elite area of volleyball like ours, how does it help our kids?"

Hersey coach Nancy Lill has won 18 regional and 9 sectional crowns in 22 seasons and has made six trips to the state finals.

She believes adding to that number becomes a little more difficult.

"It's the most ridiculous thing I've seen in all my years of coaching," said Lill, who has 632 wins in 23 seasons at Hersey and Wheeling. "In a win-lose situation, to have to play back-to-back matches with only 15 minutes shows a disrespect for the sport of volleyball. It's maddening."

"Totally ridiculous," added Rolling Meadows' Janet Opels, another veteran coach in the area. "It lessens the impact of the state series.

"They say you play back-to-back matches in regular tournaments but this is the state tournament. Everything is different -- the attitude, the intensity, the atmosphere. To me, it diminishes the importance of the state series."