How about you be the bastion of objectivity you think you are and answer a question or two...

An "objective" opinion wouldn't put this kind of pressure on the Corbelli's to atleast make the tournament and shoot, maybe do a little something once they were there, because before Laura was A&Ms head coach, she did good things and what not?


Even though she's been a coach for 17 years or so, you've talked more about her "pedigree" and the ability to find a coach with a similar "pedigree" than anything she's done as a coach at Texas A&M in this discussion about her work and future as Texas A&M's head coach...

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 7/8/2009 9:02p).]

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Soccer is practiced in every city in every country pretty much and believe me when I say I've been there. There are so many different professional leagues which means there is a ton of matches, updates, transfers and other stuff that are discussed on the board. There are so many soccer fans and few VB fans.

Don't get me wrong b/c I enjoy going to the VB matches, but outside of just Aggie VB, there isn't a lot else besides the pro beach volleyball.

This is why soccer has its own board.

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there is only a little less volleyball going on worldwide as there is soccer. in fact the last three months have been the busiest for volleyball since Beijing. you have pro leagues worldwide who crowned champions in April. the ncaa men's championship was in May. world championship qualifying has been going on since June, with the pan am cup just finishing in Miami last week, youth world championships happening now, junior worlds starting next week. world grand prix starting in two weeks. not to mention this month is the peak of the usa junior club season.

there is more volleyball going on all year round than there is football or baseball. but it's just not a big deal in the usa, and there's no t.v. coverage, so following the sport takes a lot of work by the fans. you have to be a really passionate fan of the sport or speak a bunch of languages to follow volleyball news. and there aren't enough people like that who come to texags. soccer gets a big usa boost from the strong presence the epl and western europe, because it has evolved to english (and also spanish) being the primary language of the sport and the media that follows it. an english only american can pretty easily follow the major soccer leagues. volleyball is much more balanced. the russian and turkish pro leagues have been among the best in the world in the last several years, but you have virtually no way to watch a live game or read news reports and blogs from people who were there. to follow volleyball all year you would have to read websites in portugese, japanese, russian, italian, turkish, polish, spanish, mandarin, german, arabic.

back to the subject, there wasn't enough interest here for a separate volleyball board even when our ncaa team was very very good, which hasn't been the case for about seven years, and when it was mostly good, which was four years ago. so there's not going to be even basic interest in the slump we've been in since 2004.

I was watching volleyball on ESPN earlier today.

yes, on espnu, in the middle of a summer weekday, with the usa playing.
you can see pretty much any usa soccer match, but you can also see everton play liverpool, UEFA events, the CL, Euro, la liga, serie a, primera division argentina, fmf, etc. how many times have seen or even heard of a domestic simulcast, with commentary and play by play, of the Волейбольная суперлига championships?

[This message has been edited by wannaggie (edited 7/9/2009 9:03p).]

Harry-I really don't have any volleyball experience aside from what most on this board have, which is watching Aggie volleyball. But I do have experience in many other sports, and that's what I was basing it on. I guess I could be wrong, but in most team sports at high levels, head coaches are hired to manage games, and while they still obviously have a huge hand in practice, their assistants have much more of an effect on actual skill training, relative to what they do in games. The head coach at practices usually directs the assistants, decides what needs to be worked on, etc. That's what they're paid for. They decide the game plan on game day, even if they're not calling the plays (although they usually are).

I guess I just extrapolated this to volleyball. My point was that our girls seem to usually have the skills to win against good teams, but then have some sort of mental implosion and end up losing. A head coach can't just replace the assistants because the players fall apart in the games. That's their job.

Again, I don't know if that's how it works in volleyball. Smaller coaching staffs mean each coach has to do more. But game management is usually a head coaches job in most sports.

I'm not advocating that they keep the assistants or anything. I'm cool if they just wipe the whole staff out. I'd much prefer, though, that they just shut me up, put me in my place, and won a whole lot of games this year.

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yes, on espnu, in the middle of a summer weekday, with the usa playing.

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I'm mainly giving you a hard time now, but still...


Most of those FVIB or whatever its called stuff hasn't been on ESPNU, they show a lot of college volleyball on ESPNU, though.

What time of the day do you see pro soccer on ESPN? Early afternoon. When they add La Liga, it'll likely be midnight or later before they show their taped replays.


As far as the Soviet Block championships you asked about, I can watch Uruguayan soccer right now if I wanted to. I don't think that's because there is more interest in the US with Uruguay and eastern Europe.

yeah, i could hear the humor in your tone. you make some good points.

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You want a V-Ball board like soccer has?

Compare the two sports/teams; which one has had the greatest success in the last 12 years?

Case closed.

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In that case, we shouldn't have a football board!

We beat UNC to earn our board

Heh, volleyball not even a top 10 sport in the United States? You've got to be kidding me...

Also, men's volleyball is actually growing very quickly through different groups such as NIRSA and USAV which host both collegiate and "adult" level tournaments that bring in hundreds of teams. Just because you're in a little Texas bubble doesn't mean that the sport is irrelevant everywhere else.

Maybe I'm a bit biased because I happen to play in those tournaments, but still

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there is only a little less volleyball going on worldwide as there is soccer.

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That statement tells me that not only have you not been around the world much, but that you haven't even read about it much.

When you're talking about most popular, the most logical way to define that is by counting everyone involved in the sport (as a player and/or as a fan). Volleyball is a lot more popular worldwide than people think (more than basketball), but it is still FAR behind soccer and at last count even ranks behind cricket and tennis...and although the rankings support soccer's popularity, you don't even need them - all you need to do is travel around the world, see the soccer jerseys, stadiums, people out in the streets in neighborhoods watching matches together on TV...even in the United States where soccer isn't as popular, people know who David Beckham is, and even the casual sports fan can name some of the current and all-time greats.

Go ask a dozen random people to name some current or former volleyball greats. [/crickets chirping].

I love volleyball but child please.

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We beat UNC to earn our board

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Who is we? Are you on the soccer team? We're all still Aggies, aren't we?

Harry Dunne:

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I love volleyball but child please.

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"child please"?

there's a phrase i never would have expected to see here. what, are you Nel Carter? is this the Oxygen network? did i stumble into a taping of the next episode of The View, or is this still an aggie sports board? you kinda lost me there.

someone is watching hard knocks- Ochocinco uses that and it means f you

nm. not worth it.

[This message has been edited by wannaggie (edited 8/21/2009 4:16p).]

I hear "child please" or "little boy" pretty often.

then i guess it's a generational or cultural thing. i've only ever heard it used by black women and gay men. but these days catch phrases are spread so quickly by television and internet no one group really owns anything for very long.

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i've only ever heard it used by black women and gay men.

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I typically hear black women use those phrases...but why the heck does it matter?

Exactly. Anyone so racist that they think that an Aggie sports board should be exempt from the use of phrases typical to "blacks and gays" (or that no black women or gay men might be Aggies) gets a big child please.

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Exactly. Anyone so racist that they think that an Aggie sports board should be exempt from the use of phrases typical to "blacks and gays" (or that no black women or gay men might be Aggies) gets a big child please.

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can we please bring this back down a few notches? in three posts you've gone from tossing out "child please" to an accusatory and wildly inaccurate interpretation of both my self and my comments.

i personally think "child please" sounds quite rude. there are only two people on this planet who could legitimately call me their "child", but neither one would have ever dreamed of modeling such condescension to their children, and i would never use it on mine; certainly never with a stranger. do you talk to people like that where you work or in normal social interaction? maybe i'm old and out of touch. which is why in my follow up i said that it could just be a generational or cultural thing. i can fully accept that maybe it doesn't sound rude at all to many people (and i provided two examples of where i've heard it used in a common way). if you're a member of either of those two groups or even if you're not, and i misunderstood your emotional tone, and my response offended you, okay, then i apologize. i heard a level of rude condescension that you didn't intend, which is my mistake, and my response was therefore out of scale. bad on me. sorry.

that makes us pretty similar, because you jumped all the way to three sensational and offensive claims.
1. you think i'm racist
2. you justify this by saying i think this board "should be exempt from...phrases typical to blacks and gays"
3. and you say that i think "no black women or gay men might be Aggies".

you're way out of bounds here, because claims 2 and 3 are your own overgeneralized interpretations which have no connection to my words or thoughts on the subject. which is why your claim 1 is an illogical and false conclusion. i frankly find your attempt to paint my quite simple, literal comment as some pernicious discrimination attack to be somewhat bizarre and a little hurtful, given that you don't know anything about my background and how i've had to stand up and defend friends and family on these exact issues.

i wouldn't expect and would be surprised this year to hear our O-line celebrate a rushing touchdown by snapping their fingers in the air and saying to Cyrus Gray, "You go, girlfriend!" and no one reading this could possibly disagree. but you've gotten so upset about it, that you're misinterpreting it as "i think our football team should never use that phrase, and i think no blacks or gay men might be football players". say what? there is a huge conceptual difference between what you're hearing and the simple observation i'm making. i'll tell you pretty plainly, if drafting RuPaul at QB and Chi Chi Larue at RB and Lady Chablis at Kicker is what it takes to get us a BigXII title and a strong showing in a major Bowl game, SIGN THEM UP and I will stop by the Dollar
Store on the way to Kyle field to buy some maroon rhinestone-studded stiletto shoes and eagerly stand in line three hours for their autographs, and we'll put them on a big celebratory parade float at the end of the year and anyone who yells anything crude or derogatory will find themselves on the wrong end of a punch to the nose.



[This message has been edited by wannaggie (edited 8/24/2009 5:40p).]

. . . . and that's why volleyball doesn't have it's board.

...and your explanation is pretty a pretty typical response for a racist or homophobe who is publicly called out. The only thing you're missing is to tell us how, actually, you're friends with several lesbians of color.

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can we please bring this back down a few notches?

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Child, please...Don't whip out a lecture like you just did after telling us to bring this back down a few notches.

wannaggie- you should probably take a break from the internet for a while

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Child, please...Don't whip out a lecture like you just did after telling us to bring this back down a few notches.

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haaha TXAggie2011, it was a little long winded wasn't it? :-)

by bringing it down, i meant we should stick to actually talking about the ideas, not attacking the people. i know it's tempting on the internet to get that thrill of being on a righteous attack, but i really try not to spend my time that way.

the small novel i wrote was a rebutal to Mr. Dunne's words, along with an apology that maybe i misinterpreted the tone of his comment. i see that apology was just as good as a shiny gemstone thrown into the chicken house. but my dad taught me you apologize when you think it's the right thing to do, not becuase you expect the other person to want to be your friend.

Dunne on the other hand seems to sit trust to just throwing out personal attacks using the two modern witch hunt labels that feel most empowering. my dad also used to say that line about how for someone with a hammer everything looks like a nail.

it's not a real big deal though. most of the time you can't please everyone. if instead of child please, he had originally said "i love volleyball but you ain't got the sense to holler suey if the hogs are eatin' you up," and i had responded with a joke about "what, are you Festus? is this the set of Gunsmoke? did i stumble into the taping of a HeeHaw Reunion or is this still an Aggie Sports Board" i reckon someone would have come along to accuse me of hating on white folks or poor folks or country folks.

so we might better enjoy our time here if we dial it back a little, be willing to accept that misunderstandings occur, and laugh at ourselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythrdCsOFJU

wannaggie needs to kiss the baby

It seemed like such a simple question...

For perspective, think about this...since their loss against Nebraska on Nov 5, 2008, the Aggie Volleyball team has lined up against Iowa State, Baylor (3 times), Oklahoma, Colorado, Tech, Missouri, TCU (2 times), Denver, North Texas, Wichita State, Texas State, Iona, Virginia, and Northern Iowa and won every match. I think there is a reasonable chance they will be undefeated for '09 going into the 9-23-09 Nebraska match here in CS.