A DIFFICULT CHOICE
Play for high school or club?
Erik Rhee has a proposition for an issue that doesn’t have a perfect answer.
Just days after the Colorado High School Activities Association announced its new 2020-21 schedule last week, Rhee, the former Thomas Jefferson High School girls volleyball coach and current director of 303 Volleyball Academy in Englewood, started a petition to switch the season to late spring in order to avoid a conflict between high school and club commitments.
“I just thought maybe if we proposed this, they would listen,” he said.
Rhee’s petition is a microcosm of the different attitudes towards club volleyball between Front Range and rural schools. Players at the former prioritize club because of college recruiting opportunities, while the latter use it to improve their high school teams.
All of this is to say prep athletes once again find themselves in a difficult situation — possibly having to choose between high school and club.
“Everybody is trying to do the right thing,” Castle View High School girls volleyball coach Scott Dowis said. “I feel like CHSAA, Rocky Mountain Region Volleyball, club directors, coaches — they all want to compromise, they all want to find the right thing to do that’s best for the kids. The problem is there’s no great answer.
“Whatever the answer is, someone is left out.”
Normally, high school and club volleyball work together in a sort of symbiotic relationship. Girls play for their schools in the fall, then play club from November to May, with national qualifier tournaments starting in February.
For some athletes, specifically those trying to earn a Division I scholarship, Rhee said the national qualifier tournaments are the best places to get exposure. Though the national club championships take place in mid-June, Rhee said most girls are done with club season by early May.
As of now, CHSAA’s return-toplay plan has girls volleyball scheduled to compete in Season C (March 1 to May 1), which overlaps with those national qualifier tournaments. And since some states haven’t moved its seasons out of fall, Rhee said Colorado clubs can’t ask for the national tournaments to be rescheduled.
“There are no more (club) tournaments, anything like that between May and June,” said Rhee, whose petition has received 517 signatures in six days. “So again, that’s why it’s like that’s the perfect time to play high school.”
Olivia Oss, a junior at Thomas Jefferson, has D-I dreams of her own. She said national qualifiers during a prospect’s sophomore and junior seasons are the best chance to connect with coaches and secure a scholarship offer.
COVID-19 already robbed Oss of her sophomore club season. Though she said it would be a difficult choice, she knows what she and most of her teammates would do if forced to choose between high school and club.
“If the choice between club and high school became inevitable, I and many of my teammates would side with club,” she said. “That’s where we get the most exposure to college coaches.”
Dowis is in a similarly difficult situation. He estimates 70 to 80 percent of his team in any given year play for high level clubs. He knows many of his players would choose club over high school, which would leave him scrambling for players. Dowis has an even bigger worry, though. He’s afraid that if girls try to play both, the physical strain could lead to them getting hurt.
“It’s a huge physical safety issue and the girls know that,” he said. “Let’s say you’ve got two games during the week, best three out of five, and then on Friday you go to a qualifier that’s a Saturday, Sunday,
Monday event and you’re probably going to play anywhere between eight to 12 matches there best two out of three. … And then you’re going to come back I guess Tuesday again and play?”
The answer isn’t as simple as flipping seasons for CHSAA.
Assistant Commissioner Bethany Brookens said the organization specifically chose those spring months for volleyball to maintain Title IX guidelines and continue to offer opportunities to girls who want to play.
This is particularly relevant for rural schools. Brookens said effort was specifically made to keep girls basketball, volleyball and track and field in separate seasons, since those schools rely on multi-sport athletes. Season D, where Rhee proposes moving volleyball, already has five girls sports in it: Tennis, lacrosse, soccer, track and field, and golf.
“Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be feasible because that would be moving volleyball to overlap with track and field, which is a highly populated girls sport in addition to four other girls sports,” Brookens said. “For our rural schools, and even some of the metro schools where they have multisport athletes, it would be robbing girls of the opportunity to participate.”
Montrose High School girls volleyball coach Shane Forrest said she has at least one athlete in every sport already scheduled for Season D (Apr. 26 to June 26).
With about half the student population of a school like Castle View, Forrest worries what the future would hold for her team if they didn’t have enough players this year.
“I know that it is a big conflict for club and for the club players if they feel they have to make that decision,” she said. “But we are a small community, and we do support club, but for us, club is about making our high school program better.”
Forrest also pointed out that the current situation could lead to more parity. Front Range programs tend to dominate the high school scene, but if those teams lose their best players for a year to club, she believes it will lead to less lopsided competition, at least for this season.
Ultimately, despite Rhee’s petition, Brookens said the decision has been made. Volleyball will stay in Season C (March 1 to May 1). Thus, girls will have to choose between representing their high schools or playing for their clubs.
“We’re in a tough position,” Brookens said. “At the same time, I feel that moving volleyball to Season C and keeping it in Season C is truly the best thing for the entire state. And I know that it’s tough for these metro area coaches. I know for high school they want their best players, for club they want their players, but it’s just a different time now.”
Andy Yamashita: ayamashita@denverpost.com