MIAA Volleyball Committee: Power rankings to get sponsor?
The rapid interest in power rankings had Winchester Athletic Director Marc Arria in brainstorm mode.
At Wednesday’s MIAA Volleyball Committee meeting, Arria floated the idea that the MIAA reach out to some companies to gauge their interest in sponsoring the power rankings. The idea was received with open arms and several committee members thought enough of it to recommend further dialogue.
“Everyone is looking at the rankings as soon as the MIAA puts them out,” said Arria. “Why not see if a Stop and Shop or another company is willing to sponsor it? The site is generating a lot of traffic and we should look into it.”
In other volleyball news, the committee unanimously approved cutoff dates for the next three years. For the boys, the cutoff dates are as follows: 2024 (May 24), 2025 (May 23) and 2026 (May 22). On the girls side, 2024 (Oct. 25), 2025 (Oct. 24) and 2026 (Oct. 30).
Tournament director Terri Riley said the fall tournaments went well and applauded Worcester State for hosting the state finals. She said there was a concern about possibly fitting all five finals into one venue on the same day.
“Some schools don’t want to play at 10 a.m., “Riley said. “Thankfully, we had schools volunteer to play on Friday and that made it easier, so it is something we have to look into.”
Committee members suggested looking into the new New Balance facility in Boston as a possible future site.
Jane Bergin, who coaches the girls team at Andover and the boys team at Lexington, said the number of schools forming boys programs is very encouraging. Her hope is that more boys teams will be created which will alleviate the annual concern about boys playing on girls teams because their school doesn’t offer the sport.