The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
End of the road
No NYSPHSAA tournament for Dispatch- area programs
Girls volleyball has been around since the 1970s and Dispatch- area schools have competed for league and Section III titles often since then. This year Stockbridge Valley, Morrisville- Eaton and Canastota qualified for the finals, which were held Saturday at Chittenango.
That’s as far as each team can go because of how the New York State Public High School Athletic Association conducts its championship.
Girls sports began with four seasons. Volleyball and basketball were not held at the same time originally, so when Title IX forced schools to choose when to play some kept volleyball in the winter opposite basketball while others switched to the fall and others went to the spring. State regional championships were held starting in the 1980s when about 60 percent of the schools with volleyball played in the fall, 30 percent played in the winter and 10 percent played in the spring.
The sections of the state with volleyball in the fall promoted the creation of a state tourney in their season since they had the required six or more sections taking part. Sections III, IV, V and VII had teams in the winter and they had an expanded regional tourney for a long time but slowly teams began to switch to the fall and it dissolved a few years ago.
So now Section III is the only one with volleyball in the winter, though most of its Class AA teams play in the fall and one league has 14 smaller schools playing then too
he advantage for the sport to be played in the fall - or spring for that matter - is gymnasiums are more available. But the fall already has soccer, field hockey, swimming, cross country, tennis and gymnastics for girls and if Section III schools all moved to the fall there would be seven sports for girls while the winter would have only basketball for most schools while a few would also have the options of indoor track and skiing.
The advantage of having volleyball in the winter is that’s when it was invented to played and it gives girls more opportunities. In most small schools boys can choose between basketball and wrestling while girls would have just basketball. Larger schools offer swimming, boys volleyball and hockey for boys as well, so girls are discriminated against even more so if volleyball is in the fall instead of winter.
While some medium- sized Section III schools switched to fall the past two years, it appears the schools that are still playing in the winter are all staying put for 2013- 14.