YES, I LIKE VOLLEYBALL

I recently attended the 2010 NCAA Women’s Division I Volleyball Final Four in Kansas City.  Now, I’m nowhere near an expert on the sport, but I did cover the game at the high school level in a former life when I worked for an area newspaper, and I really enjoyed it.  I also remember watching the indoor game during the Summer Olympics during my youth, and found it fascinating, but I will tell you during my two-day stint as a spectator watching the best college talent in the country go at it inside the Sprint Center, I may now be a hardcore fan for life.

Volleyball is a fast-paced, intense, edge-of-your-seat game that is in some ways, very similar to basketball.  No question, size and speed matters in this sport, just like basketball.  The tallest players are up front to provide power on offense and a first line of defense to block an opposing team’s shot, kind of like a center on the basketball court.  Then there are some of the stronger/quicker, medium- and smaller-sized players that occupy the middle and back of the court to set up the offensive players and keep the ball in play, kind of like the point guards and forwards.

Passing and ball control are keys to success, and if just one phase of the game falters, like a house of cards, a team’s chance at success tumbles.  It’s a game of runs, back-and-forth, up-and-down action.  And when a team gets on one of those runs, the coach looking down that barrel has to call a timeout to slow the momentum.

What I found most intriguing about the game is how much that momentum plays a huge part in a match.  Once a team gets on a roll, it’s hard for the other team to overcome that wave.  In the championship match between the University of California and Penn St., the Nittany Lions took the first set, leading the whole way; however, in the final two sets, the Golden Bears led in both, but Penn St. came roaring back in each to win the title.  It was their fourth consecutive championship and fifth overall.

Next year, the NCAA will begin sponsoring beach volleyball at the collegiate level.  The coaches on hand for the Final Four in Kansas City weren’t sure how that was going to work, but rest assured games scheduled in northern regions of the country will be indoors.

Volleyball isn’t about cute girls in spandex jumping around knocking a ball around.  These are well-conditioned athletes playing an exciting game at an extremely high level, and I’m sold on it.  I would love to see it televised more next year, and maybe it was this year, and I missed it, but I didn’t do a very good job looking for it either.  That will change next year.  With all of the conference realignment coming next season, there may be an opportunity to see more college volleyball on television, but that is still being worked out.

One side note: Kudos to Kansas City for hosting a major college event.  The Championship match had the third highest attendance in the history of the NCAA volleyball tournament.  I spoke with a member of the Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation, and she was very enthusiastic about the city’s showing.  That’s a great sign for Kansas City getting another type of event like this for the future.  And with the Sprint Center being the jewel in the city’s crown, the future looks very bright.

I NEVER THOUGHT I'D HEAR THEM SAY THAT

December 8, 1980 is the 30^th anniversary of former Beatle John Lennon’s death.  It was announced to America by, of all people, Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football.  Here’s that announcement:

That got me thinking about what other major news stories were announced through a sporting event.  Here are two major ones that I can think of, and I know there are probably many, many more, but let’s start with the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.

The Games were largely overshadowed by what has come to be known as the Munich Massacre. On September 5 a group of eight Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September organization broke into the Olympic Village and took 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and officials hostage in their apartments. Two of the hostages who resisted were killed in the first moments of the break-in; the subsequent standoff in the Olympic Village lasted for almost 18 hours.

Late in the evening of September 5, the terrorists and their hostages were transferred by helicopter to the military airport of Fürstenfeldbruck, to board a plane bound for an undetermined Arab country.  The German authorities planned to ambush them there, but underestimated the number of terrorists and were thus undermanned.  During a botched rescue attempt, all of the Israeli hostages were killed.  Four of them were shot, then incinerated when a Palestinian detonated a grenade inside the helicopter in which the hostages were sitting.  The five remaining hostages were then machine-gunned by another terrorist.

ABC Sports was broadcasting the Olympic Games, and it was anchored by veteran broadcaster Jim McKay.  At that moment, he turned from sportscaster to newscaster as he described the horrific scene that took place in front of the world.

McKay took on the job of reporting the events live on his only scheduled day off during the Games, substituting for Chris Schenkel.  He was on air for fourteen hours without a break, during a sixteen hour broadcast.  After an unsuccessful rescue attempt of the athletes held hostage, at 3:24 a.m. German Time, McKay came on the air with this statement:

“When I was a kid my father used to say ‘Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized.’  Our worst fears have been realized tonight.  They have now said there were 11 hostages; two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight.  They're all gone.”

Fast forward to the 1989 World Series in San Francisco.  On, Oct. 27, prior to Game 3 of the series between the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck at 5:04 p.m. The game was scheduled to start at 5:35 p.m. at Candlestick Park, and thousands of people were already in the stadium when the quake occurred. Because of the coincidence of timing, it was the first major earthquake in the United States ever to be broadcast by live television. Experts credit the timing of the World Series as a lucky break that prevented massive loss of life in the city; key in reducing the loss of life was the fact that many people had left work early or were staying late to participate in after-work group viewings and parties, reducing the traffic that would otherwise have been on the collapsed freeways (initial expectations were that hundreds of people had died in the collapse of Interstate 880 in Oakland; the final death toll from that event was 42).

At the time the earthquake hit, the announcing team for ABC Sports, Tim McCarver, Al Michaels, and Jim Palmer immediately grabbed what they perceived to be the armrests; it turned out that they grabbed each others' thighs, leaving each of them with bruises; recounting this incident years later, Michaels would boldly admit his strong belief that had the earthquake lasted much longer than 15 seconds, he would have been killed.

Michaels, who spent three years in San Francisco as an announcer for the San Francisco Giants, was nominated for an Emmy Award for news broadcasting after giving an eyewitness account of the aftermath of the earthquake at Candlestick Park.

HOW DID WE GET TO THIS?

Being a sports fan means having a blind and loyal affection for your teams.  Whether it’s a pro franchise that represents your city or the teams from the university you attended, we love our teams…sometimes too much.  Sometimes WAY too much.

Fan is nothing more than a word short for fanatic, but lately it can be interchanged with the word psychotic.  And here are a few examples that prove it.

Last weekend the Boise St. Broncos and their fans saw their dreams of playing for a national championship end when Nevada upended them in an overtime thriller.  The fact that the game was close probably wasn’t as much of a surprise since both teams were ranked in the top 25.  What was a surprise was how the game ended and the events that took place in the days that followed.

Dealing with missing two field goals in Boise State's loss to Nevada is difficult enough.  Now Boise St. placekicker Kyle Brotzman is having to endure an endless stream of taunts and barbs on social networking sites.

The senior kicker and leading scorer in school history missed a game-winner from 26 yards with two seconds left in regulation then minutes later misfired again from 29 yards out in overtime in the Broncos' 34-31 loss Friday night against Nevada.  The loss spoiled the ninth-ranked Broncos' unbeaten season and even bigger hopes of playing in a BCS bowl or possibly even for the national title.

Within hours, the Ada County Sheriff's Department got a report about callers leaving obnoxious, harassing telephone messages with a woman thought to be related to Brotzman.  Then dozens of Facebook pages emerged, some filled with ugly name-calling, jabs and taunts at Brotzman.  It was a rare moment of futility.  His 425 career points make him the leader for scoring among active players in major college football.  At one stretch he nailed 118 straight extra points.

Then, on Saturday, the several Nebraska Cornhusker faithful, part of the self-proclaimed classiest fans in all of college sports, decided it would be neat to send Big 12 Conference commissioner Dan Beebe and his family threatening emails.

Big 12 Conference administrators did not send any representatives to Friday's Nebraska-Colorado football game in Lincoln because the league feared for their safety.

Nebraska fans flooded the Big 12 office with negative e-mails and voice messages this week, some of which Beebe said were threatening.  Those messages were turned over to authorities, he said.

Beebe himself received more than 2,000 e-mails from Nebraska fans after Saturday's game at Texas A&M, when fans and coaches were upset with the officiating in Nebraska's 9-6 loss.

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said he wished not to respond to Beebe's comments.

"They got whatever they got, and they decided not to come," Osborne said. "That's OK. I don't have anything to say about that.  I've said all I'm going to say. I've had all kinds of e-mails over the years. It's not a problem."

When did sports stop being about sportsmanship?  When did fans decide to take it far more serious than the participants?  And why?  Are our lives so pathetic that we literally have to live and die for this?

People need to step back and realize it isn’t just a game anymore, it’s now just entertainment.  It’s expensive entertainment, and it’s something that we have entirely no control over what the outcome will be.  What we all need to come to grips with is how to live with that outcome regardless of whether or not mistakes are made.

I’m a huge sports fan.  Always have been.  But I’ve been able to separate what’s important to me versus what is truly meaningless.  And although I watch as much sports as I’m allowed to watch, I know it’s truly meaningless.  The problem, I fear, is that I’m in the minority.

N STANDS FOR KNOWLEDGE AT NEBRASKA

I don’t think I’m saying anything new here, but Nebraska Cornhusker head football coach Bo Pelini is a complete jackass.  He proves it week in and week out.  In the win-at-all-cost profession of college football, the man has refused to learn how to lose gracefully.

Let’s take a look his character (flaws).

He’s arrogant, and not in a good way.  Look at this quote from him: “I believe in that system, and I wasn't going to alter it for anything.”  That’s a my way or the highway attitude.

A couple of weeks ago, he insulted the Husker faithful by saying he was disappointed with the "dead" atmosphere at Memorial Stadium for the Kansas game.  I’m sure not too many fans, who are probably more dedicated to that football team than they are to their families, didn’t take too kindly to those words.

Then, this past Saturday night against Texas A&M, he seemed to be in a state of psychotic behavior.  He constantly chewed on the officials ears for penalties and calls that didn’t go his way, and then he ripped into his quarterback, which was fortunately caught on national television.

Rumors were swirling the day after the loss to A&M that quarterback Taylor Martinez had quit the program.  Can you blame him?

I’m no psychotherapist, but it doesn’t take one to see that Pelini’s actions are dangerous to his school, to his team and to himself.  The chancellor of Nebraska, Harvey Perlman, came out the day after the game and said that Pelini's verbal assault of officials during Saturday's game at Texas A&M did not reflect well on the university or the football program.

"I think it was very unfortunate," Perlman said, "and I think it's something we'll have to address with Bo.”

Hmmm.  When the guy at the top notices your behavior and comments to the press about it, you know this can’t turn out well.

As a fan of Big 12 sports, I say good riddance to Nebraska and its arrogant coach, football team and fan base.  Let them suffer in oblivion in the Big 10.  The new Big 12 Conference will be better and stronger without clowns like Pelini.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

Kansas City's Major League Soccer team is undergoing a face lift...for the second time.  On Wednesday, the announced they are changing their name for the Kansas City Wizards to Sporting Kansas City.

The name means nothing.  It's ambiguous.  It doesn't make me think of soccer.  It's sounds like the name of a local sports magazine.  Yes, I'm one of those people that doesn't get it, but I'm not alone.

This is the team's third nickname in 15 years.  When it was introduced, along with the inception of the MLS, back in 1996, the team was known as the Kansas City Wiz.  And believe me, they took some mighty ribbing for that.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I did cover Kansas City's inaugural game.  I played soccer on the Arrowhead Stadium field with the team and even gave Preki a piggy-back ride.  I had the time of my life, but I'm not a soccer fan.  I really never have been, but this isn't so much about the game of soccer as it is about how this team has made a monumental marketing mistake, a colossal communications conundrum, a boneheaded branding blunder.  You get the gist of it.

What I see with these MLS nicknames, i.e. Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas, Sporting Kansas City is that they are trying way too hard to Europeanize the American version of a world sport.

Let's look at basketball for a minute.  The international rules differ in many ways from how it's played in the NBA.  A couple of major, notable differences are that 1) the lane in international rules is a trapezoid versus a rectangle in America and 2) the three-point arc is closer.  Now, I'm not going to go into all the difference between the two versions, but there are differences to separate themselves from how it's played here.

My point is that foreign countries took an American game and pretty much made it their own.  Sure, the basics of the game are the same, but they tweaked it just enough that it isn't completely or uniquely an American sport anymore by virtue of these changes.  Do I like it or approve of it?  It doesn't matter.  It's how they play the game over there, and I couldn't care less.

So, why is MLS trying so hard to be like the European or South American version of the game?  Is it to attract world-class talent to play here?  Do most Americans know who these people are?  Or do they care?  If David Beckham walked past me on the street, I'd have no idea who he was, and he's considered one of the most famous and recognizable athletes in the world.

My other point is this, making these changes, MLS and the individual teams are shooting themselves in the foot by not appealing to a wider audience.  I'm not saying they should be all things to all people.  Heck, as popular as the NFL is these days, there are some people that don't care and never will.

Sure, the hardcore fans get these changes, love them and will accept them.  If they've been following the game around the world, this makes total sense to them.  But how does a league attract new fans and grow when they assimilate themselves with something that is foreign to most Americans to begin with?

2010 HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SEASON: WE HARDLY KNEW YE

The 2010 high school football season is about to come to a close.  With just two games remaining on both the Kansas and Missouri sides, it has been an incredible season for great games and talent in the area.  The only problem?  Where did the season go?

I'm always so amazed at how quickly the 10 weeks go by.  It seems like it was just summer when players were reporting to camp and early season practice.  The weather was warm, the nights were still long, but you knew that a chill in the air was coming.

Now, here we are in mid-November and the season will come to an end Thanksgiving weekend.  I have had a ball covering games for www.prepskc.com this season.  We are covering high school football unlike anyone in Kansas City ever has.

I had the pleasure to cover some of the most exciting games of the year, starting with the very first one when Rockhurst defeated Blue Springs 7-6 in a defensive grudge match.

In week three I had Gardner-Edgerton and Bishop Miege, and this game was everything it was billed to be.  Although Gardner-Edgerton came out on top 43-29, the game was in doubt in the fourth quarter.

Jump all the way to district play.  Center and Grandview went at it in a triple overtime thriller with Center winning the district with a 22-21 victory.  Both teams had chances to salt this one away with field goals in overtime, but both came up short.  It wasn't until Center scored the tying touchdown in the third overtime and then went for two to win the game.  A gutsy call that proved to be successful.

Then, there was Shawnee Mission Northwest upsetting Shawnee Mission North in the first round of the Kansas Class 6A playoffs.  Trailing at halftime 10-0, the Cougars coaching staff and players never panicked, scoring 14 second-half points to advance.

Finally, it what could easily win the game-of-the-year title, Lee's Summit West beat cross-town rival Lee's Summit 42-39 in an intense, see-saw battle to advance to the Missouri Class 5 semifinals.  This game had it all: good defense, great offense, controversial calls and star players.

What I will remember most about this season though is the quality of talent in the area.  We are loaded with NCAA Division I prospects, led by Bubba Starling at Gardner-Edgerton, Corbin Berkstresser at Lee's Summit and Darrian Miller at Blue Springs.  All of these kids will be playing Saturday football at a big college.

But there are so many more players that are out there.  There's Cameron Coffman at Raymore-Peculiar, Max Shortell from Bishop Miege, Adonis Saunders at Olathe North, Richard Davila from St. Thomas Aquinas.

What this tells me from all the players that will be moving on the next level is that the Kansas City metro area is a hotbed for Division I recruiting.  And, I can tell you that the future of high school football looks really bright with many up-and-coming players that have at least another year of high school ahead of them.

The cream of the 2012 crop is led by offensive lineman Evan Boehm from Lee's Summit West High School.  Although he plays left tackle for the Titans, he is projected as a guard when he gets to the college level.  There's also a speed-demon wide receiver, Marquise Cushon, from Raytown South that will make some noise next year.

As fun and exciting as this season has been, and it isn't quite over yet, I'm already looking forward to what next season will have in store.

If it's half as good as this season, it will be great.

THE HANDSHAKE SNUB HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

I've had nearly 24 hours to digest and think about what Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley did to Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels after the game Sunday.

I've been reading stories, blogs and tweets all day.  Most think what Haley did was immature or was an act of bad sportsmanship.  Some are in his corner, believing it adds to the heated rivalry between the two teams.

I'm in that camp.

Let's think about this for a minute.  Your team just got spanked by your hated division rival.  They kept their starters in until the end of the game.  They were throwing the ball with a big lead in the fourth quarter.  Why shouldn't you be a little upset about how this all came down?

I'm not saying what Haley did was right.  The photo shows him pointing at McDaniels with a snarl on his face.  What I am saying is that I have no problem with what he did.  Haley has since apologized for his actions, saying that his emotions got the best of him.  Hey, football is an emotional game.  I've seen players, coaches and fans alike do the dumbest things when the game, the call, the beer man doesn't go their way.

Now that the apology has been made, the coaches will say that this all behind them, but remember Denver still must come to Kansas City later in the year.  You can bet that the tension created from the first matchup will carry over to the next.  And, there's a possibility it won't be a pretty game.

Look, this hasn't been the best of rivalries for quite some time.  The coaches may have been friends, players have gone back and forth between the two rosters.  But if this can add a bit of spice to a long-term, heated rivalry for years to come, that I'm all for it.

I haven't hated the Broncos since John Elway retired because he always seemed to find a way to beat the Chiefs at the end of every game...so it seemed.  Now, I may have a new reason to hate the Broncos yet love the rivalry if these two coaches refuse to play nice for well into the future.