CornNation Welcomes A New Volleyball Voice

I’m a new writer for volleyball here are CornNation. So, who am I??? I’m a fan, former collegiate player, current rec league player in a much older body, coach, and I administer my own bracket in December. So, yeah, safe to say I love volleyball.

I played in college, West Point. I was able to keep playing through my Army career on an international level, and then eventually got back to West Point, to coach. Now I live in Scottsbluff and coach at the high school.

I didn’t really mean to start writing about volleyball, but one year my husband and I decided to try a volleyball bracket competition between us (I won, easily). The next year, a few family and friends wanted in, so we grew it. Next thing you know, we’re 10 years in and we have brackets from across the country.

I found that people were hungry for some analysis. Good volleyball analysis is tough to find, as you surely know. So I started writing about player match ups, strength of schedule, coaching, transfers, offensive systems and defensive schemes.

Here’s what I know about the game: Volleyball is best watched by not watching the ball, but watching the setter and player movement. The key to any team is in its ability to communicate. Crowd size matters. Team culture matters. How hard the ball hits the floor doesn’t (well maybe a little).

Nothing is more frustrating than getting stuck in a bad rotation. Nothing feels better than digging a hard hit ball or the burn on your hands after you block a ball. The libero was the best innovation to the game since the invention of the inflatable ball. The challenge system to referee calls will continue to make the game better.

Nebraska is in arguably a titan in the college game and, having played a lot of games in front of a crowds that numbered in the double digits, our fans have absolutely changed the dynamic of the sport as a spectator event.

I write with emotion and as if I am talking to you on the phone. I like my reader to feel like they are with me. And in writing about volleyball, I know not everyone has played it forever like I have, so I try to make the complexities and subtleties of the game relatable and recognizable for all.

I’m a Michigan transfer, living in Nebraska now but raised in Kalamazoo. I know B1G volleyball inside and out, and I like to think I was a small part of the growth of the Midwest as the volleyball hotbed it is today back in the 1990s.

I have great admiration and respect for Husker volleyball, as a fan of the game. This program has changed the game for the better in a lot of ways, all on it’s own. But, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t root for MSU and PSU at times, too!