A team’s history can help tell how good a team can be, but the men’s club volleyball team hasn’t had time to build a tradition.
The team is entering just its third season. Having a young team has its own pros and cons, and the players realize how difficult it can be when they face teams that have been together longer than they have.
Junior Stephen Jones reaffirms that the difficulty of competition they face is due to the fact other teams may have been together longer than the three years Alabama has.
The team has 15 guys, most of them from outside Alabama. Jones said he finds it hard to find players who are committed to the team due to the lack of people down South that have some background connected with volleyball.
“It’s very difficult,” Jones said. “Trying to find someone with background with the sport in the south is very tough. Most of our players are from out of state.”
The team practices three times a week. The practices are usually are on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. One obstacle they deal with is the change in practice location. The team hosts its practices at two different locations – the Student Center and the CAVE, which is located in the back left corner underneath Coleman Coliseum.
The men recently placed second in the Crimson Classic after facing tough competition like Tennessee’s “A” team, which is one of the best teams in the South. The Tide ended up beating Tennessee’s “A” team 25-17 and 25-19 in its path to finishing second in the tournament.
Jones and sophomore Ryan Arnold said they believe the Tide will be able to achieve some self-set goals as the team gets more and more time under its belt.
“We want to win our first tourney,” Arnold said.
Jones said, “We also want to go to nationals.”
The team may have an opportunity to win its first tournament when it plays at Tennessee in February, but until then they have no set matches. This tournament will be the second of the year.
The differences between club and school-run teams can be seen when dealing with creating a schedule. The big difference between the two teams is that the club team does not have an athletic director to help form the schedule.
Besides playing on the team, Jones is the one who is in charge of building the team’s schedule by calling colleges to see if they are interested in setting up a match, along with a date and time that best suits both schools. Jones floated around a possible match against in-state rival Auburn but has since said the match will no longer take place.
The team plans on holding tryouts for next year early next semester, but there has not been any release of an exact date for the tryouts. If you are interested in trying out for the team, you can e-mail Stephen Jones at [email protected].
