Starting off with the potential positive, Viking assistant Cantrell Schecht was talking about possible sites for a beach volleyball court closer to campus.
"Bishop's bought a former church property near Kate Sessions Park, so we were thinking about talking with them about sharing a sand volleyball court somewhere in there," said Schecht, as her JV's began playing against St. Augustine after the varsity finished up Tues., Sept. 10.
The match was in faraway Ocean Beach, where the Saints play their home matches. The Vikings' boys program, though being among the pioneers--back in the day--helping other schools start up their beach programs, is now stuck at traveling to "The Pit", a court across the street from the "Big Dipper" roller coaster in Belmont Park, in South Mission Beach. That is the boys' home location.
Kelly Drobeck's girls program is in the same pickle, playing its home matches at South Mission Beach, a little bit further south than The Pit.
What's a program to do? The potential site on the La Jolla High campus years ago, behind the visitors' bleachers in the football stadium, became a wheelchair-accessible ramp, a couple of stories high. It cost beaucoup money, I understood, and it filled in the spot in right field of the softball field where a sand court could have been located.
The other possibility, Schecht mentioned, is a site on Muirlands Middle School's campus. The baseball team already plays at Muirlands. A sand court could be situated somewhere where the tennis courts are right now. (I've seen many a foul ball fly off the baseball field and bounce on the blacktop of the adjoining tennis courts.)
Issues there have to do with access. "There is a new principal," Cantrell said. Maybe things could be worked out. Most recently, Viking baseball coach Gary Frank had to deal with rules and regulations under the previous regime on when the baseball teams could use the two batting cages and all-weather baseball diamond.
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On the other end, the slug toward making boys' beach volleyball an official CIF sport, associate head coach Dave Jones said, "There is a new coach at Sage Creek (in North County). She wants to push the issue."
Jones said that has encouraged him to once again begin pushing for official sanctioning of the sport. State Commissioner Ron Nocetti, according to Dave, is against making the boys' version of beach a CIF sport.
Locally, Joe Heinz, the San Diego Section Commissioner, and others apparently said, "A proposal for making boys beach volleyball sport an official sport has never been made."
True, Dave Jones said. But he and his colleagues didn't go ahead and propose the change, because they were told it would be turned down.
Now that action--or lack of action--is being used against them to accurately respond, "You haven't made a proposal to make boys beach volleyball an official CIF sport."
"We need to make the proposal, to get it on the record," the long-time volleyball coach said Tuesday. "Even though it will be turned down (this time)."
The background to the boys-girls beach situation is that several years ago, the NCAA made women's beach volleyball a scholarship sport. Suddenly, opposite football, college women's beach exploded, while men's beach lacked any such impetus.
Title IX dictates that women and men will receive equal opportunities. College football offers a large number of scholarship to males in the fall season. Women's beach supplied the appropriate answer to some of that.
To feed the newly-growing women's programs in colleges across the nation, high school federations soon okayed girls' beach as an official sport, and competition began.
Boys' beach has fallen far behind.
Dave Jones discussed the fact that in the present situation, sports offered to boys in the fall on the high school sports menu are fewer than those for girls: the girls have tennis, field hockey, cheer, cross country, and now flag football. The boys lag behind, with only football and cross country.
"Equity is now lacking the other way," I said to him.
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