Rhody Invitational Returns!
5/12/23
It’s hard to imagine that there was a brief, two-year blip, when tournaments for volleyball were not an option. The sport thrives on the possibility of getting many teams together and battling in a day-long event culminating in a last stand by two teams late in the evening. It’s a right of volleyball passage, to attend these tournaments, with the hope that you break pool in the morning, advance through the quarters and semis to play in a final, in front of no one, because most of the event populace has gone home for dinner. This was the standard life of a promising volleyball athlete until 2020 when the world stopped. It’s 2023 today, the world is back spinning, and I’m proud to report that the Rhody Invitational just happened…and the sport is absolutely better for it!
Now, dear reader, most of you know that I was a former men’s volleyball college coach and for that reason I start with the importance of tournaments like the Rhody. Tournaments are huge for recruiting. If you have dreams of playing at the college level, you have to be seen by college coaches. Gone are the days where word of mouth will get a college coach in your high school gym for a match. It’s too expensive and too time consuming for the college coach. You can hire a recruiting service, or person, to help with your exposure or you can join a club team and make sure that said club team participates in club tournaments throughout the year…especially going to regionals and nationals (largest tournaments in the country). Both ways cost money and require, more effort then you think on your end to really make it go…which is accurate as you should be working hard for what you are going after.
With all that being said, The Rhody Invitational, or Rhody Rumble as it’s been called from time to time, is a local college coach’s dream. It is also an opportunity for the local high school kid looking to be seen without the added expense of club or a recruiting service. Here lies the beauty of what the Rhode Island Boys Volleyball Coaching Association accomplishes with an event like this…local coverage and exposure for student athletes and college coaches alike while bringing in schools from outside the state to give unique experiences as well as testing the ability of the Rhode Island volleyball scene. Wins all around.
This year’s tournament featured nine teams from Rhode Island, nine teams from Massachusetts, followed by teams from Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. Twenty-Five teams took the stage at Rhode Island College, using both gymnasium resources (the Murray Center and the Recreation Center) with the standard 9am start and five pools of five. Schedules were the same for all the pools meaning, everyone would play each other with two sets to 25 starting at fours. After the schedule was completed, top two teams in the pool would go to the Gold Bracket. The third place team would go to the silver bracket. The rest of the teams would be heading home.
RI Teams - North Kingstown, La Salle Academy, Cranston West, Barrington, Chariho, Cranston East, Coventry, Classical and Lincoln
MA Teams - Voc. Tech, Haverhill, Milford, St. John’s HS, Cambridge Ridge & Latin, Greater Lowell Tech, St. John Prep, Lincoln-Sudbury, and O’Bryant
NJ Teams - Kingsway, St. Joseph’s, and Harrison
CT Teams - Ridgefield and Xavier
NY Team - Iona Prep
PA Team - Greater Latrobe
Pools for teams in an event like this is always challenging as getting the seeding correct is your number one goal. Create a power pool by accident and teams that have the ability to be playing at the end of the day get bounced early. Meanwhile, teams that probably should have a solid fun morning but not move on, can find themselves in a playoff match where it’s pretty lopsided. Add that we’re talking high schools from different states with different levels of play and the situation for creating the seeding for pools becomes an incredible uphill battle. To this point, the two top teams in Rhode Island currently, (La Salle and North Kingstown) found themselves fourth and third respectively in their pools after the schedule had concluded. North Kingstown would go on to handle the Silver bracket with limited uncomfortableness dispatching Lincoln-Sudbury in the semis and St. Joseph’s (NJ) in the final. La Salle would go home early.
Meanwhile, out of all of the Rhode Island participants, only Classical would break pool and go into the Gold Bracket playoffs. The Purple were matched up with Ridgefield (CT) and were promptly bounced out of the tournament. Granted, “bounced” may be a tougher word then I mean. Generally, and this tournament was no different, playoffs consist of a single set to 25, or less, due to time constraints. Every tournament director has high hopes that playoffs will be best of three but it never plays out that way! Ever! So, because you only have the gym for so long, or everyone does want to go home at some point, eat dinner and see their families, playoffs get changed to a single set. Oddly enough, this can create some wonderful upsets, because a single set can be won with just a minor cold streak by a team. Hit four balls out of bounds and you’re in trouble. It’s the same feeling as a final set to 15 in a match.
Gold Bracket Results and Seeding…
Kingsway (NJ)
Harrison (NJ)
St. John’s Prep (MA)
Latrobe (PA)
Iona (NY)
Cambridge (MA)
Ridgefield (CT)
O’Bryant (MA)
Haverhill (MA)
Classical (RI)
The playoffs continued on for the gold bracket which had O’Bryant handing Haverhill a loss to advance out of the play-in matches. From there, O’Bryant would upset the #1 seed Kingsway (remember, one set to 25 points…anything can happen!) while Harrison, Latrobe, and St. John’s Prep would all hold seed and survive the quarters. Semis saw O’Bryant dispatching the #4 seeded Latrobe to advance to the finals to face the #3 seed St. John Prep who took care of business against Harrison. The final was again a victory for the #8 seed, O’Bryant, who had to go through #1, #4, and #3 seeded teams to take home the title!
Photo from the Boston Globe
It’s good…real good…to see this event return and allow the volleyball community to showcase the boys’ volleyball prowess in the region. It allows coaches to find players, players to find coaches, and teams to compete against outside competition that otherwise would not happen. It lastly points to where Rhode Island is in the boys volleyball world. RI teams can compete, but need to continue to develop talent…and develop that talent earlier and earlier so that the athletes can compare with teams outside of region. California, Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and others start their training for kids earlier and are able to play all year round. Rhode Island would fit into the mold of New York, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states that though they do not have the ability weather wise to play all year, any moment of the day…they do start earlier and utilize gym time efficiently while constantly promoting the sport to all. That’s the goal for RI and it’s absolutely on the minds of coaches throughout the state. Teach more, get more involved, teams get better, and the rising tide raises all boats. Then, next year’s Rhody will be hoppin! Can’t wait to see it!