There are so many stories out there about coronavirus and its effect on volleyball.
We’ve certainly posted our share. Saturday we had one about former Oregon player August Raskie and her travel travails getting home from Italy. We’ve had stories about all the FIVB beach postponements and cancellations, the end of the NCAA men’s season, the end of the NCAA beach season, and athletes’ reaction to all of the above, from the pros who haven’t gotten to leave the country to the pros who were stranded in Europe.
For that matter, we have another coming Sunday about Ebony Nwanebu, the former Texas star who plays in Italy and is coming home, but without her dog.
But there are so many others and we want to summarize and list as many of them as we could find.
There’s been some really good reporting and interviews from other media outlets, plus more than a few great videos — some really fun — on social media.
Anyway, here we go, and understand, this is just a sampling of what we’ve discovered while more or less sheltering in place:
— The Portland Tribune got ahold of Kim Hill, who is hunkering down in Italy. Kerry Eggers did a really good interview and story about Hill, the Olympian who is from Portland.
— Kim Smith, writing for the AVP, interviewed quite a few of the tour’s athletes about how they are handling the situation.
— Forbes solicited quotes from AVP athletes as well.
— In the Southeast, all you have to do is say “Fuds,” and any beach player knows you’re talking about the huge event every April in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. It’s one of the biggest beach tournaments anywhere with legendary partying. But this year there won’t be a Fud’s after the organizers canceled last week, leaving Wannabes the beach world over unable to “Wake Up, Dress Up, Show Up.” Luckily there is also a Fud’s in the fall.
— All the cancelations hurt some volleyball players in different ways. For example, Jasmin Sneed of VCU, a middle who led the nation in blocks per set (1.67) last season, was enjoying being a high jumper this spring. The Commonwealth Times interviewed her.
— We were all over the athletes who were not going to go to the FIVB event in Australia before it was canceled.
— The Los Angeles Times got on it, too.
— Sports Illustrated got reaction, as well, and gave a comprehensive analysis of the Olympic qualification process.
— At VolleyballMag.com, we’re proud to wear some Rox products and now even prouder. Rox, one of our sponsors and a part of apparel maker FitUSA Manufacturing, has started using its Ormond Beach, Florida, factory to produce surgical face masks for hospitals.
— The season is canceled in the Philippines, too.
— Yeah, we had a bunch on the end of the men’s season, but BYU’s Davide (Dah-vee-day) Gardini could hardly go home when the season was called off. He’s from Italy, and the BYU student paper, The Daily Universe, has the story.
— USA Volleyball gives updates, the last on Thursday, when it extended its ban on sanctioned events through April 15. It includes tips on how to cope with Covid-19.
— And, finally, there are millions of moms stuck at home with their kids around the country. They all would likely applaud Anne Marie Anderson, the former Hofstra volleyball player, for the way she laid down the law when the schools were closed.
Anderson, whose busy broadcasting life includes calling play-by-play of Pac-12 women’s and men’s volleyball, wrote a letter to her children about how things were going to be:
[…] said the combination of COVID-19 and NCAA regulations wore him […]
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