A girls’ basketball tournament
in Kirkland, WA—called Midsummer Nights Madness—starts July 10:
- Now in its 15th season
- Teams from throughout the west, plus Canada and a team based in Germany
- Grown from 35 teams in 1997 to about 100 in 2012
- *1100 female athletes
Very impressive. And hats off to
Madness founder Stan Lee and the dozens of volunteers who make something this
big happen every year.
It’s another opportunity, however, to
point out a fact rarely noted in the nation’s sports pages: More high school
girls play volleyball in Washington state than any other sport [source: National Federation of High Schools 2010-11
Participation Survey]. [see: How popular is volleyball among high school girls?]
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| Action at the 2012 Emerald City Classic -courtesy WVBA |
In fact, volleyball is the most
popular prep girls’ sport throughout the west, including Arizona, Colorado,
Oregon, Washington, Hawai’i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming.
And—without taking anything away
from basketball’s notable Midsummer Nights Madness event—the annual Emerald City Volleyball Classic at the University of Washington is mighty impressive in
its own right:
- Now in its 26th season
- Teams from throughout the west, plus Canada and Brazil
- Grown from 12 teams in 1976 to 201 in 2012
- 2200 female athletes
So … even more impressive. And
too often overlooked, since the annual Classic is held over Memorial Day
weekend, when it competes for media attention with a slew of other sporting
events. Hats off to Dave Weitl and all his Emerald City Classic volunteers.
[Full disclosure: Jack Hamann, author of this post, was a member of the Washington Volleyball Academy’s Board of Directors from 2003-09; WVBA is the Emerald City Classic organizer]
*according to Midsummer Nights Madness director Stan Lee, there are 94 teams and approximately 1100 athletes registered as of July 5. Lee says the Seattle Times was incorrectly told that there are 1800 athletes registered.
Also interesting Jack, is that on that very same weekend over 125 team participated in the NW Junior Memorial Weekend tournament locally. That is a TON of junior girls volleyball over one weekend here in Seattle. The sport truly has grown when two great events can occur on the same weekend and offer playing opportunities for so many teams.
ReplyDeleteThat’ amazing story, of Volley Ball is now, the most popular game for girls in U.S.A. I read your blog, about woman Volley Ball. I also, read the percentage of women in Volley Ball, which is now, in an increasing mode. The whole U.S.A girls have an interest to play volley ball. That is reason for the volley ball teams in U.S.A 2012.That is really wonderful.
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