These Girls Got Game

In most sports, the male athletes tend to dominate the media and headlines. The NBA is much more popular than the WNBA and the WNBA is probably the most televised sport for the female athlete. This is where the sport of beach volleyball is going to help break the gender barrier in sports.

Now That I Have Your Attention

Beach volleyball alone is starting to become more and more popular in the media. The bronzed bodied men and the bikini wearing women are a television broadcasting companies dream. If your everyday couch potato is channel surfing and flips to beach volleyball the first image they will see is the sun and the sand. right off the bat the fun in the sun image is on the screen. Now they take their death grip off the remote to see four beautiful babes playing volleyball in bikinis. At this point their jaw may need to be locked back into place after a quick drop. The image that these women are presenting is attracting viewers all over the country and even world wide. The Olympics for the first time in 1996 held beach volleyball in their list of competition.



These Girls Are Good


Once the couch potato is done eyeballing the ladies they will want to understand the game that is being played. Volleyball is a fairly simple game to learn. There is no Man in Motion calls, Moving Screens on a pick and role, or breaking of the wrist in a bat swing. So for the average viewer, following the game is quite simple. If you are an avid fan of beach volleyball you know that on the men's side there are two different teams in the finals almost every week. On the women's side, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh dominate the brackets. They are consistently in the finals of the tournament almost every week. They are becoming the image of beach volleyball since every week they are on TV. More and more Americans are learning who these two ladies are because of their domination on the court.



The Effect

Over the past couple years there has been a growth in the sport like no other. More and more young kids want to play volleyball to hopefully one day be able to spend every day of summer vacation at the beach playing volleyball. The most growth has been on the women's side of the sport. Younger girls see Misty and Kerri each week and strive to be like them. More women's volleyball matches are televised than men's matches. Even at the High School level, the girls attract more money in sports programs then boys volleyball. Girls volleyball even has a State tournament where the boys season ends with regional champions. Women are beginning to dominate the sport of volleyball, so boys...WATCH OUT!!!

Coach J