CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Fans at the three-day state Volleyball Tournament underway in Charleston say that there’s no reason why all student athletes shouldn’t be getting a chance to compete after it was announced Sunday that the Class Single A volleyball tournament was getting dropped indefinitely.
The state Volleyball Tournament is currently underway at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center and will last through Thursday.
However, the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission made the announcement that the Class A volleyball teams would be postponed due to ongoing legal battles over which teams should be included. The WVSSAC plans to move forward with Class AA, AAA and AAAA.
State volleyball tournament
Darla Ellison was at the tournaments Tuesday rooting for the girls’ volleyball team from James Monroe High School where her daughter is the assistant coach.
She said in the end, this legal situation is only hurting the student athletes.
“The SSAC should have had this figured out before the season even began, they should have had it figured it, but you know, it is what it is, because we’re seeing this in football as well, and I hate it for the girls,” Ellison said.
The state high school football playoffs are also in jeopardy due to similar legal battles.
The football championships are expected to be played at Charleston University’s stadium at Laidley Field Dec. 6-7, but with the pending litigations, it’s unclear if the first games will be played this weekend, and stand the chance of being bumped back an entire week or more.
The whole situation started when the WVSSAC announced last December that they would be adding a fourth classification for certain sports, which included 22 football teams and affected other sports such as volleyball as well.
This change sparked a number of court filings and injunctions from several county school systems across the state who claim these reassignments unfair.
Ellison said the state can have four classes, but they need to go back and really take a look at how they rank each specific team within those classes as some perform better being kept where they are.
“Because, James Monroe was Class A for four years and then they moved them back to AA last year, and they got two Boys State Championships from being class A, so you know, we were fortunate being a lower class those four years,” said Ellison.
George Springer cheering on Class AA Philip Barbour Tuesday said he agrees, these changes are only hurting the players.
“There’s nothing wrong with getting beat by a team in a state championship, but whenever you’re knocked out of that opportunity to play for the state championship, that’s unfair to the student athletes,” Springer said.
He said this is now going to be an ongoing issue since certifications are going to happen every two years now.
Springer said the SSAC should have just left the process alone, because teams in Class A work just as hard as any of the other teams to get there.
“You look, some of these kids have worked four years if they’re a senior and they’ve ended up putting in the blood, the sweat and the tears and everything, and now they end up having to sit on the sidelines or maybe not even get to play at all,” Springer said. “It’s unfair, it’s just where sometimes adults get involved in stuff they shouldn’t get involved in and when they should have just let the kids play.”
The volleyball tournaments continue at the coliseum Wednesday with AAA teams and Thursday with AAAA.