NCAA Committee Recommends Adding Sand Volleyball For Women

NCAA Committee Recommends Adding Sand Volleyball To List Of Women's Sports

The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics this month voted to "add sand volleyball to a list of women's sports being considered" for competition, and the sport "could be under NCAA auspices as soon as 2009-10," according to Jimmy Golen of the AP. The committee's vote "recommended that the NCAA's three divisions put the sport on the 'emerging sports for women' list.'" Division II agreed with the recommendation, Division III rejected the proposal and Division I "will consider it at its October meeting." If the sport "gets past the division's governing bodies, the NCAA membership will vote on it in January." The NCAA decided to label the sport sand volleyball rather than beach volleyball, as it is known on the pro and Olympic levels. American Volleyball Coaches Association Exec Dir Kathy DeBoer said the NCAA "felt that the term 'beach' might limit the number of schools that would even think about the sport. Sand volleyball is a friendlier phrase for the masses that would be considering playing the sport but might not be in coastal areas." DeBoer added that sand volleyball players "could be enrolling in school as soon as next year, and competing in the spring of 2010." While pro beach volleyball is "closer to an individual sport than a team sport, with two-person pairs," the NCAA "would want to come up with a format that allows the schools to compete more as teams." The proposal received support from the USOC, USA Volleyball, several NCAA conferences and the ADs or presidents of 12 schools, as well as the AVP (AP, 7/23).