Time to Start Posting Again

We'll start with some random acts of volleyballness:

• Nice article on Danielle Carlson (Marshfield '09) in the Marquette Tribune
• The Golden Eagles have signed an Estonian (for those who don't know, Estonia is a little east of Milwaukee--you know, about 4,400 miles)
• The Badgers finished third at the GLC Tournament in Illinois
  
• Nick Gibson (Shorewood '09) got 14 kills and the lead photo in The Ohio State's win over George Mason
• Alex Judkins (Kaukauna '12) signed with the same The (quick trivia: What other Wisconsinite from the Class of 2012 will be playing volleyball for the Buckeyes in the fall?)
• Wisconsin Ice 18s qualified for USAV nationals, but that deserves its own post (coming later today)

There, just like that, we're back.

Regarding Paid Subscription Sites

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to name the five freshmen who recently appeared on a prepvolleyball.com list -- until the information appears on an online site that's free. If you can send us a free link, please do. In the meantime, huge congrats to you-know-who-you-are from the Class of 2015.

We've Added Links to Like

Our list of Facebook pages on the right side of the blog now includes one for Wisconsin Volleyball Academy and another for North Shore. Are there others we're missing?

One Simple Sentence of Encouragement

The subject line read, "Positive Reinforcement" and the sentence provide just that. Thanks to you-know-who-you-are.

OK, back to blogging.

Campbellsport High School to Hold Memorial Tournament

We picked up the story below directly from the Badger Region VolleyBlog. And here's more information about the Caitlin Scannell Scholarship Fund.

"My name is Heidi Olson and I am the head varsity volleyball coach at Campbellsport High School. Waupun Breakout and Ripon Riptide club teams both had the great experience of getting to know Caitlin Scannell. I have coached Caitlin in some capacity, basketball and volleyball, since she was in 7th grade. There is really not another person in the world like her and I miss her everyday. Losing her wasn't only difficult for me, but also for our volleyball program. The two other girls that passed away were also volleyball players. We all suffered such a horrific loss and would like to honor Caitlin, as well as Sabrina and Katie, by having a volleyball tournament in their honor. We have an open weekend on September 29, 2012. If you could please pass the word to any high school coaches and see if anyone has this weekend open, I would greatly appreciate it. Anyone interested can get a hold of me via email at olsondh19@gmail.com."

Say Cheese

We thought this group shot of everyone in the Wisconsin Volleyball Academy club was pretty cool so we thought we'd share. We found it on the Badger Region Facebook page. "Like" it if you're so inclined.

A Tribute to the Water Bottle Fillers

Have you clicked on over to the Badger Region VolleyBlog yet? The latest post is about volleyball parents. Fun read.

This Blog Is Our Blog, This Blog Is Your Blog

OK, so here's the deal: We're obviously having a hard time doing everything we want to do with this blog. So instead of doing all the legwork ourselves on club rosters, we're sending out a plea for help. Unless it's abundantly easy for us, we're not even going to try to type in the following information:

• Jersey number
• Position
• High school
• Graduation year

If you can fill in any of these blanks on any roster anywhere, leave a comment to the roster post or email us at vbuberalles@gmail.com. Thanks in advance for your help. Together, we can make this blog awesome again.

Some New Stuff Under the "Stuff We Want Right Here" Heading Over There

Badger Region started a blog last Friday. It's a great place to visit any time, but especially during those extra long lulls between posts over here.

A permanent link has been placed on the right side of this blog under the "Stuff We Want Right Here" heading.

Fifth Annual New Year's Predictions

Is this really the fifth year we've done this? We're old.

OUR PAST PREDICTIONS (mostly to prove these are random guesses)

• 2008: 3 of 4 correct (Pius XI lost to Kenosha Tremper in four, keeping us from going a perfect four for four)
• 2009: 4 of 5 correct (our best year ever and, yes, we're still pretty darn proud of ourselves about it)
• 2010: 2 of 5 correct (our first helping of humble pie, but it would turn out we were only a year off on Burlington so that counts for something, right? Well, only if we'd have predicted them again in 2011, which we didn't)
• 2011: 2 of 5 correct (our second helping of humble pie -- we not only didn't predict Oostburg in D3, we picked a team that had moved up to D2)

OUR 2012 PREDICTIONS (entirely to prove these are random guesses)

• Division 1: Divine Savior Holy Angels
• Division 2: East Troy
• Division 3: Oostburg
• Division 4: Catholic Central
• Boys: Milwaukee Marquette

Well, there's you have it, such as it is.

If you want to play along, leave your predictions and positive comments below. Happy New Year, everyone.

Fun Thread on VolleyTalk

For anyone who doesn't know their pipes from their threes, there's a fun discussion on VolleyTalk titled Definitive Set Names.

Happy New Year

Let the posting begin.

26 Posts in 26 Minutes Starting at 12:01 AM on 1/1/12

As promised, we'll be ringing in 2012 with a flurry of posts. Many are simply club rosters and all-conference lists. Others link to stories you might not have seen yet.

We'll keep adding posts throughout 1/1/12, one of which will deliver our promised predictions for the 2012 WIAA state tournaments.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season.

Wait'll Next Year

We haven't been good about posting for over a year now.

That will change in 2012.

Look for the flurry to begin on January 1 with our annual New Year's Day predictions.

Happy holidays, everyone.

August 12 is Turkey Day

Follow Lauren Carlini (Badger '13 verbal) and the national team in Turkey, starting August 12.

Pounding Away at Previews

We're still on track to start previews on Monday. Here's how you can help.

• Help us figure out why Hilbert is listed in Division 3, Sectional 4, Regional B and Division 4, Sectional 4, Regional A
• Help us track down the missing all-conference lists
• Go to any of the 2010-2011 girls club rosters or boys club rosters and identify school affiliations (NOTE: we actually know a lot of boys rosters that aren't reflected at that link -- just never got around to updating)

Thanks in advance for your help.

Missing: Seven All-Conference Lists

As we're putting together previews, it would be very helpful if we could get our hands on the 2010 all-conference lists for the following conferences:

• Coulee GOT IT--THANK YOU
• Dunn-St. Croix
• Lakeland East
• Ridge and Valley
• Six Rivers West
• South Central GOT IT -- THANK YOU
• SWAL

We believe we have the rest. Any help would be greatly appreciated, either through a comment to this post or a email to vbuberalles@gmail.com. Thanks.

Thus Endeth Club and Beginneth High School and College

Haven't the three posts below tied a positively lovely bow on the 2010-2011 club season?

Well now it's time to turn our volleyball attentions to the upcoming high school and college seasons. We were actually able to do a fair amount of behind-the-scenes prep work this past week. Whether it will prove to be enough to resurrect our annual sectional-by-sectional previews is TBD. One thing we do know: The first previews will appear a week later than in years past.

Look for the first few on August 8.

Recruiting Lists Revisited

We've added a new link list to the right side of the blog called "Women's Recruiting Recaps." Currently it's a handy way to access our master recruiting lists as they appear today. Eventually, it will include those same lists with further details about each player's college playing career. Check out the first few names on our Class of 2008 list to get an idea of where we're going with this.

Cheese & Volleyball Store Closes (Probably) at the End of the July

Over the years, a few of you have purchased a few things at the Cheese & Volleyball Store. But since it costs us a nominal monthly fee just to keep it open, it's been a bit of a personal cash drain. We're not complaining -- just explaining why we'll probably shut the thing down at the end of July.

So buy now if any of it looks interesting. Don't if it doesn't. If there's a flood of activity, of course, we might rethink our decision and revitalize the product offerings.

No big deal either way, though.

Allow us to expand on that "no big deal either way" point: Whatever happens to the store will not affect the blog itself or our desire to keep on bloggin' on. Thanks.