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Editor's note: Rachel Seewald with the UIL adds some clarification:
- Sub-varsity coaches have the option of playing 2 out of 3 rather than 3 out of 5. This rule was specifically put into place to allow for more flexibility in scheduling.
- Secondly, with regard to tournament games, it is only pool play games that are played to 15. Once teams advance to bracket play during a tournament they can play either 3 out of 5 or 2 out 3. In addition, they will play to 25 once they get to bracket play.

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Am I reading the new UIL rules correctly? During tournaments, pool play will consist of 2 games to 15, rally scoring. Is it really 15? That's ridiculous. I don't feel that a time factor is so critical that 2 games to 25 — the amount of play these girls are accustomed to — would be out of the question. We just got home from MEQ and even with best 2 of 3, the most we ever were behind was 30 minutes. Is the new rule just a recommendation or is it policy? I hope that tournament officials are able to use their discretion and realize that 2 games to 15 does not produce a clear winner. - MJ, Arlington (posted 3/27)

Editor's note: The UIL confirmed that the guidelines do require that pool play be two games to 15 with a cap at 20.

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(Re: Kate Street interview) What a great story on a great player. She is a stud, on a team of studs. Congratulations to her and to her very nice parents. - A Street Fan (posted 3/27)

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Thanks for the in depth response on how you rank teams. You are so right in your comment of how talented the 17's are this year. I have never seen so many close games. I guess that is why we all love this great game!! Thanks again for your wonderful website, and good luck to all the teams!! - Fanatic Fan (posted 3/27)

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hey everyone. what about those club level teams? they're in usav as well! i would like to send a congrats to the tornados 16 white who has hung in all yr. 1st @ cowtown gold, second @ crosscourt gold, and 4th @ houston power leauge gold. not because i'm their coach i'm also a huge fan. i'm very proud!!!! good luck at the qualifiers! to all the club level teams. - coach nuby (posted 3/26)

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You guys have outdone yourselves again! The story about Kate Street was outstanding! My daughter has competed against her for years in club volleyball and we have seen her mature into the player she is today. She is fierce competitor with a crazy, fun-loving attitude that is contagious. Good luck at UCF! - S.A. Dad (posted 3/26)

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I personally would like to see Sun Country disbanded. The New Mexico teams could go into one region while the Amarillo teams could join North Texas. That way, Amarillo teams would not be subjected to playing in the New Mexico tournaments that are notoriously bad. - unbiased (posted 3/25)

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If MG doesn't like the way the region is working, then why don't you run for one of the positions that are open? I think that would be a great idea for you to understand how things work and that our region people do a good job with little or no appreciation from some. - Tired of the Complaining, Amarillo Volleyball (posted 3/25)

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The question I have today is: Why does it seem that the Sun Country Region is always behind everyone else in the country? I mean most other regions have already had two regional rankings and Sun Country still does not have their first ranking posted. Can we please get on the ball. On a different note, it has always seemed to me that the Regional members (teams & board members) have always felt it was more important for teams to stay within the region and play one another, instead of going outside the region and performing well against national competition. Personally I have always thought it was great when one of our teams from the region proudly represented itself and the region against national competition. I know this region has always been considered weaker then others across the country, but I think it is time for that to change. Good luck to the teams from the Sun Country that are heading to National Qualifiers around the country. Go out and do your best to represent yourself and our region, and bring back some national bids. - MG, Amarillo (Posted 3/22)

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Why do people make such a big deal about rankings? Who cares if you are ranked above everyone else if at the end of the season you don't qualify for Nationals, which should be every team's goal, right? Look at the North Texas Region rankings - as talented as TAV's top 16 are, they are ranked second behind Skyline National. Not to take anything away from Skyline or the other 16's teams in our Region, but we all know what would happen if they met the top one. So, to everyone who's complaining about their teams not being ranked or this team is above or below another one, keep in mind - Nationals is the goal. To all the players, keep playing well and good luck in the upcoming qualifiers. - NC (posted 3/17)

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Thanks for recognizing Austin Red 17 in your new rankings. They won the playoff over Copperfield and River City, yet they are ranked below those teams in your new ranking? The win over Copperfield in the final match followed a 3 of 4 game win against Copperfield earlier in pool play. Based on your previous response that you view head to head competition and results from best of 5 matches in determining rankings, the new rankings do not follow that logic. I also noticed that Alamo jumped 6 spots in your rankings but had finished behind Copperfield in the Houston tournament. I am honestly trying to follow the logic but am perplexed. Is there a source that one can look at to find out what a teams win-loss record is? Thanks again! - Volleyball Fanatic (posted 3/14)

Editor's note: Regarding rankings, see response to next letter. Regarding your questions about won-loss records, as far as we can tell there is no single source to find won-loss records short of calling each club.

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I agree with the great volleyball coverage you are spoiling us with at this site. I can also only ask how AMV 17s are not ranked yet despite the fact they are undefeated at the stops including a convincing 9-0 in games at the last stop moving them to Division I. Were they in the wrong pool nobody was watching? Props to Copperfield Green for beating Alamo Kaepa 17 at Cross Courts and breaking in the rankings despite the fact they are not in Division I and lost to AMV on the first stop. Props also to Austin Red 17 for making it to Division I, breaking in the rankings, and the outstanding job at the Central Zone Invitationals. Good luck to the big state of Texas on the qualifiers and lets bring good news to you all. - Austin Fan (posted 3/14)

Editor's note: As we've written from the start of the season, the state is loaded with talented 17s teams and this is easily the most volatile division to chart. We could make similar arguments as were made in the previous two letters on behalf of four or five other teams not currently ranked. In fact, there were nine teams that we considered for the final five spots in the 17s division. Because we get so many "how can you rank them above us" letters each time we post new rankings (we post the best ones that seem to summarize the opinion of others), we'll go through our process again: We take a lot of factors into consideration including, but not limited to, head-to-head (in fact, we just watched Texas Tech beat Texas in the Big 12 basketball tournament but I don't think anyone would argue that Tech should now be ranked #3 in the nation). If fact, if we only went with head-to-head it would be impossible to create rankings since its not unusual during a ranking period for three teams to beat each other. Parents of all three teams could each make a case that their team was best. We handle our rankings similar to the way most rankings are handled. We start with the previous rankings, since those were based on the previous rankings, which were based on the previous rankings, etc. We look at the entire period of play during the ranking period, not just the past week or match to determine who seems to be playing best. We look at which unranked teams are beating ranked teams, which ranked teams are beating other ranked teams, which ranked teams are losing to unranked teams, etc. We also have people who watch a lot of teams play and provide their input. We collect input from coaches and club directors. We give preference to bracket play over pool play, although we consider Tour pool play equal to tournament bracket play. Usually, the most a team will move is three or four places although if a team has an unusual number of significant wins/losses (such as Alamo which beat a number of highly ranked teams prior to their close loss to Copperfield) they can move a few more spots. Or if a team that has struggled early in the season suddenly adds a new player that makes the team noticeably stronger, it could influence their rankings. The bottom line is that from top to bottom there are probably 20 teams in the 17s division capable of beating each other at any time. Our guess is that all will be ranked at some time during the year and it will be the end of the season before any final decisions can be made on this division.

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Have you considered starting a message board for Lonestar VB folks? At first I thought that it might not have a broad enough appeal or serve a need that prepvolleyball did not serve already. But after reading the "mother" thread on that Ohio sports website (link from prepvolleyball), I thought that maybe we could get our own Texas thing going. What do you think? Keep up the outstanding work. - MJ-Arlington (posted 3/14)

Editor's note: This is one of the most common questions we receive and yes, we have considered a message board. Our only concern is the time we would need to monitor the board. We wouldn't want it to turn into a girl bashing board as occasionally happens on other sites. At the moment, we plan to make a decision on a message board prior to the start of the high school season and perhaps prior to the JOs.

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First of all, thank you for the great job you are doing! I doubt any region gets the coverage on volleyball like we are getting with your site (other than prevolleyball.com nationally)! I can only ask how can you rank Hitaway above Alamo? Alamo has beaten them in the last 2 stops even though Hitaway did finish above them at Vegas. Because of Alamo, Hitaway won't even be in Division 1 at the last stop. Thanks again for a great site and good luck to all the Texas teams in the upcoming qualifiers! - TX Dad! (posted 3/13)

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To Ken at COT: El Paso Wildfire is taking that weekend of the Tall City Classic off, giving the girls a much need break for that all important event, senior prom! Thanks for the invite, we'll meet up with you guys at Austin! Good luck! -J-Bo in El Paso (Posted 3/12)

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I would just like to wish the Amarillo area club teams good luck as the qaulifiers approach. I hope to see a lot of teams qaulify over the next two months. - HP coach TM Amarillo (posted 3/11)

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In response to Ken at COT's request for Diamondack 18's to attend the Tall City Classic, they will be at Crossroads in KC that weekend. Good luck to everyone - MJ (posted 3/11)

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In reply to a letter from J-Bo, El Paso 1/21/03, about El Paso Wildfire 181 being a very talented team. I would like to encourage El Paso Wildfire 181, Diamondbacks 181 & Sun Spots 181 to participate in the Tall City Qualifier in Midland Texas. It will be one of the last opportunities for the El Paso teams to complete against the teams from the Texas Panhandle. - Ken, COT Amarillo (posted 3/11)

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Thanks for the nice story on Austin Jrs 18s comeback victory over Alamo. I want to point out a small correction in fact: The block for match point was made by Lauren Galler and Myanna Hellsten, not Christi Hahn as you reported. What makes this interesting is that Myanna returned to the team after playing in the TAPPS 5A state basketball championship the night before, and had 4 blocks in the 4 games she played of the Alamo match. As an aside, she was named to the TAPPS All Tournament team, averaging 14 points and 9 rebounds during the championship tournament. - Chip (posted 3/7)

Editor's note: Our mistake. Thanks for the correction and the interesting note on Myanna's impressive weekend double-duty.

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Frankie Velez responds: The name of the team is Team Texas just because the commissioner did not give permission to use Lone Star Elite. Second. If you look on region rules, a player can be registered with the Lone Star region as long as the player plays two regionally sanctioned events. Thirdly, they are not flying the players in, that is against NCAA rules. The players are paying for their own tickets to play in those events, just like every player that plays volleyball. - posted (3/6)

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I keep hearing good press about this Team Texas, with Frankie Velez as the coach. Can someone explain how they can be Team Texas if they are flying players from all around the country to be together? Is this legal? Are there residency requirements for the players if you are listed as a Lone Star team? It doesn't seem fair to the rest of us who cannot afford to fly in players from everywhere to be on a good team. We have to take the players who live in our area and make the best of it. How is it that Team Texas can get away with this? - TT, Houston (posted 3/6)

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My hat is off to Crown of Texas 18. They did what they needed to do. They faced their opponent on the court and beat them. I am referring to the COT and Amarillo JO's 18 match that took place this past weekend. Now that the two teams have battled on the court and a clear cut winner has been determined, then I believe COT has every right to brag about being number one in the region if they want to do so. Good job COT! - MG, Amarillo (posted 3/4)

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The two teams finally met on the court (Crown of Texas and Amarillo Juniors), but unfortunately there was no drama in Lubbock, Texas this past weekend. Maybe the juniors got a stacked pool again or just didn't try real hard. - Amarillo fan (posted 3/3)

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I totally agree with Coach B. Although it is nice to have a player who can play all the way around in the rotation, today’s game has become more specialized. Look at other sports….Football: you have special teams, including kickers, snappers, ect. and seldom does an offensive player play defensive and vise versa. Baseball: you have a designated hitter, pinch hitters, pinch runners and somebody who comes in sometimes to pitch to one batter. Basketball: there is only one basketball so somebody is looked to for scoring, another for rebounding, another for passing and so on. Even in hockey, you have the scorer, the goalie and of course, the enforcer. With regard to volleyball, the middle is working so hard that she needs a break once she hits the back row and more than likely, the defensive specialist/libero has better ball control and is quicker to the ball. Another intangible that the libero brings is inspiration. Hopefully, the National federation will seriously consider this for next year and maybe more coaches will take their head out of the sand and embrace today’s game. - JP from Dallas (posted 3/3)

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Is high going to use the libero and if not WHY? We should if not. It is a college position and the best way to get a player ready for it is to have it. So many coaches that have been around awhile do not want it but I just don't understand why? This gives you unlimited subs and it gives those little players that normally don't make teams or don't get much playing time because they are short a chance for a scholarship. These coaches need to quit thinking about themselves and think about the kids. If you're coaching just to win and make a name for yourself then GET OUT! We don't need to be afraid of change either. I have one more question for coaches, why are you not at club tournaments trying to get an idea of how rally works? You could be there asking club coaches what are their thoughts and strategies? I am so tired of coaches disappearing after volleyball season, and don't tell me you're busy either. This is your job, if you're coaching something else, like I do, it is not an excuse because I and many other coaches still coach club as well. Coaches need to get of their rears and keep up with the sport or there will be a lot of job openings next year!!!!! - coach B. (posted 3/3)

Editor's note: The libero was not a rule change that was considered by the National federation, so it will not be a part of the changes next year.