Much like football is the dominant sport in the Midwest and hockey rules in Canada, men’s volleyball has traditionally been a bigger sport the further west you go. This trend could not be more obvious at Ohio State.
The Buckeye spikers are No. 15 nationally and have been contenders for the conference championship consistently for the past few years, but there aren’t many outside the men’s volleyball program at OSU that would know that fact.
This season OSU has averaged 335 fans per home game, according to the OSU athletic department web site. Brigham Young, on the other hand, averaged 2,365 fans per home game last season and are averaging 3,296 fans per game this season, according to the BYU athletics web site.
OSU coach Pete Hanson said it is frustrating for a player to enter an atmosphere where a school such as BYU gets more fan support than what the Buckeyes are used to getting at home.
“Visiting crowds make it extremely hard to play,” Hanson said. “But we just don’t have that luxury at home. If I’m a player, I’d love to play in front of more fans than what we are used to.”
OSU setter Mark Peckham agreed with Hanson and said it’s frustrating that more people don’t come out to their matches.
“I say it’s frustrating because there is a lot of potential with this team. We have a great facility and a competitive team,” Peckham said. “I know OSU offers a lot of options as far as sporting events go, so we just go out and try to do our best, no matter who comes to the game.”
OSU middle hitter Scott Spurlock said the first time he played in front of a crowd at BYU he was in awe.
“The first time I played there as a freshman, it was like a deer in headlights. You could barely hear yourself think; it was real tough out of the gate,” Spurlock said. “But now when we play in front of crowds like that, I find it real easy to get jacked up for the match. There’s people yelling and screaming. I get excited. I’d rather play in front of a big crowd.”
Men’s volleyball is a sport in which large fan bases are hard to come by in Columbus, Hanson said. It is a bigger game on the West Coast because it is a game that many people have grown up playing.
“Absolutely volleyball is bigger out there. Look at the different cultures that are there and that are here,” Hanson said. “Growing up, their social activities were to go to the beach; where in Ohio, it’s to go to the rec center and play basketball.
“So much of it is climate-related. In California, there is an interest in indoor and beach volleyball. Kids grow up playing both,” Hanson said.
BYU coach Tom Peterson agreed with Hanson and said that volleyball at BYU is popular because it is fairly accepted, and the team is successful year after year.
“Volleyball is a great spectator sport; it’s an addictive sport,” Peterson said. “Growing up, they see it played, and they grow up playing it.”
Peterson said volleyball is a big sport as a whole, not just at BYU.
“Volleyball is the second-largest sport in the world behind soccer. Anywhere else, but here in the U.S., it’s primitive,” Peterson said.
“It is something that has always been popular at BYU, and that may be because of the faith-base of the school,” he said. “Instead of going out to the bars and to parties, students choose to go to more sporting events. It’s a cheap date.”
Mark Pavlik, coach at Penn State, reiterated what Hanson and Peterson said about volleyball being a West Coast game.
“There is just more opportunity to play year-round out there,” he said. “Generations grow up watching their brothers and their fathers play. The opportunities are more limited here than out there.”
Student support for men’s volleyball at Penn State is better than that at OSU, but Pavlik said it could be better.
“Obviously we always think it could be better. We find that it’s hard to get a big crowd sometimes because we are in the middle of the state,” Pavlik said. “We are getting more general sports fans from the town of State College than ever before, though, and that could be because we don’t have a professional sports draw in the immediate area.”
The success of the men’s volleyball team, as well as the success of the women’s volleyball team at Penn State, has contributed to the strong fan base, Pavlik said.
“I would say the success of our women’s volleyball team has been a big important factor in the support for our team,” Pavlik said. “The boosters and the community help to support us. We have great fans.”
Hanson said there is only so much he can do as far as bringing in fans is concerned.
“I know this: If you win, you get on the radar with some people, and that gets more people in the stands,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s that students don’t know or they don’t care, but there is only so much we can control.”
While being on the West Coast creates advantages in fan base, all three coaches said it is not necessarily a recruiting advantage.
“I don’t think that location affects recruiting because there are still so few collegiate programs,” Hanson said. “We aren’t at a huge disadvantage being in Ohio, because we get a bulk of our recruiting from outside the state anyways.
“There are pockets of good volleyball areas across the country in Wisconsin, Chicago, Pennsylvania, St. Louis. Of course California, too, but recruiting there is sometimes a long shot; it’s a hit or miss kind of thing,” he said.
Peterson agreed with Hanson about recruiting in California.
“It is really tough to recruit against California schools like Southern Cal and UCLA and Pepperdine. What we try to do, though, is look at getting the best (Church of Latter Day Saints) players we can,” Peterson said. “We are at an advantage with California kids because of BYU’s locale and the base of student fans.”
Pavlik said Pennsylvania has become a hotbed for volleyball recruits, and its location doesn’t harm their recruiting efforts.
“I wouldn’t say that being in Pennsylvania affects our recruiting. You have to work hard in any sport to get the best players out there,” Pavlik said. “There are good players here in Pennsylvania.
“I’m not sold on there being dominant areas of recruiting. All you have to do is look at the previous All-Americans. There is a wide breakdown of players from all across the country,” he said.
