Inside Out
Indoor softball, outdoor swimming; perhaps outdoor volleyball
will come next?
will come next?
If Bill Veeck were alive today ...
Sure, he would be over a hundred years old, but the legendary and creative owner of the
St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox would have kept grinding out some way to bring
people to the ballpark – in this economy.
Monster homerun races brought people back to Major League Baseball after the Strike of
1994. Perhaps something only in the mind of Veeck himself would bring people back
today due to the fallout of such homerun races.
And sure, the ideas would probably be worse than Disco Demolition. But we have seen
better things to draw more interest in sports. They are not bizarre, but rather plain and
different.
When the National Hockey League was trying to rebound from a lockout, it took one game
of the regular season schedule and shook it up – with the result being a shaken-up snow
globe. The Outdoor Classic, held annually on New Year's Day since 2006, is one of the
NHL's top events of the season. Games are played in outdoor venues, with last year's
event taking place at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Canada actually came up with the idea with
its Heritage Classic, first played in 2003.
The NHL took something inside and took it outside. Ottawa Township High School did the
same thing this fall with one of its sports.
On August 25, Ottawa moved one of its triangulars from the school's indoor pool to
Riordan Pool, the city's outdoor pool. The meet, which also included Northern Illinois Big
12 foes Morris and Sterling, was won by the Golden Warriors with the hosts place second
and the Redskins not too far behind. The meet marked the first time in Illinois high school
sports history that a girls swimming meet took place outdoors.
And the weather was great!
The weather can be bad, and the switcheroo can also work. In 2008, DeKalb made up a
couple of early softball cancellations by playing in a large indoor building. At the DeKalb
Park District’s Sports and Recreation Center, the Barbs had little trouble in beating Aurora
East in the first indoor softball game since the IHSA recognized girls softball as a sport.
During the early 1900s, and before the Association banned interscholastic girls sports in
1908, girls softball games were commonly played indoors.
In this competitive high school sports world, playing a good amount of games can help a
team do well in its goals. Feels good to have playing time experience over others, doesn't
it?
What other sports can be flipped inside-out?
Only One
Sure, it is possible to put outdoor sports indoors, and vice-versa. But are the venues
large enough?
Iowa plays state championship football, and playoff semifinal games, indoors at the
University of Northern Iowa's UNI-Dome. Illinois does not have a facility large enough for
100 yards and then some. The i Wireless Center (formerly the MARK of the Quad Cities),
BMO Harris Bank Center (formerly the Rockford MetroCentre), Peoria's Carver Arena and
Bloomington's U.S. Cellular Coliseum do not count. Those venues host Arena Football,
which has a 50-yard field from end zone to end zone.
Winter sports have no choice than to hold its events indoors due to the weather, and it
won't be warm enough to have basketball players play as if they were at Rucker Park in
New York City.
Indoor tennis has been done, and indoor track has become a normal part of that sport's
season.
Only in The Jetson's can one picture indoor golf.
Indoor baseball cannot be done due to both the lack of an indoor facility and the flight of
the batted baseball being longer than it is in softball.
Indoor cross country technically can be done, but it isn't the same with a level surface and
without fresh air.
Indoor soccer and lacrosse could also be done, but with a one-of-a-kind indoor facility.
However, what facilities we have in Illinois already cannot host indoor football – and since
a soccer pitch is just as long as a football field (and a lacrosse field is 110 yards), it is too
short of a playing area. Perhaps a warehouse could be best suited for an indoor soccer
game, but its hard to find one without support beams in the way.
Like swimming, water polo can also be done outdoors. The NISB area doesn't have a
school that offers water polo, and the scheduling window between cold weather and its
playoffs is too short for consideration.
Only one other sport remains, that being volleyball.
Outdoor Volleyball
Stock car racing kicks off its season with its best event of the year, that being the Daytona
500. After that third Sunday in February, the season begins to take shape.
Volleyball is the only other indoor sport in the area that can also be done outdoors. The
best time to hold such a meet would be during the earliest weeks of the season, making
for a unique event to lead to the rest of the volleyball season.
All without sand, too.
The weather will still be perfect until some point in early September, thus tackling the
climate issue. Early season meets are typically against non-conference opponents,
making the reach of such an event a great one.
Such an event doesn't come without some sort of obstacle, however.
Most regular-season meets start with the freshman level playing around 5 p.m., and then
moving onto sophomore matches, and finally varsity matches. Sunlight causes a problem
for the younger kids if such meets were held outdoors. Varsity teams begin to play when it
is close to dark outside. So such an spectacle needs to be a varsity-only event, when it is
dark out.
Since the event will be held at night, there will need to be sufficient lighting to help the
players and coaches see what's out there. Football fields, baseball/softball diamonds and
soccer pitches can be used if such facilities have lighting. Baseball and softball diamonds
would likely work best due to the location of the lights, however they will be too bright for
play in a sport where looking upward is commonplace.
So a location has been established – on a lighted football field or lighted soccer pitch.
For a playing surface, large invitationals held in multi-purpose facilities feature plastic
connecting tiles, which are rougher than a gymnasium floor. After finding something to
create a level playing surface, placing the plastic tiles on it will make for the volleyball
court. Then comes the apparatus to fit the poles of the volleyball net into.
Knowing what the score is shouldn't be a problem, if the field has an electronic
scoreboard.
Seating may be a little farther away than how it is in a gymnasium, but it is still the same
one-side seating arrangement that most schools are converting to. If there is enough
track area between the stands and the court, it can be used for digging and passing
practice.
Placing boundaries will be a challenge, considering the playing surface will be a raised
one. No libero wants to tumble down a platform going after a ball, so there should be
some support to keep the players from falling over. What to do with the balls, then, if they
go out-of-bounds and onto the grass? Raised netting staked down from a raised playing
surface to the ground, or some more ball boys or girls in the grass.
In addition, no ceiling or metal ceiling fixture to hit or see through.
As generic as these general ideas are, they are concepts that can be improved upon.
These days, people are looking for unique ways to bring attention to the team, school and
sports they love. Such a concept as outdoor volleyball can do that.
How about Eastland and Newark in such a match? Hononegah and Moline? Mendota and
LaSalle-Peru? Even Rock Falls and Sterling, or DeKalb and Sycamore? How about
combining the event with the “Volley For the Cure” promotion? So many things can come
out of this.
It just takes a little creative thinking.
Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and returns from his column
hiatus. He can be reached at Northernillinoissportsbeat (at) yahoo (dot) com. --- Talk
about what's written on our Message Boards!
Sure, he would be over a hundred years old, but the legendary and creative owner of the
St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox would have kept grinding out some way to bring
people to the ballpark – in this economy.
Monster homerun races brought people back to Major League Baseball after the Strike of
1994. Perhaps something only in the mind of Veeck himself would bring people back
today due to the fallout of such homerun races.
And sure, the ideas would probably be worse than Disco Demolition. But we have seen
better things to draw more interest in sports. They are not bizarre, but rather plain and
different.
When the National Hockey League was trying to rebound from a lockout, it took one game
of the regular season schedule and shook it up – with the result being a shaken-up snow
globe. The Outdoor Classic, held annually on New Year's Day since 2006, is one of the
NHL's top events of the season. Games are played in outdoor venues, with last year's
event taking place at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Canada actually came up with the idea with
its Heritage Classic, first played in 2003.
The NHL took something inside and took it outside. Ottawa Township High School did the
same thing this fall with one of its sports.
On August 25, Ottawa moved one of its triangulars from the school's indoor pool to
Riordan Pool, the city's outdoor pool. The meet, which also included Northern Illinois Big
12 foes Morris and Sterling, was won by the Golden Warriors with the hosts place second
and the Redskins not too far behind. The meet marked the first time in Illinois high school
sports history that a girls swimming meet took place outdoors.
And the weather was great!
The weather can be bad, and the switcheroo can also work. In 2008, DeKalb made up a
couple of early softball cancellations by playing in a large indoor building. At the DeKalb
Park District’s Sports and Recreation Center, the Barbs had little trouble in beating Aurora
East in the first indoor softball game since the IHSA recognized girls softball as a sport.
During the early 1900s, and before the Association banned interscholastic girls sports in
1908, girls softball games were commonly played indoors.
In this competitive high school sports world, playing a good amount of games can help a
team do well in its goals. Feels good to have playing time experience over others, doesn't
it?
What other sports can be flipped inside-out?
Only One
Sure, it is possible to put outdoor sports indoors, and vice-versa. But are the venues
large enough?
Iowa plays state championship football, and playoff semifinal games, indoors at the
University of Northern Iowa's UNI-Dome. Illinois does not have a facility large enough for
100 yards and then some. The i Wireless Center (formerly the MARK of the Quad Cities),
BMO Harris Bank Center (formerly the Rockford MetroCentre), Peoria's Carver Arena and
Bloomington's U.S. Cellular Coliseum do not count. Those venues host Arena Football,
which has a 50-yard field from end zone to end zone.
Winter sports have no choice than to hold its events indoors due to the weather, and it
won't be warm enough to have basketball players play as if they were at Rucker Park in
New York City.
Indoor tennis has been done, and indoor track has become a normal part of that sport's
season.
Only in The Jetson's can one picture indoor golf.
Indoor baseball cannot be done due to both the lack of an indoor facility and the flight of
the batted baseball being longer than it is in softball.
Indoor cross country technically can be done, but it isn't the same with a level surface and
without fresh air.
Indoor soccer and lacrosse could also be done, but with a one-of-a-kind indoor facility.
However, what facilities we have in Illinois already cannot host indoor football – and since
a soccer pitch is just as long as a football field (and a lacrosse field is 110 yards), it is too
short of a playing area. Perhaps a warehouse could be best suited for an indoor soccer
game, but its hard to find one without support beams in the way.
Like swimming, water polo can also be done outdoors. The NISB area doesn't have a
school that offers water polo, and the scheduling window between cold weather and its
playoffs is too short for consideration.
Only one other sport remains, that being volleyball.
Outdoor Volleyball
Stock car racing kicks off its season with its best event of the year, that being the Daytona
500. After that third Sunday in February, the season begins to take shape.
Volleyball is the only other indoor sport in the area that can also be done outdoors. The
best time to hold such a meet would be during the earliest weeks of the season, making
for a unique event to lead to the rest of the volleyball season.
All without sand, too.
The weather will still be perfect until some point in early September, thus tackling the
climate issue. Early season meets are typically against non-conference opponents,
making the reach of such an event a great one.
Such an event doesn't come without some sort of obstacle, however.
Most regular-season meets start with the freshman level playing around 5 p.m., and then
moving onto sophomore matches, and finally varsity matches. Sunlight causes a problem
for the younger kids if such meets were held outdoors. Varsity teams begin to play when it
is close to dark outside. So such an spectacle needs to be a varsity-only event, when it is
dark out.
Since the event will be held at night, there will need to be sufficient lighting to help the
players and coaches see what's out there. Football fields, baseball/softball diamonds and
soccer pitches can be used if such facilities have lighting. Baseball and softball diamonds
would likely work best due to the location of the lights, however they will be too bright for
play in a sport where looking upward is commonplace.
So a location has been established – on a lighted football field or lighted soccer pitch.
For a playing surface, large invitationals held in multi-purpose facilities feature plastic
connecting tiles, which are rougher than a gymnasium floor. After finding something to
create a level playing surface, placing the plastic tiles on it will make for the volleyball
court. Then comes the apparatus to fit the poles of the volleyball net into.
Knowing what the score is shouldn't be a problem, if the field has an electronic
scoreboard.
Seating may be a little farther away than how it is in a gymnasium, but it is still the same
one-side seating arrangement that most schools are converting to. If there is enough
track area between the stands and the court, it can be used for digging and passing
practice.
Placing boundaries will be a challenge, considering the playing surface will be a raised
one. No libero wants to tumble down a platform going after a ball, so there should be
some support to keep the players from falling over. What to do with the balls, then, if they
go out-of-bounds and onto the grass? Raised netting staked down from a raised playing
surface to the ground, or some more ball boys or girls in the grass.
In addition, no ceiling or metal ceiling fixture to hit or see through.
As generic as these general ideas are, they are concepts that can be improved upon.
These days, people are looking for unique ways to bring attention to the team, school and
sports they love. Such a concept as outdoor volleyball can do that.
How about Eastland and Newark in such a match? Hononegah and Moline? Mendota and
LaSalle-Peru? Even Rock Falls and Sterling, or DeKalb and Sycamore? How about
combining the event with the “Volley For the Cure” promotion? So many things can come
out of this.
It just takes a little creative thinking.
Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and returns from his column
hiatus. He can be reached at Northernillinoissportsbeat (at) yahoo (dot) com. --- Talk
about what's written on our Message Boards!
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