End of 2020 Club Volleyball Raises Questions for Next Season

Tawny Davis: Victoria Navarro is the director for the El Paso team Sun City Scorchers. She said that the 2020 season ended with the cancellation of a major tournament in Denver, Colorado which caused a ripple effect.

Victoria Navarro: After that everyone just shut down. There was no more local tournaments, no more national tournaments, no more bids. Everything like that ended.

Davis: USA volleyball is going to resume this season, but Navarro is worried that she may lose girls because of the virus and financial concern from parents.

Navarro: I can’t guarantee they won’t get corona. I had a lot of parents that were struggling too, so they might not financially afford it no more. Across the board, everyone is going to lose players.

Davis: Navarro says that she is doing everything she can to keep her players safe for practice and future tournaments, but doesn’t know what the future holds. Tawny Davis, N-C-C News.

El Paso TX (NCC News)- Victoria Navarro is the director and coach for the club volleyball team, Sun City Scorchers, and she wants to do everything possible to ensure the safety of all her players and her coaches for the upcoming season. Navarro said she and her coaches will be disinfecting the volleyballs the teams use after every practice as well as any other equipment that will be used. They will also have their own temperature checks and the coaches are required to wear masks at all times.

She also knows that parents are not only concerned about their daughter’s safety but the financial commitment that it takes to be on a team. She also said how much this pandemic has changed the sport and that she doesn’t know how long they will be able to play.

“No one has had a for sure way of how we are going to do this,” Navarro said, “If we don’t have that standard of how to practice safe playing and having spectators far apart, I don’t know how long this is going to last.”

The 2020 club volleyball season was canceled in March due to the coronavirus eliminating all tournaments across the country including the national tournament. The national tournament is the highlight of the year and is held every year with teams competing at local and regional venues to qualify. The new season that will begin in October will require many changes to tournament play in order to ensure the safety of everyone involved. Some of the changes include that players cannot shake hands before or after the game, they must have masks on if they are on the sidelines during games, and players must sanitize during timeouts. With all these new changes to the tournaments, players and coaches have to decide whether or not it is worth it to play.

Although this season will have many changes, Navarro and her teams still want to play because they love the sport and feel that regardless of the new rules and regulations regarding play, it is still worth it.

The Sun City Scorchers unfortunately had their season ended early in March. The new season begins soon but there will be some major changes at the tournaments they will compete at.
© 2020 Victoria Navarro