Video Review: Diggin'It
2/7/2001 -
Video Review:
Diggin'It (Photo courtesy of NCAA Productions) Video Title:
Diggin'It Twenty years. It is such a long time ago, yet, in some ways, it seems like just an instant ago. In the case of women's volleyball, and in particular the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament, it seems to have passed in the amount of time it takes to snap your fingers. Yet in that time, a lot has happened. Over 300 colleges and universities now sponsor the sport for women across the country. Scholarships and support for women's volleyball programs, and women's sports in general, has increased in leaps and bounds. And no longer is it just a "west coast" sport, as there have now been three champions from outside of California. Of course, one of the biggest changes has taken place with tournament itself, as the NCAA expanded it, first from 20 teams, then 32, and now 64, which is on par with the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments. So much has happened in the first 20 years since the sport has been sanctioned by the NCAA, so many great moments have occurred, and so many great players have played the game, that the NCAA decided to put together this video on the history of the tournament. The end result is a professional, solid, well put together video that volleyball fans, and sports fans alike, will enjoy. Diggin'It, the official NCAA 20th anniversary women's volleyball highlights video, is a celebration of the teams, athletes, and great moments that have occurred in the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament from 1981-2000. It opens with the first championship match won by USC over UCLA at UCLA's famed Pauley Pavilion, and ends with this year's Nebraska victory over Wisconsin in Richmond, Virginia. In between the clips of those two championship matches, you are treated to highlights of the other 18 championship matches as well. Your narrator and guide throughout the 60-minute video is Chris Marlowe, the sports broadcaster and announcer who has become synonymous with the sport of volleyball on television. A perfect selection by the NCAA for this video. As for the volleyball action itself, each and every championship match is covered in the video, with each receiving its own segment containing highlights of some of the top plays of the match, as well as comments by the coaches and athletes that were part of it. Some of the championship match highlights shown and talked about in the video include:
The coaches from these championship matches that you will hear from in the video include Andy Banachowski (UCLA), John Cook (Nebraska), John Dunning (Pacific), Chuck Erbe (USC, later Michigan State), Brian Gimmillaro (Long Beach State), Mick Haley (Texas, now USC), Russ Rose (Penn State), Don Shaw (Stanford), Dave Shoji (Hawai'i), and Terry Pettit (Nebraska). It is not only fun to see how these coaches looked in those days, but also to hear what their thoughts were about those matches. For example, it is interesting to hear Shoji explain that the year his team lost to Texas in 1988, he and his coaching staff figured that the Longhorns would lose in the semifinals to UCLA, which came into the tourney undefeated. Because of that, he and his staff had a lot of scouting information on UCLA and nothing on Texas. They had to scramble between their semifinal and the final to gather as much info as possible to prepare for the Longhorns. Texas, of course, went on to win the championship in three games, to not only become the team east of California to win the championship, but also the first team to win the title without losing a game in the tournament. As well as hearing from the coaches, a lot of the star players of those championship teams participated in the making of the video, including Patty Orozco (UCLA '81), Dietre Collins (Hawai'i '82), Liz Masakayan (UCLA '84), Kim Oden (Stanford '84 and '85), Elaina Oden (Pacific '85 and '86), Tara Cross (Long Beach State '89), Holly McPeak (UCLA '90), Bev Oden (Stanford '92), Danielle Scott (Long Beach State ' 93), Misty May (Long Beach State '98), Kerri Walsh (Stanford '96, '97, and '99), to name just some of them. It is a great list of people that the NCAA was able to get together in the making of this video, which also goes to show how important it was to the collegiate volleyball community as well, because of their participation. This video gives NCAA Women's Volleyball a 60-minute visual history unlike anything that has been done before in the sport. On top of all the championship tournament action, the video also contains "The 20th Anniversary All-Time Team," the six best women's players of all-time as voted by the NCAA coaches. The six players, which were also announced during the broadcast of the 2000 NCAA women's final, are Tara Cross, Natalie Willliams, Bev Oden, Danielle Scott, Misty May, and Kerri Walsh. Each is given a small segment narrated by Heather Cox, which shows clips of their play, as well as comments from the players themselves, coaches, and others. The only player that they were not able to get was Williams, but even that does not detract from the segment they did on her. The NCAA spared no expense, and the volleyball community gave freely of their time, and the end result is this video, Diggin'It, which is a wonderful compilation of the history of the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament. It is a video that is more than worth the price, which is more than reasonable at $24.95, for the memories and moments of NCAA Tournament action you will get to enjoy watching. If you are a fan of the sport of volleyball, you will definitely want to check this video out. Details Video Title:
Diggin'It
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