‘I’m Not Sure This Has Ever Happened’: Volleyball Season Canceled After Not Meeting Required Amount of Players
The athletic department was forced to cancel the season after lack of interest from players.
This year's volleyball season has been canceled due to only three players committing to the team.
“I'm not sure this has ever happened,” said Joshua Jung, former head coach of the team. “It's disappointing. I want to try and help people learn the sport. Not having this team is disappointing. Sometimes these things happen for a reason.”
While Jung did say there was some interest in people joining the team, ultimately they were faced with a deadline and had to decide whether “it was safe for them to play.”
Athletic Department Chair Justin Labagh said that Jung has vacated his position and that the college is in the market for a new volleyball coach, one with a master’s degree. Jung has not yet acquired his degree and therefore cannot teach any classes, leaving him empty handed for this semester.
The Guardsman reached out to Joy Robis, who was on the team last year, and would have been for this season as well had there been one, but she declined to comment on the situation.
“It was 100% [lack of] participation. We only had three players,” said Labagh. “The coach tried recruiting all summer long, and he couldn’t get any girls to commit.”
Another reason why there could be disinterest in the program is the lack of winning. In the past two seasons, Rams volleyball has gone a combined 5-47. Whatever the reason, it is quite alarming that only three of the 14 players from last season would elect to return, especially considering all but two of them were freshman.
Labagh explained that before the semester had started, Jung had communicated with the department that he had enough players to field a team, but “when school started in August, a red flag came up that all these players weren't responding to his emails.”
“When students apply to CCSF, they can check a bunch of different boxes, for financial aid, if they want to participate in sports, so we reached out to everyone that had interest in women’s volleyball. We put flyers all around the school, we put a person at Ram Plaza to recruit people. We did all that for three weeks, and we still couldn’t get enough.”
Women’s Athletic Director Derek Lau did not respond for comment in time for publication.
According to Labagh, the budget set for the sport itself will mostly stay put, although a small amount of it will be used for general Athletic Department needs, athletic tape being mentioned as one of the possibilities.
