Survey of 50 States

Survey conducted by Garfield High School girls' volleyball coaching staff between March 12-17, 2007.
In most cases, figures were available in on-line handbooks posted by state high school athletic associations. Where not available on-line, or where they were ambiguous, figures were gathered by telephone conversations with individual state athletic associations.
Rankings were determined by comparing relative maximum match restrictions and length of seasons.

NOTES ON INDIVIDUAL STATES:
Hawaii places no limit on the number of matches; most teams play an average of 35.
California leaves season length and match limits up to each of its ten CIF sections; the survey includes data from Northern California (Sacramento region) and Southern California.
Oklahoma allows teams to begin preseason practice at any time during summer.
New Jersey has no limit on the number of matches; most teams play an average of 26.
Michigan plays girls' volleyball during winter, the only state which does not play in fall.
Vermont is the only state which does not sponsor girls' high school volleyball.

NOTE ON PLAYOFF MATCHES:
In every state, playoff matches are not included in the season limitation.

NOTE ON TRIANGULAR AND QUADRANGULAR SCHEDULING:
In many states, especially those which are predominately rural, teams frequently overcome long travel distance issues by scheduling regular-season conference matches featuring three or four teams playing round-robin matches on one date in one location. When calculating each state’s maximum limitation, the survey counts each tri-meet as two allowable matches and each quad as three.

NOTE ON TOURNAMENTS:
Many states, including Washington, count each day of an all-day tournament toward as one match in the calculation of the season limit. Although specific figures are not included in this survey, Washington is one of the few states to cap the number of allowable tournaments at two; most states allow three or more.

NOTE ON POINTS SYSTEMS:
In a few states, each preseason match, conference match and each match of a tournament, tri-meet or quad is assigned a “point.” Each school is allowed to schedule no more than a predetermined number of points per season. To compute numbers for those states in the survey, the maximum limitations were evaluated in light of Washington’s system: Each match against a preseason or conference opponent counted as one match; each day of an all-day tournament counted as one match.

NOTE ON PUBLIC/PRIVATE SCHOOLS:
In a few states, administration of high school athletics is divided into public and private schools; each governed separately. In those instances, the public school rules are included in the survey.

A list of individual state associations is available on the website of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). To submit any corrections to the figures listed, please send a note to Garfield Volleyball.