Giving the award is ambiguous. It’s about the Rookie of the Year award.
The Dodram 2022-2023 V-League ended the six-month long journey with the awards ceremony on the 10th. While several stars graced the awards ceremony, the male and female rookie awards, which can only be received once in a lifetime, went to Kim Jun-woo (Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance) and Choi Hyo-seo (KGC Ginseng Corporation), respectively.
The problem is that there are no outstanding newcomers, but the reality is that awards are given. Especially the women’s part. It is awkward for both the giver and the receiver.
Candidates for the Rookie of the Year Award are first-year players registered as official players in KOVO. Among the 15 rookies in the women’s division in the 2022-2023 season, less than half of the players stepped on the court. Besides, there are no outstanding players among them.
Until the 2018-2019 season, it was exciting to see who would receive the Rookie of the Year title. At that time, Jeong Ji-yoon (Hyundai E&C) won the rookie award, beating Joo-ah Lee (Heungkuk Life Insurance), with only one vote difference. Both players played a full season, and fierce competition unfolded. It was an exciting time to see who would receive the award before the awards ceremony.
Soon after, the phenomenon of ‘rookie famine’ came. Park Hyeon-joo (Heungkuk Life Insurance), who won the rookie award from the first round 2 of the V-League in the 2019-2020 season, mainly stepped on the court as a’one-point server’. The impact of one shot of the serve was great, but he has not been given a great opportunity since winning the Rookie of the Year award.
The 2020-2021 season was added. At that time, Lee Seon-woo (KGC Ginseng Corporation) received 28 votes out of 31 votes, ‘no votes’. He was the only rookie who stepped on the court frequently, so he had no competitors. 메이저놀이터
The women’s division has become a tomb for rookies. Unlike the men’s team who enter the pros after graduating from high school or entering college, the women’s team goes straight to the pros after graduating from high school, but they are often released without even stepping on the court. There is also a lamentation that there are no players to be selected in the rookie draft due to the shallow player pool.
The selected players are also unable to overcome the competition with seniors, so they are on the verge of extinction. You can tell just by looking at the Korea Expressway Corporation, which won the championship this season. Compared to the 2017-2018 season, which won the first integrated championship, most of the main players are the same.
The same goes for this Best 7. Excluding setter Kim Da-in (25) and foreign players, more than half of the seven players, including libero Lim Im-ok (37), outside hitter Kim Yeon-kyung (35), and middle blockers Yang Hyo-jin (34) and Bae Yuna (34), are in their mid-30s.
As much as that, there are not enough rookies who threaten the position of veterans in each position. For the Rookie of the Year award to shine, you have to show that level of performance.
The problem is then As ‘Volleyball Empress’ Kim Yeon-kyung announces the extension of her active career, the ‘volleyball boom’ will continue into the next season. However, if the buds do not grow after Kim Yeon-kyung, women’s professional volleyball has no choice but to go into forced hibernation.