FAQ'S
Frequently
Asked Question List
Choose
a question below to see the answer, or
scroll down to see them all.
Q: What
is Northwest Juniors ELITE VBC?
A:
Northwest Juniors ELITE Volleyball Club
(NWJRS ELITE) is a sister club of Northwest Juniors
VBC, the
oldest established Volleyball
Club in the
Northwest (est. 1972). NWJRS ELITE was formed
for the 2010 season in order to offer our members a
Nationally Competitive club
on the Eastside and
Edmonds with the same organization and leadership
afforded to NW Juniors members, featuring full-time
club directors. The club is managed by
Northwest Volleyball, a leader in the Volleyball
community -- featuring management by 18 year club
management veteran, Tony Miranda.
In forming a Nationally competitive club, we are
exposing our members to the latest training methods
and tools that they need to be successful at the
college level.
NW
Juniors is a member in good standing of the
Puget Sound
Region of the
United States Volleyball
Association.
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Q:
What is the NWJRS ELITE Mission
Statement?
A:
NWJRS ELITE was founded to give
local athletes who are motivated to play
volleyball at the collegiate level an
opportunity to excel, receive advanced
training, and gain exposure for their hard
work and dedication.
We do this by providing an environment where
these motivated athletes will be exposed to
high levels of training with an emphasis on
fundamentals and sportsmanship, be given
opportunities to compete with the best teams
in the country, and offer them the tools to
be successful. Among the tools we will
provide:
-
Training in systems of play used by the
greatest teams in the world
-
Tools to promote themselves to college
recruiters
-
An understanding of the importance of
goal setting in developing the whole
athlete and belief that in order to be
successful, they must have a roadmap to
success
-
Promote leadership and teach the
importance of team unity
-
Stress the importance of personal
discipline, organizational skills, time
management, and character building
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Q:
When Are Tryouts?
A:
Tryouts are typically
in November:
for Under 14's it is typically the first weekend
in November and for
U15 and older teams it is after the State High
School Volleyball Tournament. A
tryout schedule is posted to the homepage once it is
finalized. We offer four teams each Edmonds
and on the Eastside for a total of 8 teams.
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Q:
What
are the tryouts like?
A: The
tryouts for the Elite Teams occur at the same time
as tryouts for NW Juniors teams.
We try to first determine which players
are candidates for the Elite teams. Our
goal at tryouts is to try to put
together the most competitive and
balanced team possible so that our Elite
teams can compete among the best teams
in the region and the country. We
run them concurrently with our NW
Juniors tryouts so that those that are
not selected for an Elite team still
have an opportunity to play club
volleyball for a very competitive and
organized club. We try to offer
opportunities for many players, but
because of facility and staff
limitations, we cannot offer a spot on a
team for every person that comes to
tryouts. At tryouts, we typically do volleyball
skill-related drills to assess each
player's skill level, then begin
selecting players for our Elite teams with
multiple game-like drills. The best
way to assess playing skill is through
observing and evaluating players in a
game-playing environment. Team
selection is done by the coach that will
coach the team and players usually get
the opportunity to interact and meet the
coach that will be coaching them
that the season -- at tryouts.
Throughout
the tryout process, the coaching
staff performs on-court evaluations of
such things as attitude, effort, ability
to communicate, competitiveness and
desire.
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Q:
What
are the age group definitions?
A: In
a nutshell, it is based on how old your
child will be on September 1st of the
following year (the calendar year of the
club season). That is the youngest age
group players can compete in. Here
are
the USA Volleyball
2009-2010
Age Group Definitions
As a
guide, the 18-U division typically
contains high school seniors and
juniors, the 16-U division consists of
high school sophomores and freshmen, the
15-U division consists of freshmen only,
the
14-U division is made up of 8th and 7th
grade [middle school] students.
For those
that are "old for their grade" or just
miss the date as defined by their age
group definitions, they must play at AGE
level, not at GRADE level. There
are very few, if any, exceptions made
for those in this category.
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Q:
Who
do I contact for questions?
A: For general questions regarding
the club, you
can contact Club
Director Tony
Miranda at 425-497-1051
X 102,
Assistant Club Director Kim Culliton at
425-497-1051 X 101 or via e-mail at info@volleyballnw.com
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Q: What
is club volleyball?
A: Club volleyball is an
opportunity for volleyball players of
varying abilities to continue their
development past the fall school
season. Within the Puget Sound
Region, [Puget
Sound Region website] there are many clubs each
consisting of teams of varying age
groups. All said, there are at
least 200 teams within the region.
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Q:
How
are the different teams composed?
A:
All teams will have at least 12 players.
For the NW Juniors Elite program, teams
will be "Black" in Edmonds and "Gold" on
the Eastside. The
Elite teams, are
distinctively different from all the other
teams in the club, in that these
teams require additional commitments
from their players in terms of finances
and time, as these teams travel
extensively and their playing seasons
can extend through the first week of July.
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Q:
How
does a player get picked
for a
particular team?
A: We assign players to
teams based on a combination of tryout
results and team composition needs.
The tryout results are determined from
the
volleyball game competition and also by
on-court evaluations by the coaching
staff of attitude, effort, ability to
communicate, competitiveness and desire.
The team composition needs are
determined by each individual coach's
decision as to how many players are
needed at each position (setter, middle
blocker, outside hitter, Libero, etc),
with additional consideration given to such factors
as physical height,
if they are returners to the club, and where they go to school.
The goal is to assign players to teams
where they will have the best chance of
individual success and be most capable
of making a significant contribution to
the team's success, as well as to meet
the needs of the teams to allow for the
strongest possible lineup.
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Q:
How
many players are on a team?
A: We assign at least 12 players on
every team. The exact
number is dependent upon several
factors, including team composition
needs, ability level of players and
number of athletes participating in
tryouts.
During tryouts, we would typically pick
12 players and one alternate at every
position for every team. Once
selected, players are asked to sign a
Club-Player Contract. Incumbents are allowed to sign beginning
the first day of tryouts for that age
group. Those that did not play for
our club last season have to wait until
the Monday following the beginning of
tryouts for their age group.
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Q:
How
often do we
play in tournaments?
A: A proposed schedule is posted
on the "Schedule" page.
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Q:
Where
are the tournaments held?
A: Local and Power League tournaments are held at a
variety of locations
throughout the Puget Sound Region.
Travel tournaments are held around the
country. All teams travel to the
Spokane Qualifier, and one other out of
region Qualifier. In addition, the
U18's travel to the Las Vegas
Invitational, which not a Qualifier, but
it is the first and largest early-season
test which also features many Division I
& Division II college recruiters.
Our intention is to give all of our
players maximum exposure to recruiters
and ample opportunities to qualify for
the USAV Junior National Championships.
Here is
a
List of 2010 USAV
National Qualifiers
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Q:
When
will we
get tournament information?
A: The timing for receiving
tournament information such as gym
location and start times primarily
depends upon the respective tournament
director. Due to team
cancellations, the tourney schedule is
not set until the week prior. Most
directors manage to inform the team
coach by the Wednesday immediately
preceding the weekend's tournament.
Once our club receives tournament
information, it is posted on our home
page, so players and parents are asked
to check the home page frequently for
those updates.
Specifically,
the information for Northwest
Juniors-hosted
tournaments will be posted on our
website by the Tuesday or Wednesday immediately
preceding the tourney. Larger
tournaments like qualifiers typically
have information
available on their website about 1 week
prior with updates and revisions given
out to coaches at their coaches meeting
the night before the tournament.
Most qualifiers have a coaches meeting
the night before the tournament and we
find out our playing schedule at that
time. Regardless of the
tournament, as soon as we are given
information, we will post it to our
"Schedules" page of the website.
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Q:
How
often do we
practice?
A: All teams will practice 2 times per
week. Typically practices are on Sunday afternoons/evenings and
a weeknight (Monday - Friday). On occasions where a tournament is played
on a Sunday, there would be no Sunday
practice and an attempt is made to give
the team an additional tournament during
the week. Because we compete with
basketball for gyms, we cannot guarantee
that teams will practice the same two
days each week every month -- though we
do our best to accommodate. Even
with the affiliation with NW Juniors,
the Elite teams will get priority for
the best practice schedule as well as
extra tutoring sessions with our
Technical Directors.
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Q:
Where
do
we practice?
A: For our Eastside teams, practice locations center
around the I-405
corridor from Bothell to Renton.
Specifically, practices are held at any
of the following:
Bellevue College,
Newport High School, Tillicum Middle School,
Juanita High School,
Northshore
JHS, Canyon Park JHS, Liberty HS, and Kenmore JHS
to
name a few.
For our
Edmonds teams, practice are primarily at Edmonds Community College,
and occasionally at schools down the I-405 corridor as
far south as Northshore Junior High
(160th St. Exit) or Juanita HS (Totem
Lake Exit).
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Q:
How
much does it cost?
A: We have opted this
season to include all travel costs in
the cost of participation -- not
including individual airfare.
Additionally, all costs are combined and
divided equally by all club members --
regardless of their age group or
schedule. Dues cost for our
inaugural season of NWJRS ELITE are
$3,200 for the season. Dues will include
all uniforms,
practices, coaching, USAV fees,
tournament entries, and the cost for
all travel tournaments that al Elite
teams attend. The primary
costs that are not included are airfare.
All teams also have the option of
attending the Volleyball
Festival as a season-ending tournament.
If a team qualifies for Nationals, every
team member is REQUIRED to attend and
pay their share of the team costs.
The additional costs cover coaching and
practices for the added month as well as
all travel costs, and will be billed
separately and paid in installments.
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Q:
What
do the fees not
cover?
A: Players and their parents will
need to consider costs that are not
included in their fee payment, namely:
travel costs (gas) for local tournaments,
airfare for National Qualifier tournaments; food and drink
while traveling; lodging for parents at
travel tournaments, if desired; personal playing
equipment such as volleyballs, and
ankle support braces. Because of
our association with sponsors,
however, we are typically able to offer many of
these items a great discount to our
members.
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Q:
How
long does the season last?
A: The typical season begins with
try-outs in November, followed by
team registration and a club-wide meetings, and the initial practices/training
camp in
early
December.
The scheduled season ends at the Emerald
City Classic on Memorial Day Weekend.
The season can extend through June for
teams that Qualify for Nationals or opt
to attend the Volleyball Festival.
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Q:
What
is The Volleyball Festival?
A: The Volleyball Festival is not
only the largest volleyball tournament
in the world, but it's also the largest
annual sporting event. Over 900
teams from across the entire USA, and
some foreign countries, participate in
the 4 age divisions; the tournament will be held in
Phoenix, Arizona. A minimum of 13
matches are guaranteed for each team,
and the tournament format ensures that
teams will compete against other teams
of similar ability. The Festival
is usually held in late June/early
July, with
competition lasting for an entire week.
You can
find out more about the Volleyball
Festival by visiting their website volleyball-festival.com.
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Q:
Are
there fundraisers
offered by the club?
A: NW
Juniors produces
for a Club Yearbook and club members
secure advertisers for that
yearbook. All players in the club
are required to secure at least one
business card sized ad ($50). All
advertising above that ad are given 100%
back to the member in the form of a
credit to their account.
We also encourage individual fundraising
activities, such as solicitation of
businesses for sponsorship, car washes,
phone book distribution, etc..
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