SEATTLE, WA--Apr 25, 2009
4 WVBA Teams JVDA-bound
WVBA is excited to be sending four teams to the Junior Volleyball Directors Association (JVDA) Championship in Louisville in late June. The JVDA was formed in late 2006 by a group of clubs that were concerned about the growth plans for the juniors division released by USAV that would have resulted in further increased costs for clubs pursuing a national championship.

The planned addition of three new national qualifiers, to be owned by USAV, and the corresponding reduction in the number of bids available at all qualifiers meant that any clubs pursuing bids to the open division of JOs would have to attend many more of these expensive tournaments in order maintain the same odds of qualifing as existed before the additional qualifiers were added.

After numerous attempts by these clubs failed to pursuade USAV leadership to reconsider their growth plans, the JVDA was born. The purpose of the JVDA is to:

   1) grow the game of volleyball by providing a more affordable competitive schedule with less travel by air required, as well as creating more programs designed for elementary and junior high school players;

   2) improving the quality of operation for all juniors clubs through the sharing of best practices between all JVDA clubs; and

   3) continuing to lobby for improvements in the conditions for junior volleyball such as greater access to public gyms, ending the season earlier than the first week of July, etc.

The JVDA Championship will be held over four days, all at the same facility in Louisville, KY. The 17 Open and 18 Open divisions will start their competition on June 26th and finish on June 29th while all other divisions will begin on June 27th and finish on June 30th.

Junior teams from China, Japan and Puerto Rico are again promised to be in attendance giving the tournament an international flair.

The JVDA Championship features the traditional JOs gold medal winning clubs from the midwest including Sports Performance, Fusion, Asics Munciana, KIVA, Team Z, and Milwaukee Sting among others.

2009 Youth VB League
WVBA is enjoying working with girls and boys aged 9-12 in our inaugural 2009 youth volleyball league. This league, which started on April 15th, will run for five consecutive Wednesday nights, 6:30-8:30 at Northshore Junior HS at 12101 NE 160th St., Bothell, WA 98011. There will also be an exhibition tournament on Memorial Day at the University of Washington in conjunction with the Emerald City Classic.

Registration is still open for players we can add for the remaining weeks, at a pro-rated cost. Click here to register now! Download and print the flyer to share with your friends!

WVBA 18s Headed to Miami
WVBA Mizuno 18 was awarded a Club National bid to Junior Olympics as the regional Prime Time winner, KJBVC 18 Baden, earned an Open Division bid in Reno at Far Westerns. The PS Region Club level bid will now trickle down to the WVBA Mizuno 18 team because they finished 2nd at Prime Time to KJ.

No bids from Texas/Minn
All seven Academy teams traveled to JO qualifiers last weekend.

WVBA Mizuno 18, WVBA Mizuno 17, WVBA Mizuno 16 and WVBA Mizuno 16-Gold were in Minneapolis for the Northern Lights JO Qualifier. WVBA Mizuno 16-Black had the best results turning in a 9th place finish while Mizuno 18 finished 13th and Mizuno 17 finished 14th in their respective open division fields. Mizuno 16-Gold finished 39th in 16 Club Division.

WVBA Mizuno 15, WVBA Mizuno 14 and WVBA Mizuno 14-Gold were in Dallas for the Lone Star Classic JO Qualifier. Mizuno 14 paced this group with a 9th place finish while Mizuno 15 finished 11th in the Open Division while Mizuno 14-Gold finished 3rd in Flight 3A in the Club Division.

Regional Championships will be held on May 2-3 for the younger five teams while the older two teams will play a single day regional championship on May 17th.

WVBA Mizuno 16 is the #1 overall seed in the U16 division and will be playing at Juanita HS. WVBA Mizuno 16-Gold holds the overall #16 seed and will also be at Juanita HS.

WVBA Mizuno 15 will be starting out as the #2 overall seed in the U15 division and they will be playing at Washington HS in Tacoma.

WVBA Mizuno 14 will be the #1 overall seed in the U14 division while WVBA Mizuno 14-Gold will start out as the #11 seed overall. Both teams will begin Saturday morning pool play at Roosevelt HS in Seattle.