SEATTLE, WA--May 21, 2009
Regional Championships
WVBA Mizuno 14 won the Regional Championships for the U14 division on the first weekend of Regionals. They defeated UPVBC 14 in the finals.

Mizuno 14 Celebrate Regionals
WVBA Mizuno 14-Gold finshed 1st in the Bronze Division.

WVBA Mizuno 15 finished 2nd in Gold in the U15 Regional final losing to PSVBC 15-Gold.

WVBA Mizuno 16 also finished 2nd in the U16 Regional final falling to Capital 15 Ice.

WVBA Mizuno 16-Gold finished 1st in the Bronze Division of U16 Regionals.

WVBA Mizuno 18 finished 2nd to KJ in the U18 Gold Regionals last Sunday while WVBA Mizuno 17 finished 5th in U17 Gold.

2009 Youth VB League

WVBA is very happy with the results of their first ever spring youth league for younger players in grades 3-7. We played and trained for five consecutive Wednesday evenings at Northshore Junior High School. We experimented with the rules and progressed through a modified game of 4 vs. 4 on a smaller court with a lower net.

Thanks to Sarah Chase, Mary Cotton, Lauri Sears, Tim Marvin and Jackie Devich for organizing the league and keeping things running smoothly. Thanks also to all of the WVBA players that came out to help with coaching these future volleyball players. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

These younger (and smaller) players quickly adapted to rules allowing them to catch the first two contacts to emphasize the play at the net with lots of hitting and blocking.

We will be holding a demonstration tournament in conjunction with the Emerald City Classic Invitational over Memorial Day Weekend at the University of Washington.

The youth tournament will take place from 8:30am-12:30pm on Memorial Day on Court 25 in Dempsey Indoor. Please try to come out and take a look at a new way to teach younger players the game of vollebyall that is both fun and fast paced.

Anthem Singers Needed
We are looking for a couple of singers for the national anthem for Monday morning's Memorial Day Ceremony. Minas Tênis Clube coach Marcelo Melado will sing the Brazilian national anthem. We are looking for someone to sing the USA national anthem and someone to sing the Canadian national anthem. Please send us an email if you have a player, coach or parent that is interested in doing this for us. They would need to be available to sing at 7:45am on Monday morning, May 25th at the tournament desk inside of Dempsey Indoor.

We are very excited to host the two teams from the Minas Tênis Clube of Belo Horizonte, Brasil who will be attending the ECC for their fourth straight year. They will be arriving around noon on Wednesday.

Santizing Protocol
We will be taking some precautions during this year's ECC in an attempt to minimize the spread of germs. We have decided to eliminate the traditional hand-slapping between teams before and after each match and to ask every player, coach and officiating crew to use hand sanitizer that will be available at each of the scorekeeper tables throughout the tournament.

UW Parking
Parking for the Emerald City Classic will cost $6.00 until noon on Saturday at the two lots available to us. All parking must be in either lots E11 (southwest of Husky Stadium) or E1 (north of the soccer fields). After noon on Saturday we are told parking will be free for the balance of the weekend.

Team Check in - Reception
All teams are required to check in on Friday night, May 22nd. Any club representative can check in teams beginning at 6:00pm and continuing until 9:00pm. Team check-in will take place in the Founder's Room upstairs from the main concourse at Bank of America Arena at the University of Washington.

There will be a coaches' reception taking place during team check in and coaches and club directors are encouraged to hang out and socialize with each other. We will provide some food and drinks for everyone.

You must show proof of USAV Medical Release forms for each of your players at check in.

If you are having another coach or director checking your team in, please make sure they have the medical release forms for your team.

Late Check-in
If you are unable to make it to team check-in for some reason you can make arrangements for late check in. You must contact us to arrange for late check in or risk having your team dropped from the tournament.

Waiting List
We still have many teams on the waiting list hoping for a late drop. If you are having any problems whatsoever fielding a team for the tournament, please contact us right away as we can probably replace you now with enough notice. If you don't give us enough notice to replace your team we will not be able to provide your team with a refund.

We look forward to seeing everyone next week!