2011 Elevation U15     General Information

Ohio Valley Region Player Bill of Rights

Coaches
15-1 Carlos Chia (head coach at Northern Kentucky University)
15-2 Josman Rodriguez (coach of 16-A last year)

Cost: 
15-1 = $2150 (7 or 8 tourneys including USA or JVA Nationals)
15-2 = $1950 (7 or 8 tourneys including MidEast Qualifier)

Tryout update:
Elevation Volleyball has submitted it's request to run tryouts on November 14th for this age group.  We will add a registration form to our website once our tryouts have been sanctioned by the region.  Please check back for an update and understand that NO tryouts in the Ohio Valley Region can be held until November 14th so you are not missing anything at this point.  Elevation will be holding Open Gyms during the 2nd half of October for those who are done with your high school season.

U15 General Information

Our Elevation Volleyball Club had an outstanding year in the U14 age group this past season.  The National team qualified for Nationals in Reno the Regional team finished 3rd out of 224 teams in our region!  Thank you to all the players and families who helped us achieve these goals despite the number of injuries that we encountered.  We definitely Elevated some doctor bills in this age group!  As we look toward next year it's important to realize that things change at 15's.  When the girls get to high school they may get moved to other positions or even get cut which is an obvious issue.  Considerations like these and the realization that a few of our regional players may need to be moved to the National team lead us to the need for evaluations after high school ends.  We also have outside players asking about our club and they will be invited to tryout and win spots on our teams.  As you know, our club will not be making any official invitations in July.  I personally felt that this was not possible as a club because we were not prepared to make all of those decisions.  Things happened so fast and we have been so busy this summer that competent invitations just were not in the cards.   We are planning on having a majority of you being back next year and some invitations would have been obvious.  We hope to see everyone at tryouts in November to decide the teams.  We have some outstanding players with us and we hope to add a few more through the tryout process.  We will be forming 2 teams (1 National and 1 American) this year at 15's. 
 
Question: Why not add a 3rd team?
Answer: We don't want to be that large of a club and water down what we do.  We do have a great list of coaches to be assigned but we also offer Training Teams which take up a hundreds of coaching hours each session.  Our complex strives to be a well-rounded volleyball only center and JO's are only a great piece of that puzzle.   
 
Question: If I'm on the bubble of last year's team shouldn't I be signing with another team now?
Answer: No......yes, you can not sign with any team until November.  You can inquire about open spots on other teams and that is wise to do as a back-up.  You will see tryout notices beginning to be posted in September as well.  I'd attend more than just our tryout at that point if you are unsure about returning.
 
July Invitation Clarification for those that are curious: 
The "July Invite Rule" put in place this year pertains to "home clubs" only.  Home clubs had until July 21st to officially invite players back for next year if desired.  Acceptance of an offer was to be due by July 31st.  This would lock the players spot for the next year.  The July rule is best for entire teams that want to stay together and for top players who would be potentially recruited by another club and want to stay with their current club.  That helps a team build its core and takes some unknowns out of the air so the rest of you can make competent decisions.  This year we have seen clubs stretch for early commitments even from the 2nd or 3rd teams in their club.  It is an undesired consequence that many people feel pressured to accept a spot on a team that they know little about or when they wish to test the waters elsewhere.  That is not the intent of the early signing period.  The region asked that clubs making invites disclose the coach, fees, expected schedule, and certainly which team they are being invited on.  The July rule will likely be negatively received this year due to the surprise of it's arrival and the degree to which it has been used.  I expect that the rules will continue to be tweaked as the region tries to keep clubs in line as far as recruiting goes.  While things have sped up, much will be known and players should be able to navigate the waters more easily since they know their options.  The main positive will be that clubs will take a large breath  and slow down during the high school season since they have offered many of their spots to their current players already. 
 
The July Rule has nothing to do with players from other clubs.  If a player is looking to switch clubs, they are allowed (at any point during the year) to inquire about another club teams but no official acceptance is possible until November.  Conversely, clubs can not seek out players and can only respond to inquiries.  If you are being emailed, approached, or otherwise "recruited" by another club representative, I'd like to know about it.  It is illegal and this new rule was put in place to try and limit the recruiting of players off of other teams by taking them "off the board" in July.  An unintended consequence of this rule seems to be the desire to fill as many teams as possible now which is why JO open gyms have suddenly popped up in July for the 1st time ever.  That will hopefully be adjusted moving forward so we don't overwork players in July.  Many rules have been debated in an effort to keep JO's separate from the high school season.  The July 'Home Club Rule" is one such rule and is certainly a work in progress.
 
How the July Rule would have affected our club at the U15 age group:
The fact is that if we would have invited any of you back "officially", it would have been to our 1st or 2nd team specifically and we were not ready to define all of that just yet. You can not ask a player to accept a general spot in the club.  It must be for a specific team.  We would have struggled to decide all the spots on the top team, upset those of you who wanted to tryout for that team, and then we would have likely run tryouts for the 2nd team anyway.  This was not needed.  Since you can't sign with another team until November anyway, we will just wait.   Yes, we could have invited some of you that are obvious selections but we will do that this fall.  We were simply not ready by the July 21st invitation release deadline to make those decisions.
 
General Recruiting Rules:
Clubs can not cold call or "recruit" players to play for them.  I know a few other clubs are holding open gyms right now with the intent of finding new players but any players "found" can not sign a contract and are not bound to any team until after the November tryout period when they officially pick a team.  Elevation will not be holding open gyms in July and we will not be seeking out new players.  We will respond to inquiries about our teams made through our website or by phone about any open positions or our tryouts as usual.  Ohio Valley Region Player Bill of Rights