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
