Lance,

I agree that it would be most beneficial, however it is a difficult sell to parents, players, and coaches who want to compete at the highest level. Here in the SCVA region, we started qualifiers (seeding tournaments) on the second weekend of January this year, when most kids are barely back in school! I am all for giving the kids a break, but it is tough when one bad day at a qualifier can have such a huge impact on where you start the season (i.e. what division) and consequently, a team's chance at getting to JO's, which is becoming the ultimate goal for a larger and larger percentage of clubs.

I think the system is flawed and must be changed, but it won't happen unless the powers that be take action, particularly the parents who control the almighty dollar. If enough parents made a stink about it, things would change, because let's face it the SCVA (and any other region of USAV) would go bankrupt pretty quickly without that money. Unfortunately most people accept things as status quo whether they like it or not. Here are a few changes that I think should be made (not just by SCVA, but all over). I would love to hear some feedback.


1. NO club activity of any kind until after Thanksgiving weekend. NO clinics, open gyms, NOTHING. Let's face it, we all know that clubs only use these "clinics" and "open gyms" as ways to get around the tryout date rules that exist. Oh yeah, and they make money for them too!


2. Tryouts must be held to a maximum of two hours a day. This would prevent club directors who hold tryouts for three or more hours so that players cannot go to tryout for other clubs. If you can't judge talent in a two hour window than you probably shouldn't be coaching anyway :-P


3. Players cannot make a commitment to a club until 48 hours has passed from the completion of the tryout. Any commitment made before then will be considered non-binding. Any deposits collected before a commitment will be fully refundable. When a commitment is made, it should be on a signed document by both parties. After a player has commited they should not be allowed to leave the club without a release. There should be some type of sanction from USAV if a player chooses to leave without a release (maybe no participation in JNQ's/JO's or something to that effect).


4. NO mandatory team practices until after January 1st. During the month of December (after teams are set), there can be open gyms, clinics, etcetera but these should be OPTIONAL for players to attend. And by optional that doesn't mean they will be held against you with lack of playing time when the actual season starts if you did not attend! This one is sure to get a lot of backlash from clubs since there is one less month of dues they can charge...


5. NO sanctioned competition to be held before the last weekend of January. That would give all teams equal time to prepare, and not reward clubs who regulate every waking moment of their players lives. Scrimmage tournaments and stuff like that could take place but nothing with "official results". This would still allow for the big president's day tournaments to take place.


6. Limits should be made regarding how many hours a week clubs can practice/condition. There are rules that exist in the NCAA to protect student-athletes (20hrs/wk, 4hrs/day, mandatory days off), how do these not exist for high school kids? I know there are clubs out there that are practicing almost every day at times, and certainly flirt with the 20 hour rule. But nobody bats an eyelash at it because they are winning.


7. Here is the most radical one- JO's over Memorial Day Weekend. That would mean club volleyball would be over by JUNE 1st! CRAZY! All schools have off the Monday of this weekend. Many have Friday off as well. Worst case scenario, the kids would miss two days of school (Thursday for travel). Not much worse then a qualifier. There are plenty of cities with convention centers that could hold an event of this magnitude (Friday-Monday, all teams play all days). Then when kids got back they could focus on doing well on finals, enjoying graduations, etc.


Here are the benefits that I see, aside from the ones listed above:

1. The rules about tryouts and commitments would allow players to shop around and make the best decision for them. I am so sick and tired of club directors and coaches complaining about this (and I am one). If you have a good product then why should you be so insecure about players trying out other places? The commitment rules would also make players and parents do their homework before they made their decisions, and eliminate the problem of parents writing large checks and then worrying later!

2. The rules about December/January start dates would allow kids to have a break after high school season, and let their bodies recover. It would also let families enjoy the holiday season.

3. The season ending early would have many benefits:
- Players participating in high performance programs would get a break. Most players who participate in these programs currently have little or no time off between club season ending, HP programs starting, and their high school seasons starting directly after that.
- Players would have more freedom to participate in beach volleyball, a rapidly growing area of our sport that is EXTREMELY beneficial to youth players (just look at three of the best juniors players in the last several years- Alix Klineman ('07), Alex Jupiter ('09), Falyn Fonoimoana ('10)- they all started playing beach volleyball at a young age

All of these rule changes would help prevent one of the biggest problems in juniors volleyball (and all of youth sports) today- burnout. There is a drastic decline in participation around the ages of 13-15, and a lot of those surveyed say the game was not fun for them anymore. There has also been a dramatic increase in overuse injuries in the last ten years (knee/shoulder problems), and taking more time off would help with this too.

I will close by referencing a conversation I had with Brian Gimmilaro, CSULB head coach, a few years back. When I asked him about burnout, he said something like "Come on, we never got burnt out when we were kids! We were playing ball every chance we got, in the gym, on the beach, etc." Then I pointed out the difference between now and then:

We did it because we WANTED TO- while kids in today's youth sports culture are doing it because they HAVE TO (or because their parents, coaches, etc make them feel that they do). Any thoughts?