alaxlhs wrote:

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I do think it interesting that there is a lot of gnashing of teeth over the JO Nationals and JVDA Nationals. If I was involved with a team that good I would want the best too. However, the fact of the matter is that there are, by many factors, more teams and girls that don't make it to either of these national tournaments than do. I guess if I was in charge of either the JO or the JVDA groups, I would spend more time devloping the grass roots.

For my daughter and her team, winning a tournament in Tennessee is huge. Playing well in a National Qualifier is a bonus. I would ask, is the purpose of either the JO or the JVDA to develop a "true champion" or is its purpose to develop volleyball nationwide. If the former, then I agree with the suggestions above and other proposals to change who qualifies and how. On the other hand, if it is to develop volleyball, I would do other things. Maybe having some "lesser teams" experience the championship is, in the long run, a good thing for volleyball overall.

Very perspicacious observation. Many others have made the same comment about the purpose of the JVDA and the JO's. Time was, USAV had a director level person in charge of Grassroots Development. The VolleyVan was mentioned somewhere as a program that along with it. A lot of effort was put into funding and development of material for growing the sport amongst those who are as yet unconverted. if you go to the web site now, under National Office Staff, you will see that the Grassroots person has disappeared. My guess is that they have lumped that function into membership development.

The model that the USAV has employed is to place the JO's as the ultimate goal for ALL junior clubs, fully knowing that the vast majority of the teams won't get within a whiff of JO's. It strikes me that the people who run the qualifiers, JO's etc. at USAV could not care less about the teams that don't make it. That function, I believe, they leave to the RVAs or the Regional Volleyball Associations. So the responsibility for propagating the game outside of the highest level is left to the regions.

And even on a coaching education level, the CAP programs really does not address the grassroots all that much. The IMPACT manual is geared towards junior clubs and high school teams and not necessarily towards the grassroots activities, although to be fair, there are a lot fo program ideas that were developed during the old days that are included in the IMPACT manual.

To me the disconnect is on two levels: on the National level with USAV and then with the junior representation at the national level because the junior rep on the board would most likely be someone from one of the big clubs who are focused on the teams that do make it to JO's.