Last modified on 06-04-2009.

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Juniors: Home

Message from the Junior Competition Director

Joel Stanford

June 4, 2009

USA Volleyball announced its 19-player U.S. Girls’ Youth National Training Team for 2009. In this team, there is one GEVA player, Aiyana Whitney (Atlantic Valley VBC). Congratulations and good luck to Aiyana. More information on the announcement is available on the USA Volleyball web site.

May 4, 2009: 2009 GEVA Regional Championships

Congratulation to the following winners at the 2009 GEVA Regional Championships (the 13s-18s winners will be attending the Girl's Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships, in Miami, FL, this summer!):

March 31, 2009: 2009 Elections for the GEVA Board of Directors

We are approaching the time to elect members to the GEVA Board of Directors. The elections will take place in April.

In the Adult division, the positions up for election are Men's BB and Women's BB representatives to the Adult Competition Committee (Board of Directors). In the Junior division, the positions up for election are the Boy’s and Girl’s At-Large representatives to the Junior Competition Committee (Board of Directors).

This announcement is to ask for nominations. The duties of the Board member is to represent his or her constituency during meetings and to participate in setting policy for the Region. The term of office is three years.

If you or anyone you know would be interested in running for one of these position, please contact Bob Dingee. Candidates must be registered adult members of the region and be part of the represented group.

January 7, 2009 - Results and Rankings from New Year's Classic

The results from the New Year's Classic have been posted. Before I get a flood of angry calls and emails (please DON'T call/email about the current rankings!), don't put too much weight into the current rankings. The mathematical formula that is used in the ranking sytsem gives a lot of weight to strength of schedule, so some teams with even a poor win/loss record end up getting ranked very highly if they were in a pool with say the winner of the tournament. That will change as soon as more results (like the GEVA Seeding Tournament) that inlude more and varied matchups are included in the calculations. So, if you're concerned about the rankings, wait until after the results of the GEVA Seeding Event are posted to make an inquiry!

January 7, 2009: Volleyball - Tour of Glory

UPDATE: The dates for the Tour of Glory have changed to just 17 January (from 17-19 January). PDF Click here to view a brochure on the event. Visit http://www.tourofglory.com/ for more information and to register for the event.

January 6, 2009

The information on becoming a Juniors scorekeeper and R-2 are posted on-line. Click here for the Juniors scorekeeper certification requirements. Click here for the Juniors R-2 certification requirements.

December 25, 2008: Volleyball - Tour of Glory

Volleyball teams and fans from around the country can celebrate USA Volleyball's success in Beijing at the Tour of Glory on 17-19 January at the High Performance Volleyball Academy (HPVBA) in Lakewood, N.J. PDF Click here to view a brochure on the event. Visit http://www.tourofglory.com/ for more information and to register for the event.

December 19, 2008

GEVA will be hosting a CAP I and CAP II clinic, the weekend of January 10th and 11th, at Vassar College. We have a great cadre lined up for the clinic. For more details and information on how to register, please see this document.

November 26, 2008

GEVA Junior Tournament Warm-up Procedures

Conduct the captains’ conference/coin flip at 8:45 am.
Warm up ends at 8:58.
9:00 am, start the first set, or forfeit. ***
9:10 am, second set forfeit.

All GEVA Junior pre-match warm-ups will be as follows:
2 minutes together with each team on their own side of the court.
4 minutes exclusive use of the court for the serving team.
4 minutes exclusive use of the court for the receiving team.

As soon as one match is completed, get down from the stand, walk to the other side of the court, start your clock and call for the captains. The captains’ conference is conducted during the two minutes of shared court time.

If one team captain is not present 15 seconds prior to the start of the first four minute warm-up period, allow the captain that is there to make their choice of serve/receive/side with the consequent use of the court. If neither captain is present at least 15 seconds prior to the end of the 2 minute shared time, assign the serve to the team listed first on the schedule and assign them to the side of the court on the scorekeeper’s left.

If neither team is present, but one or both appear before the conclusion of warm ups, the time remaining in the warm up period may be divided in half for use of the teams as appropriate.

A team(s) forfeits if they are not present, AND READY TO PLAY, at the conclusion of the warm-up period. Be aware of team delay procedures for teams that have not submitted their line-ups two minutes before the beginning of the match.

Before a forfeit can be declared the team present must have submitted a line-up, appear in uniform and line up on the end line at set time.

Complete Work Teams that do not appear for their assignment 5 minutes before the start of a match will be assessed a point a minute penalty on the first game of their next match. This must be recorded in the comments section of the Scoresheet.

*** The Tournament Director may rearrange the teams in the pool if one team is missing, and if work personnel is available, but this must be done in a timely enough fashion to allow an on time start.

November 20, 2008

GEVA Policy on recruiting: GEVA prohibits the recruitment of any GEVA registered Junior Player by a club between the period of the then current commitment date (December 1st for the 2008-09 season) as defined by GEVA (published on www.geva.org) and June 1st of the current season. If a club, or any of its club management or coaching staff is found to be in violation, the individual and or club is subject to suspension upon review by the Junior’s Board.

November 17, 2008

Greetings Club Directors and Team Reps,

Many of you are in the middle or, or about to begin, tryouts for the upcoming GEVA club season. I wanted to send this message to cover a few important points.

  1. For the 2nd consecutive year, GEVA has established the Monday following Thanksgiving (this year that is December 1st), as the earliest date that any club can request, or even accept, binding commitments.  As a region, we want to allow athletes to attend multiple tryouts and select the opportunity that best fits their circumstances. We have been, and will continue to be, very strict in enforcing this rule.  Violation may result in the suspension of the club and/or its leadership. What does this rule mean to you?  Here are a few examples:
    1. What a club MAY do in regards to tryouts and offers:
      1. You may run your tryouts at anytime (sanction requests at http://geva.org/juniors/tryouts/tryoutSanction.php).
      2. You may charge a MAXIMUM of $100 for tryouts, which must include the registration fee due to GEVA.
      3. You may make offers at anytime, but (and this is VERY important), ALL OFFERS MUST BE VALID THROUGH DECEMBER 1ST, 2008, or 72 hours from the time the offer is made, whichever gives the athlete LONGER to accept.
    2. What a club MAY NOT do in regards to tryouts and offers:
      1. You may not pressure, coerce, or request a commitment prior to December 1st, for ANY REASON.
      2. You may not request, or even accept, payment of any kind, except for the tryout fee of $100 or less, prior to December 1st.
  2. Remember that all clubs must submit registration forms, and payment, for EVERY player that attended a tryout! If you have athletes that attended tryouts but will not be playing for your club, you must submit, at a minimum, their registration form and the $5 “One Day” membership fee for each day they were at tryouts.
  3. If your club would like to host a tournament this season, you need to do the following:
    1. Login to the registration system as the club director.
    2. Under the blue “Tournament Mgt” label, click on “Juniors…”.
    3. Click on “Add Event” and fill in the information about your tournament.
    4. Click on the gray “Details” button at the bottom to select age groups and courts (note that the division for ALL tournaments should be “O” for Open).
    5. After you have filled in all of your tournament information, click “OK” until you are back to the “Junior Tournament Management” screen.
    6. Click on the “Tournament Sanction Form” link and print the Sanction request.
    7. Mail the Tournament Sanction Form, along with a check for $50, payable to GEVA, to:
      GEVA – Tournament Sanction Request
      8 John Walsh Blvd, Ste 600
      Peekskill, NY 10566
    8. I will begin sanctioning tournaments on December 1st; please get your requests in ASAP!
  4. To be eligible to compete in the GEVA Regional Championships, a team must play in all three Power League events! The entry deadline for all three Power League events and the Regional Championships is January 15th.  Please make sure that you have entered the tournaments using the online registration system AND you have sent in the Tournament Entry Forms, along with payment, prior to that date.  Late entries will only be accepted on a “space available” basis and are NOT guaranteed a place in the tournament(s). Failure to enter on time (and therefore not able to play), may mean that your team is not eligible to compete in the Regional Championships. Don’t complain later - enter NOW!
  5. We will not be holding a separate “J.O. Bid Tournament” this season (referred to as “Nationals” from here on), and for most age groups, the GEVA Regional Championships will be a 2-day event.  For each age group, the GEVA bid to Nationals will be offered to the highest finishing team at the GEVA Regional Championships that has completed all of the entry requirements for Nationals.  Note that we will send a separate email to all clubs, probably sometime in March once we receive information for the USA Volleyball national office, with the entry requirements for Nationals.
  6. GEVA needs courts for the GEVA hosted Power League and the Regional Championships.  If you are able to acquire courts for any of the dates listed below, please let me know!  In general, we needs courts in groups of 3 or more, though we can sometimes use 2 court facilities.  GEVA can pay up to a maximum of $350 per court, per day, and will supply a general liability insurance policy to the facility. While I can’t guarantee it in every circumstance, if you help to acquire a playing site, I try to schedule your team to play at that location.  Courts are needed on the following dates:
    1. January 24, 25, and 31
    2. February 1, 8, 21, 22, and 28
    3. March 8, 21, and 22
    4. April 4, 5, 11, 18, 25 and 26
    5. May 2 and 3

November 13, 2008

GEVA will be hosting a Coaches Accreditation Program class (CAP I and CAP II), the weekend of January 10th and 11th, at Vassar College. To get more details and to register for the class, please go to: http://volleyball.teamusa.org/event/event/798.

October 3, 2008

The online registration system is open and available. If you run into any problems, please send me a message and let me know (it's quite possible, as there were a number of changes incorporated into the system during the last week). Also, the Tryout Sanction Request form is available for use. I'll be adding the ability to edit your information, soon, but for now it works to get the initial data online. Please note that you can use the link you received in the confirmation email to gain access, at any time.

September 30, 2008

Welcome all as we get prepared for the start of the 2009 club competitive season! We just finished a series of 4 club directors meetings spread out across the region. A PDF copy of the meetings notes is here. If you were unable to attend one of the meetings, please make sure to print and review the entire document! Of particular note for girls, please note that the region has set a date of December 1, 2008, as the earliest date for commitments between players and clubs/teams for the upcoming season.

I am currently working to update the Tryout Sanction Request form. Please check back later this week and it should be available. The list of sanctioned tryouts will be posted at http://geva.org/juniors/tryouts/listOfSanctionedTryouts.php for the benefit of players seeking local clubs and teams.

September 26, 2008

Congratulations to all of the participants in Junior Olympics. Read the articles provided by the teams that went to JOs for their "perspective" on the experience.

June 6, 2008

The 2008 GEVA Girls High Performance Program Youth Age Group Camp Invitation list has been posted. Click here for more information.

May 25, 2008

The 2008 GEVA Girls High Performance Program Select Age Group Camp Invitation list has been posted. Click here for more information on the camp and click here for the list of those who are invited.

April 10, 2008 - Sign-ups for GEVA Girls High Performance Camp Invitation Tryout sessions are Open!

Sign-ups for the May 2008 GEVA Girls High Performance Camp Invitation Tryout sessions are now open. Click here to learn more about and/or sign-up to attend one or more HP Camp Invitation Tryout sessions.

April 1, 2008

Sign-ups for the April 2008 GEVA Girls High Performance Pre-tryout Evaluation are now open. Click here to learn more about and/or sign-up for the Saturday morning April 19, 2008 PTE that will be held at the HPVBA in Lakewood, NJ.

February 26, 2008

Sign-ups are now open for the GEVA Girls High Performance Program Pre-Tryout Evaluation on Friday evening March 14, 2008 at the Downstate Athletic Center. Click here to learn more and/or sign-up to attend.

February 17, 2008 - Sign-ups for GEVA Girls HP Program are Open!

The 2008 GEVA Girls High Performance Development program has started. Sign-ups for the February 23 GEVA Girls High Performance Pre-Tryout Evaluations (PTE) has opened. In 2008 PTEs will be conducted for the GEVA Girls National Future Select (athletes born in 1996 and after) and for the GEVA Girls National Select (athletes born in 1994 or after) age groups. Click here to learn more about the GEVA Girls High Performance program for 2008. Click here to learn more about and/or register for the February 23, 2008 PTE held at Queens College.

February 1, 2008 - Junior Girl's Starting to Ramp up the Action!

Just as the junior boys are starting to slow down and get ready for the high school season, at least in some parts of our region, the girls are just starting to take off. And WOW!, are they really taking off. The recently completed GEVA Seeding Event set a record for the number of teams, in an event, in our region, with 184 teams. The upcoming GEVA Ranking #1 will smash that record as 215 teams will be competing in this "Power League" format tournament! That's up from a high of 168 teams in the largest tournament during the 2006-07 season. This phenomenal growth, along with the addition of the brand new High Performance Volleyball Academy, in Lakewood, NJ, bodes well for the future of junior volleyball in our region.

The pool assignments, playing sites, and times for Ranking #1 have been posted. Click on Juniors, Tournament, Schedule for more details. I can't wait for the competition to begin; I hope you're as excited about the upcoming season as I am!

January 10, 2008 - Results and Rankings from New Year's Classic

The results from the New Year's Classic have been posted (or are in the process for some age groups). Before I get a flood of angry calls and emails (please DON'T call/email about the current rankings!), don't put too much weight into the current rankings. The mathematical formula that is used in the ranking sytsem gives a lot of weight to strength of schedule, so some teams with even a poor win/loss record end up getting ranked very highly. That will change as soon as more results (like the GEVA Seeding Tournament) that inlude more and varied matchups are included in the calculations. So, if you're concerned about the rankings, wait until after the results of the GEVA Seeding Event are posted to make an inquiry!

December 23, 2007 - Directors and Officers Insurance

D&O Insurance covereage is now available through a group policy setup by USA Volleyball. For more information and to access the insurers web site, please view this document.

December 5, 2007 - Tournament Entry Process

The entry process for all GEVA sanctioned tournaments will begin in the online registration system. To enter a tournament, do the following:

  1. Login as a club/team rep at http://reg.geva.org/HAI_P/H_LOGON.php.
  2. If not already done, click on "Add or Select Current Club" under the "Club Mgt" heading and select your club.
  3. Click on "Add or Select Current Team" under the "Team Mgt" heading and select the team you wish to enter into a tournament.
  4. Click on "Enter Tournament" under the "Team Mgt" heading.
  5. Check the boxes for the appropriate filters (such as Girls and 16) and then click on the "View" button.
  6. Click on the age group to enter for the given tournament under the column labeled "Division".
  7. Click on the "OK" button to confirm your request to enter the tournament.
  8. Your status will now be (P)ending. To complete the entry process, click on the name of the event and print the Tournament Entry Form.
  9. Mail the Tournament Entry Form and Entry Fee to the address indicated on the form.
  10. You can see the status of teams accepted into a tournament, and results from completed tournaments, by clicking on Juniors, Tournament, Results on geva.org.

December 5, 2007 - How to add your players to Team Rosters

  1. Select the current team (Add or Select Current Team)
  2. Click on Add or Select Current Indv
  3. Click on the Add Individual button
  4. If someone printed off the blank form from geva.org and filled it in by hand, you type the info on the screen that you see now.
  5. If someone registered online (HIGHLY recommended), you click on the “Find” button at the bottom of the screen.
  6. Now type in their PIN number in the box labeled “New Indv by PIN Number” and click the “Find” button next to the entry.
  7. You’re now back at the page with all of the personal information filled in.  Click on the “Player” box (or if doing a coach, click on that), and then hit “OK” at the bottom of the page.
  8. Now you can click on the “Add Another” button to go to the next player.
  9. Once you have done all of your players on to a team, get back to the main entry page – the one that has the Club Mgt, Team Mgt and Indv Mgt columns.
  10. Click on “Team Reports” under the Team Mgt heading.
  11. Click on “Team Roster” and print the page displayed.
  12. Send in the Team Roster, the $80 team fee ($40 team fee if EVERY player on the roster is entered into the system already), and the individual registration fees ($15, $25, or $35 per person depending on type).  Submit a single check per team! You may combine all teams into one check from the club, but we DO NOT want individual checks for each individual registration – they will be returned and the team will not be registered.

December 5, 2007 - Regional Championships for 12s and 13s

The GEVA Regional Championships for ages 12 and 13 will be held as a "Club" championship, meaning that a team must play in two GEVA sanctioned tournaments to be eligible for regionals.

November 18, 2007

I have had numerous reports of clubs not following the rules related to tryout offers and commitments. Let me reiterate that NO CLUB may require a commitment or decision prior to November 26th. They MAY make offers earlier, and a player MAY choose to accept earlier, but if an offer is made, it MUST be valid until November 26th or the club may be suspended from GEVA competition for the season. If you know of any clubs that are violating this policy, please send me a message.

November 17, 2007

The 2008 USA Volleyball High Performance Tryout Schedule is on the website. The Downstate Athletic Center will be hosting a tryout in our region, for all ages, on Sunday, March 16th, from 5pm to 8pm. Register on the USA Volleyball website.

November 16, 2007

USA volleyball is hosting an online "webinar" IMPACT series. Click here for more information and registration instructions!

November 6, 2007

With tryout season upon us, I want to remind players, parents, and club directors alike that players with outstanding balances to their previous club(s) will not be allowed to register and play this season until the outstanding balance is paid or mutually resolved. Club directors, please send me a list of last season players that should be prohibited from registering and an explanation. Due to privacy concerns (these are minors) we can't publish the lists. However, we'll let the new clubs know of the blocked registration when they come in.

October 27, 2007

For those that may have missed the Club Directors meetings that were held around the region, I want to cover a few of the more important topics that were discussed. You can get a copy of the agenda by clicking here. First, let me start by stating that lack of knowledge regarding these regulations WILL NOT be an excuse for non-compliance! If you have any questions, drop me an email.

October 5, 2007

Welcome to an exciting new season of GEVA juniors' volleyball! Its amazing how fast the summer and has come and gone; and, now we're already preparing for a new season! Speaking of preparations, all tryouts need to be sanctioned by GEVA. Please submit a Tryout Sanction Request (or do it online)as soon as you have them scheduled! Don't forget that all coaches need to be registered, screened, and trained before participating in any event, including tryouts. Registration and screening can be completed via the online registration system and Bill Doyle is working to provide IMPACT training classes around the region during October and November. Please contact him, directly, if you can help by providing a facility to host the training! Please see the IMPACT Training page for class schedules.

To help everyone get ready, we’ll be running a series of meetings for area club directors.  Anyone that is responsible for running a junior club or is thinking about starting a new club should attend.  Here’s the schedule for the meetings (please note the change in time and locations!):

Territory

Date

Time

Location

City, ST

Northern Counties

10/14

1pm

Downstate Athletic Center

Peekskill, NY

New York City

10/21

4pm

Queens College

Flushing, NY

Long Island

10/21

4pm

Queens College

Flushing, NY

New Jersey

10/21

10am

PowerZone

Denville, NJ

    Topics to be covered include:
  1. Registration
  2. Tryout regulations (dates/commitments)
  3. Tournament schedule and format
  4. Club officiating responsibilities

Directions can be found at http://geva.org/giDirections.php. The location for the NJ meeting will also be posted as soon as it has been confirmed. I hope to see you at one of the meetings!

Junior Boys are off and running, and Marilyn Maccio is leading a boys working committee responsible for promoting the growth of junior boys competition. Visit the "Boy's" section for more information (coming soon).

Tentative dates have been set for the Junior Girl's Tournaments for this season; note that these are subject to change pending playing site commitments. We need gyms for all of these dates except the New Year's Classic. Please let me know if you have access to 2 or more courts that GEVA can reserve and rent for any of the days, below:

Name of EventDate(s)
New Year’s ClassicJan 5, 6
GEVA Open Seeding EventJan. 26, 27
GEVA Mandatory Ranking #1Feb 9, 10
GEVA Mandatory Ranking #2Mar 8, 9
GEVA Mandatory Ranking #3Mar 29, 30
Junior Regional ChampionshipsApr 26, 27
J.O. Bid TournamentMay 3, 4

We will be using an online Tournament Entry system this year. The GEVA sponsored tournament schedule will be available, online, within the next few days. There are many dates available for your club to host a tournament! If interested, you will be able to request a tournament date, online! All dates not used for the GEVA sponsored tournaments are open until November 1st. The season tournament schedule will be posted shortly after that; and requests to run tournaments after November 1 will be on a first come first serve basis.

This is YOUR region, and we're here to help make this a GREAT USAV Volleyball season, for you! If you have any suggestions, please feel free to contact me, or any of your Junior Competition Committee members. All of our contact information is on the Board of Directors page.