Volume 1, Number 1
March 22, 2007
www.usavolleyball.org
USA VOLLEYBALL HIGH PERFORMANCE GIRLS' TRYOUT INFO
Interest in USA Volleyball High Performance girls’ tryouts has escalated in 2007 in comparison to the first two tryout weekends of 2006. Just in the first two weeks of the 2007 schedule, the tryouts have evaluated over 850 athletes at the junior national, youth national and select age groups. MORE

USAV High Performance Home Page MORE
USAV High Performance FAQs MORE

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT: TAYLOR CRABTREE ON A "BEAR" MISSION
Taylor Crabtree seems like the typical 16-year-old. She is busy with schoolwork consisting of four Advanced Placement classes and one honors-level course, plays setter on her high school varsity volleyball team and has a job on the side. MORE

IN THEIR OWN WORDS - SHERVONN JOHNSON
Shervonn Johnson plays club volleyball for 16-1 PPVC and she got injured this season, but she took a moment to author a poem expressing her feelings toward volleyball. MORE

This section encourages athletes to submit and share poems, art, essays, pictures, etc., to express themselves. To submit a piece of work for possible inclusion in future issues, e-mail to bill.kauffman@usav.org.

PARENT CORNER - TRISH SANCHEZ
Trish Sanchez writes an article, "On the Other Side of the Tracks", on how her daughter's team started from an inner-city club four years ago and has maintained the same values upon its founding. MORE

TEAM SPOTLIGHT - AMARILLO ELITE VOLLEYBALL
Photo courtesy of AEV. Top Row (l-r): Kelsey Black, Brooke Smith, Breanne Barker. Middle Row (l-r): Kati Dillard, Caitlin Higgins. Bottom Row (l-r): Cristin Curl, Catherine Neilson, Halie David, Breanne Owens, Ashley Pylant. Amarillo Elite Volleyball 17 National returned from the Las Vegas Classic as the only team from Texas with a medal. However, the team was unsure who was going to play in the later matches due to flights back to take a high school exam, let alone getting out of the Las Vegas airport. MORE

Maryland Juniors 17 Yellow National Team MORE

ACADEMIC SPOTLIGHT - TORRI CAMPBELL
Torri Campbell, who participates in the USA Volleyball High Performance program in the summer (Youth A2), USAV holiday camps in the winter and plays on Amarillo Elite Volleyball’s 16 National team, maintains a 96.52 (4.0) grade point average in AP classes at Amarillo High School in Texas. MORE

U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach Lang Ping (center) with Torri Campbell (right) and AEV teammate Andee Josserand (left). Photo courtesy of Amarillo Elite Volleyball.
TRAINER'S CORNER - ANKLE BRACES
Aaron Brock, a certified athletic trainer as well as head athletic trainer and director of sports medicine for the U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team, examines the benefits of ankle braces versus unprotected ankles among volleyball players. MORE

Improving your Vertical by Robert L. Brown MORE

REcRUITING CORNER - TIPS FOR THE COLLEGE PROSPECT
Tony Graystone, head women's volleyball coach at West Texas A&M University since 1999, offers the following tips for the college prospect. He led the Lady Buffs to the NCAA Division II national semifinals this year with a 34-4 record, pushing his career mark to 245-48. He was the fastest to reach 100 wins in NCAA history in any sport and division. MORE

West Texas A&M University Head Women's Volleyball Coach Tony Graystone. Photo courtesy of West Texas A&M athletic media relations office.
PICTURE OF THE ISSUE - ARIZONA REGION BEACH VOLLEYBALL
The Arizona Region’s first foray into in-season beach was peppered with rain, freezing temperatures and ovewrwhelming proof that beach players are the toughest and most dedicated volleyball players on the planet. Pictured to the left are Katie Rutherford (left) and Jordan Smith (right) protecting themselves from the elements from a Jan. 21 tournament. MORE

USA VOLLEYBALL JUNIOR BEACH VOLLEYBALL TOUR
The USA Volleyball Junior Beach Tour returns to the sand this season. Watch www.usavolleyball.org next week for an announcement of tour stops and how to register to play.

COLORADO CROSSROADS PRODUCES FIRST QUALIFIERS FOR OPEN
The Colorado Crossroads held in Denver on consecutive weekends produced the first qualifying teams for the 2007 USA Junior Olympic Girls’ Volleyball Championships in Minneapolis June 29-July 8. Below are links to who has accepted bids to the USA Junior Olympic Girls' Volleyballl Championship.

For results on the Colorado Crossroads including teams accepting bids, click here. For additional information regarding Colorado Crossroads, click here. For more information on the USA Junior Olympic Girls' Volleyball Championship, click here.

USA VOLLEYBALL GIRLS' INVITATIONAL
The USA Volleyball Girls Invitational will take place in Atlanta, Ga., at the Georgia World Congress Center on June 7-10. This is an exceptional year with no wait-list and college coaches on site. This event also welcomes teams participating in the Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships. Make this the year for your team to experience national competition with USA Volleyball inviting teams from Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico! More.

USA VOLLEYBALL FUN ZONE
This section features games and trivia to test your knowledge level of volleyball at the youth and junior levels.

  • Girls Qualifier Word Search - Answer Key
  • Trivia Question
  • Name This Player
  • ATTEND THE BEIJING 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES IN STYLE
    Have you dreamed of watching the Olympic Games in person - getting a chance to see history in the making at arguably one of the most important societal events in our time? USA Volleyball, in conjunction with Jet Set Sports and CoSport, will conduct an auction for a 2008 Olympic Games package that will host two people in Beijing for five days and four nights. The package will include double occupancy hotel accommodations, a pre-selected event ticket itinerary, accredited ground transportation, breakfast and either lunch or dinner daily, sponsor hospitality, bilingual hosts/hostesses and much more. Airfare is not included in the package. The auction will commence April 15, 2007. Be on the look-out for more details in the near future.

    COACH EDUCATION SCHEDULE
    Registration is now open for the following 2007 courses:

  • April 4-6: Colorado Springs, Colo., CAP Level III/USOC Training Design Symposium

  • June 1-3: Parma, Ohio, CAP Level I &/or IMPACT or CAP Level II &/or IMPACT Instructor Training

  • JUST ADDED
  • July 20-21: Fort Lauderdale, Fla., CAP Level I @ USA Volleyball High Performance Championships, date just added with more information to come.

  • MORE

    NAMES AND NOTES
    For the second in-season beach tournament in a row, Betsi Metter and Anna Gott, both from Ahwatukee, Ariz., captured the 16’s division gold with a straight sets win over Daryn Serna and Nikki Burke, cementing their stranglehold as the # 1 juniors team in the Arizona Junior Beach program...The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced its Senior High School All-America Team. To find out who was selected, click here...Former Ohio Valley Region Referees' Chair Rick Laskey has been selected to officiate at the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games, to be held in Shanghai, China, Oct. 2-11, 2007. Other U.S. referees selected include Joe Campbell of Texas, Corny Galdones of Virginia, and Bob Stanek of Minnesota...Tiffany Elioff has replaced Breen Goodwin as program director for the Columbia Empire Region...The Badger Region presented the following service awards: Joel Gawronski for his work developing and promoting the Sand Doubles Program; Colleen Houk for her contribution to volleyball in high school, college and club, and raising the level and youth volleyball; Marty Petersen for her part in developing and promoting women's sports nd most recently in providing quality events for our juniors; Marcy Thuwacher for her work with WIAA in advancing high school volleyball; Kelly Vecitis for supporting and helping to fund our Winter Indoor Sand Series; Jenny Hahn received the Leif Storvik Service Award for her work with Badger Region, Milwaukee Sting and USA Volleyball...The Florida Region has named its high performance coaching staffs for 2007. Nick Cheronis (Florida) will serve as the head coach of the region's junior team and will be assisted by Chris Catanach (Tampa) and Jenny Frank (UCF). The Youth Red Team will be led by Jill Stephens (Florida Southern), who will be assisted by Erik Peterson (South Florida) and April Lowe (Club Florida). Chuck Waddington (Florida Southern) will serve as head coach of the Youth Blue Team. He will be assisted by Adis Imanmovic (North Florida) and Kelly Morrisroe (Pinellas Heat). The Select Red Team will be led by Steve Wilcosky (Nova Southeastern), while be assisted by Blake Rawlins (Embry Riddle) and Melinda Rocha (Sarson IVA). The Select Blue Team will be guided by Denise Silvester (formerly of Missouri-St. Louis) with assistance from CJ Sherman (JJVA) and Brian Imperiale (Pinellas Heat)...A PAVO/USAV referee training camp is being held at the NIRSA Volleyball Championships in Louisville on April 11-12, and you can still take advantage of this opportunity. Camp participants will benefit from the excellent training staff, the challenges of this level of play, and a video-tape review of their on-court work. To register for this camp, you must have either a USAV Regional rating or a PAVO State rating. Details on the camp program are available at www.PAVO.org/camps.htm.

    FEATURED PRODUCT: NEW USA VOLLEYBALL T-SHIRTS
    Visit the USA Volleyball online store today for official licensed merchandise! MORE

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