Notes for a New Season!
It has been quite some time since I sat down and wrote any weekly notes. Now seems like a good time since the official JO tournament season kicks off this weekend. Speaking of JO-which stands for Junior Olympic-we need to get that term out of our lexicon. It turns out the US Olympic Committee owns the word “Olympic” and it cannot be used without paying a significant amount of money to the USOC. That is why you will now see the year-end tournament called the Junior National Championships and not the Junior Olympics. I know the first time my oldest daughter’s team qualified for JO’s (oops I did it again) we thought it was so cool telling everyone that she was playing in the Junior Olympics. Her grandparents were quite impressed as I recall.
So, no more JO Volleyball. We will just call it club volleyball. I will have to look through my past notes, but I think at one point I suggested that we just call it “cult volleyball.” For those of you who are new to club volleyball, it won’t take long before you know what I am talking about.
I am excited for the season to start. The past few months have been exceptionally busy for many of us at TVC. Just the process of forming teams and the tryouts and all of the stuff that goes along with that is very time consuming. Add to it the responsibility for all of the maintenance and upkeep of Hall 1 and the Clubhouse and it has kept us on our toes. Many people have spent untold hours working on a very long “to-do” list getting the facility ready for the season. Ron Grindle has done the lion’s share of the work. We have also been fortunate that we have had the help of several dads’ in the club who have provided additional support. Jim Howald (affectionately referred to as JimBob) not sure he knew that-but for some reason Ron kept thinking his name was Bob, and would call me and say, “did you ask Bob about the toilets?” I said, “Bob, who?” Anyway, JimBob has taken care of a lot of projects for us and I am very grateful. Mitch Cannon has helped with electrical issues. Doug Zimmerman coordinated the roof repair and the new carpet in the locker rooms (why do we call them locker rooms? They have no lockers!) I coerced a good friend, her husband and two of their friends to paint the entire inside of Hall 1. We are still friends, but I was thrilled that Kevin Young was able to paint the locker rooms and back bathrooms. I take “credit” for choosing the yellow color for the bathrooms! Steve DeHenning has been working on the cleaning and Dave Ward and Steve Wietrzykowski helped with the carpet removal. Dan Murnen used his handy dandy machine to clean the floors and walls of the bathrooms. Speaking of floors, Norm McGhee and Ron Grindle did an amazing job of stripping the bathroom, kitchen and Clubhouse floors. The difference is incredible.
So, you see, a lot has been going on at the LCRC. I know we have so much more to do, but the place just looks better! Thank you to everyone who has helped.
Speaking of help, I have had a great deal of administrative assistance from Vince Croci and Colleen Dooley. Colleen and her secretary’s assistance with the paperwork during tryouts made my life so much easier. Vince is attempting to get all of our information on the website in an organized and easy to read format. It is still a work in progress, but we should have the official team rosters and other team info posted shortly. Deb and Doug Zimmerman helped me with registering our teams with the OVR. It is so much easier to register the teams and players all at once versus
We are fielding 33 teams this year. 30 Travel Teams and 3 In-house leagues. We were not sure how it was all going to come together this year with the economy, but we had record numbers at tryouts and are one team up from last year. For the most part we stayed true to our goal of fielding teams with 9 players. There are a few with 10 and a few with 8, but the majority have 9 players. We have 59 coaches registered this year. Speaking of coaches, I am especially excited about the 5 coaches we have that are recent college graduates and former TVC players. There are 4 coaches from our class of 2004 (Sydney Antonio, Nicole Bennett, Vicki Brown, and Nikki Pierzchala) Alison Mugler of the TVC 2005 class has also joined the staff. I really love it when former players come back and coach for TVC. I was thrilled when Vicki Brown called and asked if we had a spot for her to coach. Vicki had just returned from playing professional volleyball in Spain! Welcome back!
There are lots of new rules this year. Some good, some not so. The coaches have all been trained on the new rules and 220 out of 300 of our players attended last weekend’s officiating clinic. We probably should have done a session for Parent’s as well. I think those of us on the sidelines will be surprised at some of the calls the officials make or don’t make. Here is my Cliff Notes version: 1. It is only a net if the player touches the tape at the top of the net. 2. If the setter makes an awesome and athletic move to set the ball, it is unlikely that she will be called for a double. 3. It is never a double on the first contact. (Lifts can be called, but not doubles) 4. Gumby-type players who are able to keep their feet from crossing the center line (that line down the middle of the court, under the net) but have other body parts cross the center line (think hands, stomach, head, etc.) will not be called for a center line violation.
The Rules that will have the most affect on our little darlings are the new rules associated with the working team. Two things you need to know and remember- be on time for your officiating assignments and DO NOT BRING YOUR CELL PHONE, IPOD, MP3 PLAYER, ETC. TO THE TABLE WHILE YOU ARE OFFICIATING. If a player is caught with an electronic device, they could potentially cost their team 10 points in their next match! OUCH! The OVR hopes that this will help the officiating crews focus on their job at hand and cut down on the constant yelling of “point” and “wrong score” as the parents watch Susie and Sally texting while they are supposed to be flipping the score! It should be interesting to see how it goes this year.
This weekend we are hosting a Friendship Scrimmage on Saturday for 12’s-14’s. Friendship Scrimmages give teams a chance to get some play in and get certified for scoring before the official tournament season starts. Sunday will be the first day of the Power League. Premier rents our courts for several weekends for Power League. If you are planning to come out and check out some great volleyball, (please be aware that there is a $3.00 admission charge for the Power League this year. Premier will be charging at our facility and their own for all of the Power League events. You will be able to purchase a pass to get in all 4 dates for $9.00. Charging admission is not something that has been done at any OVR events in the past. However, it is a common occurrence in many regions.
I hope the club season is off to a good start for everyone! I promise not to wait four months before writing notes again!
Michelle Hills
mwhills@bex.net