UNITE By joining together, junior club directors can develop an organized group of small business leaders to lobby for improvement and better representation at the regional and national level. This type of effort will allow all clubs, both large and small, to be working partners with their regional and national leadership. JVA feels strongly that since the junior community is the overwhelming source of funding for both the regional and national organizations, it should have a fair voice in the governance of those organizations. As partners, the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) recognizes and supports the effort to bring all of the key organizations in the sport together. By forming a unified front the junior community can help lead the way in the development, promotion and marketing of our sport.
DEVELOP JVA is committed to expanding the grassroots movement for volleyball to bring more players to the sport at the younger levels. While Volleyball might be popular at the High School level it has been far outpaced by sports such as soccer and softball at the Junior High and Grade School level. To reverse this trend we will be working with the AVCA and USA Volleyball to develop a training and competition model that will encourage widespread participation at the youth level (ages 8-12). This is a key area to address if the sport of Volleyball hopes to see significant growth in the years to come.
IMPROVE JVA is committed to addressing 2 areas that we strongly feel have a negative impact on our sport:
(1) The sky rocketing costs of participation in junior volleyball. While club dues have steadily risen over the past two decades we feel those costs are manageable, but the cost of travel has exploded. It is now common place for travel costs to make up the vast majority of a player’s membership fees during a club season. JVA feels that a solution can be reached that can begin to curtail the escalating expense of junior volleyball and make the sport more inclusive. If this can be done, then the sport will appeal to a much larger section of the youth market that currently cannot afford to participate.
(2) The current length of the junior season. In the past two decades the junior season has been extended approximately three weeks and now goes into the second week of July. The agreement is almost universal that the season is too long and the length of the season is contributing to several issues that have a negative impact on the sport. Those issues are less participation at the youth level, more injuries at all levels and an overuse factor for those players that must go directly from their club teams to the USA High Performance programs or their collegiate program. Many of the elite level collegiate coaches have been saying for years that many incoming freshman are entering college with overuse and chronic injuries that will plague them for most or all of their collegiate careers.