“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
~Edward Everett Hale
In this year’s JVA Annual Report, JVA Board President, Mike Lingenfelter, expressed that “if we create a group synergy and collectively go together, we can all grow exponentially!”
JVA’s place in the volleyball community is to serve all clubs: small to big; USAV, AAU, JVA and independents; for-profit and non-for-profit. This past year has been focused on guiding, giving back to and collaborating with our members around the country, and as a result, we have experienced great growth and collective synergy that we are excited to carry into 2023.
After many meetings and conversations with boys directors and leaders around the country, JVA formed a partnership with AAU to host three new boys tournaments, which puts our total at four boys volleyball events this club season. One of the new events is the Chi-Town Challenge that was the largest and most competitive boys event in Chicago history with over 480 teams from coast to coast in the first year.
This past year we reinstated the JVA Sponsor Program, giving over $200,000.00 back to member clubs. We rolled out the JVA Grant Program providing up to $50,000 to clubs who are developing innovative programs to bring our sport to underserved populations and resources to support those athletes.
JVA membership grew by 53% as more directors realize the value of being a part of an association focused entirely on junior volleyball and the needs of junior clubs. Beach volleyball membership has also grown with the expansion of the Club vs Club Model and 28 Events in the BVCA Club Challenge Series Powered by JVA.
2022-2023 is projecting to be a strong year, as nearly 10 events are sold or are close to selling out and the JVA World Challenge will once again be hosted at the Kentucky Expo Center and the KICC Center with over 1,100 teams competing in the competitive midyear championship. The JVA launched the Officials Reward Program (ORP) designed to recruit, retain and reward Officials for working JVA Volleyball Events. Through this program, Officials will be recognized for reaching a certain level of achievement during the junior volleyball season.
The JVA Mentor Program has now reached 30 mentorships, to enhance the junior volleyball club management education, resources, and advocacy for Club Directors that JVA offers clubs to better serve their junior athletes and remain financially stable. The Club Management Track at the 2022 AVCA Convention featured over 4 hours of education covering all facets of running a club, and broke attendance records.
The JVA has continued to receive valuable input and feedback from its members through surveys and discussion to understand the education and resources that Directors and Coaches need the most. Finding, training and retaining quality coaches continues to be of utmost importance. In addition, resources related to supporting athletes from a mental training perspective is a high priority, as well as recruiting education in this post-COVID time. The JVA developed a Recruiting Solutions Series, Mental Training Series, Technology Solutions, and Business Solutions series to address all of these topics. And we are already busy planning more content for this upcoming year.
We will host two JVA Athletes of Color Alliance gatherings, the first in Baltimore at the JVA Charm City Challenge, followed by the second at the 2022 JVA World Challenge in April.
As we look back on 2022, we are thankful to come together and communicate with our staff and our members each and every day, work together toward progress and experience great success. We invite all directors and coaches to join our collective, and continue to grow our sport and our businesses together.
View the 2021-2022 Annual Report
