1  Ohio Valley Region Bid Tournaments

The Ohio Valley Region-Molten® 2012 National Bid Qualifier tournaments are used to award the region's "National" and "American" bids to the 2012 USA Girls' Junior National Championships (June 28 through July 7, 2012, Columbus, Ohio).

All age divisions will compete on April 14 and 15, 2012, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

2  Eligibility

All Ohio Valley Region teams declared "National" as of February 1, 2012 will be eligible to participate. Due to court constraints the region may be forced to limit the tournament to the top teams in each age group. Our goal would be to host all those that want to play; however, if teams are omitted from the tournament it will be by strength of the team entered.

Each player must be age eligible for her team's level of competition, as defined in the USA Volleyball Age Divisions. Players are not eligible to compete in more than one age group. Age waivers are not applicable for Bid or National competition. All coaches and clubs must meet IMPACT and ASEP requirements.

Teams that earn a bid at a National Qualifier prior to the OVR Bid Tournament will not be eligible to participate at OVR Bid Tournament, regardless of division, and their entry fee check will be shredded. Teams earning a bid at our regional Bid Tournament event that do not participate in the USAV Girls Junior National Championships will cause all team members and coaches in their club to be sanctioned for two years, during which they will not be allowed to participate in the OVR Bid Tournament.

3  Schedule

The tentative schedule, based on expected numbers of entries and subject to change, is as follows:

The maximum number of teams depends on court availability.

4  Format

All divisions will compete on Saturday and Sunday, April 14th and 15th at the GCCC. Up to 24 teams will be seeded into six 4-team pools.

Match play will run from 8 am until approximately 2 pm on Saturday. Then the 1st and 2nd place teams from each pool as well as the Best and 2nd Best 3rd place teams will advance to the upper division pools. Any ties for 3rd places may need to be played off in a single set to 25 points. Two challenge matches between the 3rd Best 3rd place vs the 6th Best 3rd place and the 4th Best 3rd place and the 5th Best 3rd place will be played at 2:15. The winners will advance to the upper division pools. This will place 16 teams into four 4 team pools in the upper division. The other 8 teams will advance to two 4 team lower division pools. The four 4-team upper division pools will play their first two pool matches from approximately 2:30 pm until 4:30 pm. The two 4 team lower division pools will begin their second round matches after the Challenge Round matches have completed.

Play resumes at 8 am on Sunday morning with the final four matches in each pool. This will take from 8 am until about 12 noon. Three way ties may need to be played off with single sets to 25 points. The 1st place teams from the upper division pools will advance to a four team playoff bracket to decide which team receives the region's National Bid (the other three teams in this bracket receive American bids). The 2nd place teams from each of the upper division pools advance to a four team playoff bracket to determine which team will be first in line for a possible trickle down American Bid. All other teams will advance to elimination playoff brackets starting at about 12:15 pm. The team's finish in the second round of pool play will determine their placement into the elimination brackets. The tournament will determine unique places 1st through at least 10th. (This format is tentative and may change depending upon court availability and registration numbers.)

The match format for all ages will be 2 sets to 25 points and, if necessary, a third set to 15 points. If a pool drops to three teams, they will play 3 sets to 25 point matches.

There will not be a 2 meter service step-in line for the 12s. Nor is the Libero allowed to serve. These are local OVR modifications and are not recognized by USAV for their National Championships.

5  Seeding

Seeding will be completed by using OVR rankings as of noon, Monday, April 9, 2012. Club Directors of participating teams will then offer their seeding recommendations. Throughout the season, tournament directors must accurately report their tournaments' results, and coaches should check their teams' standings and results periodically for accuracy.

6  Cost and Entry Information for the OVR Bid Tournament

The cost of the OVR Bid tournament is $610.00 for the 12-18 National divisions. Tournament entry checks should be payable to "Ohio Valley Region". Mail your entry fee to:

Al Herbert
4440 Merlin Drive
Uniontown, OH 44685-9641

Mail one check per team. If a team qualifies prior to the OVR Bid Tournament or is not invited to participate in the Bid Tournament due to court limits then their check will be shredded.

7  Entry Process: Bids and Nationals

7.1  OVR Bid entry

Entry for the Ohio Valley Region-Molten® 2012 National Bid Qualifier will be online, similar to last year's process for our Junior Championships. Bid tournament entry will start on February 1 and close on February 29. All entry fees must be postmarked by February 29. See the checklist, below, for proper entry into the tournament.

Club directors: To enter (between February 1 and February 29), sign in to the OVR website and select your club's page (www.ovr.org/dir/club.php, or click the "My club" link from your "My account" page). After verifying that the rosters for the teams you'd like to enter, simply check the boxes for those teams and click the button for entry into the Bid tournament. Promptly mail your entry fees, which must be postmarked by February 29. No OVR paper tournament entry form is required.

7.2  Nationals

In addition to properly entering to play in the OVR Bid Tournament you must register your team online for the USAV Girls JNC by February 29th at the AES website, Procedures for doing so will be posted here when they are known.

8  Bid Checklist

1. The cost for the tournament is as follows: $610.00 for 12s through 18s. Checks should be payable to "Ohio Valley Region". Your entry must be completed and postmarked by February 29, 2012. Mail one check per team.
2. Complete your national tournament entry by February 29 at the AES website. Failure to register and enter your team by the February 29th deadline may cause your team to be disqualified due to incomplete entry process.
3. A separate check made out to "USA Juniors National Championships" for each team entered in the amount of $900 must be sent to Al Herbert with your teams' entry form. Al will forward the checks from those teams that earn an OVR Bid to the national office. The national office will only cash your check when your team qualifies. Mail one check per team.
4. Read and understand all USA Volleyball registration procedures to protect your teams' spots and to answer your parents' questions about the process.

9  Entries

The current list of all teams entered, including status of entry fees and forms, is available on the Bid Entries page. Initially, teams are listed alphabetically for ease of finding specific entries, later, when all entries are in, they will be reordered by standing.

10  Hotels

The Hyatt Regency Columbus is the host hotel for the event. See the Bid Tournament details page for up-to-date information on hotels offering special OVR rates.

10  Vendor Procedures

Any individual or business wishing to make available any goods and/or services at or in connection with events hosted by the Ohio Valley Region, Inc. must contract those arrangements in advance with Ron Wyzynski, OVR CEO/Executive Director (wyzynski@ovr.org, 888-873-9478) or his designees.

This policy, necessary to protect the interests and contracts of the Ohio Valley Region, applies to all events hosted by the Ohio Valley Region, Inc., including but not limited to the Ohio Valley Region, Inc.-Kaepa® USA Girls' Volleyball Championships, the OVR Regional Volleyball Championships, the OVR Boys' Regional Volleyball Championships, the Ohio Valley Region, Inc.-Molten® Bid National Qualifier, and the OVR Power Challenge tournament series.

11  Contacting Us

Please direct your entry process questions to the OVR Bid Committee (bid@ovr.org) rather than contacting the national office. This will cut down on their e-mails, and we'll have or get the answers you need.