1  Ohio Valley Region Bid Tournaments

The Ohio Valley Region-Molten® 2008 National Bid Qualifier tournaments are used to award the region's "National" and "American" bids to the 2008 USA Girls' Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships (June 26 through July 5, 2008, Dallas, Texas).

The tournaments will be held as follows:

2  Eligibility

All Ohio Valley Region teams declared "National" as of February 1, 2008 will be eligible to participate. Teams in the 12 and under age divisions are not required to declare "National" status. 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 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 will receive a refund. Teams earning a bid at our regional Bid Tournament event that do not participate in the 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 OVR bid tournament.

3  Schedule

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

4  Format

12s will compete on Saturday and Sunday, April 12th and 13th at the GCCC. The sixteen teams will be seeded into four 4-team pools. This first round will play at the GCCC from 9 am on Saturday, April 12th through about 3 pm. The top two teams from each pool (8 teams total) will then be placed into two 4 team pools and the other two teams from each pool (8 teams) will be placed into different two 4 team pools. 25 point tie-breaker sets will be used to break any three way ties for 2nd. The first two matches of this second round will be played on Saturday, starting at approximately 3:15 pm. The remaining four second round matches will begin at 8 am on Sunday. After the second round pools are completed, the top two teams from the upper division pools will play in a 4 team bracket. The other two teams from the upper division pools will play in a 4 team bracket. The top two teams from each of the lower division pools will play in a 4 team bracket. The other two teams from each of the lower division pools will play in a 4 team bracket.

18s, 17s, 16s, 15s, 14s, and 13s will compete on Saturday and Sunday, April 12th and 13th at the GCCC. Up to 24 teams will be seeded into six 4-team pools. Match play will run from 9 am until approximately 3 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. 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 3:15. 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 3:30 pm until 5:30 pm. The two 2 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. 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 teams receive the remaining OVR 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. Even if a pool drops to three teams, they will still play best of 3 set matches.

5  Seeding

Seedings will be completed by using OVR rankings as of Sunday, April 6, 2008. 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 $600.00 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 its check will be shredded.

7  Entry Process: Bids and Nationals

7.1  OVR Bid entry

Entry for the Ohio Valley Region-MoltenŽ 2008 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 JNC by February 29th at the USA Volleyball 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: $600.00 for 12s through 18s. Checks should be payable to "Ohio Valley Region". Your entry must be completed and postmarked by February 29, 2008. Mail one check per team.

2. Complete your national tournament entry by February 29 at www.usavolleyball.org. Click Juniors, then On-Line Registration. The national office has a deadline by which you must be registered, but understand that someone from the OVR has to approve every on-line player and coach so we have imposed our February 29 deadline to allow time to verify your players' and coaches' eligibility. 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 for 12s-18s must be sent to Al Herbert with your teams' entry form. Al will forward those 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

A Family of Marriott Hotels in Partnership with Ohio Valley Region Volleyball for 2008 offer discounted rates starting at $74.00. See www.ovr.org/hotels/ColumbusMarriotts.html for complete information.

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.-KaepaŽ USA Junior Volleyball Championships, the OVR Regional Volleyball Championships, the OVR Boys' Regional Volleyball Championships, the Ohio Valley Region, Inc.-MoltenŽ Bid National Qualifier, and the OVR National and Regional 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.