Boys' Volleyball is Growing in the OVR!

General News

• OVR Boys' High Performance Program

• OVR Statement on Club Clinics and Pre-Season Training of Junior Players

  It is the responsibility of each club and coach to operate appropriately when trying to attract athletes to their programs. Clubs and coaches are reminded to respect each athlete's commitment to their high school program and each high school athlete's agreement to abide by their state athletic association rules.

  Clubs may advertise their tryouts through the media (newspapers, web pages, etc.) and distribute information about them to the coaches of the schools in their area. Clubs may also respond to requests for information about their program. Clubs providing clinics prior to tryouts are cautioned to act in accordance with the state athletic association rules for participants. The OVR will not review, sanction, or otherwise pre-approve these Club activities.

  Each OVR-registered coach has agreed, by signing the Juniors' Coaches' Code of Ethics, item #9, that they will not "allow, encourage, condone, or require any action that threatens a player's High School Association, USAV or NCAA eligibility." While the OVR will not actively monitor Clubs relative to state athletic association rules, any OVR coach whose participation in clinics, training, tryouts or other related actions results in or contributes to an athlete's violation of OHSAA Rule 10-3-1, or similar rules in other states, will likely have violated the Juniors' Coaches' Code of Ethics.

  Part of the OVR Mission is to "Promote and develop the sport of volleyball." A coach who violates the OVR Juniors' Coaches' Code of Ethics in a manner that leads to an athlete's ineligibility to play volleyball should, therefore, expect to receive the most severe sanctions from the OVR.

  Links to state athletic associations may be found at www.ovr.org/juniors/eligibility.php.

• Registration for the 2007-2008 season is open now at www.ovr.org/register/. Complete registration information will be available soon in the Juniors' Registration Packet.
  

• Each club director much be ASEP accredited. This year's ASEP course is on Saturday, December 1, 2007 at Westerville South HS. Complete information and course registration are available at the OVR ASEP page.

• Uniform numbers must be clearly visible and centered on the chest and back. Each jersey must use the same color (excepting the Libero) and number height, minimum of 4" on the front and 6" on the back (recommended 6" on the front and 8" on the back) for all players. The line forming the numbers should be at least ¾" wide.

• Commitments and Contracts
  Verbal commitments by players or parents to clubs are not binding. Commitments must be in writing: e-mail, written note, payment by check or cash (receipt required), or signed contract are binding to both parties for that season. A player contract is one requirement for club licensure.

• Club Licensure
  The OVR has been asked to contribute to a national movement to promote a high standard for operation and management of juniors' clubs. New for the 2007 OVR/USAV season, OVR clubs may apply for licensure, documenting their practices that are considered conducive to running a high-quality program. Those clubs that do for and are granted a license may advertise that fact and will be recognized as licensed on the OVR website. Additional information and the applicatation for club license are aavailable on the Licensure of Juniors' Clubs page.

• Each club must register one director
  USA Volleyball has always recognized only one director per club. To clarify reporting, as well as to clearly denote the person responsible for each club, each club must register precisely one club director. A new registration category allows for specification of an arbitrary number of assistant directors.

• Club directors much be ASEP accredited
  Each club director must be ASEP accredited. This year's ASEP course will be offered on Saturday, December 2, at Westerville South HS. Complete information and course registration are available at the OVR ASEP page.

OVR Boys' Volleyball: September 2007 Update

OVR directors:

I am happy to announce that as promised and due to Nick's hard work, the OVR registration, boys' tryout sanctioning page, and boys' application for tournaments are all open for application.

Al Herbert has already posted some very welcomed boys' tournaments at Ohio Nets (Parma, Ohio). We are unsure of the projected number of 14 yr old teams which may be organized for 2008. Please let me know IF you if you are planning for a 14 yr old team in 2008. We are trying to provide enough Ohio tournaments to promote growth for the younger teams.

The OVR Boys' Winter Festival is scheduled for 1/26-27 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and Regionals are scheduled for 2/23 and 2/24. Regionals will be run either on 2/23 or 2/24 – to be determined. I am attempting to run High Performance tryouts on Friday evening (2/22), and want to couple the HP tryout ages with the ages that play on Saturday 2/23. At this point, I am unsure of the HP approved ages for 2008; from what I can gather, in 2007 USAV's HP Florida championship tournament was organized for 16 year olds and younger.

What's working and not?
I have been in contact with many of local high school coaches (both boys' and girls'), and was able to obtain the volleyball group email addresses for the local CYO program of Northeastern Ohio, and have been promoting boys volleyball every chance I get. My boys' contact group address is now over 200 email addresses, and is still growing. I have been sending weekly updates of local volleyball activities. Most recipients are willing to help where they can, but are also frustrated by the lack of participation from the boys. I have already kicked off free open gyms which have been well received by the older boys, but participation has been lacking from the younger boys. It looks like this will be a long term process.

We are also working on a plan to run 3 vs 3, or 4 vs 4 rotating player scrambles to keep the boys involved during the off season, and am hoping to prepare and mail a brochure to both high school and grade schools which can be posted or distributed,which may be too late for this year?

We are attempting to update the OVR web with a page dedicated to boys. Please forward any suggestions or ideas of information that should be published.

Don Burroughs announced that impact clinics will be rolled out early in October. One has already been posted on the OVR IMPACT page.

Other earlier information:

Boys' Nationals are tentatively scheduled for Salt Lake City in 2008 - USAV has not yet confirmed.

Boys' teams in 2008 will not use National or Regional designations, but rather U – should facilitate organizing and filling tournaments.

Ohio high school permits high school coaches to coach three of your "own" players, and recently extended the 10 coaching days to 20 coaching days for boys.

If you need any help in starting a boys' team or club, please let me know. Please forward to anyone that I may have missed with a copy to me.

We need your help and comments to make the Ohio boys' program a success, feel free to send any suggestions to me!

Thanks for your time,

Loren Paulozzi
OVR Boys' Program Director
paulozzi@ovr.org
440-476-3932

OVR Boys' Regional Championships

• Ohio Valley Region 2008 Boys' Volleyball Championships:
  February 23-24, 2008, at the Veterans' Memorial (Columbus, Ohio)
   
• 2007 OVR Boys' Regional Championship results: [14s and 16s, 17s and 18s]
• 2006 OVR Boys' Regional Championships: results
• 2005 OVR Boys' Regional Championships: results and photos
• 2004 OVR Boys' Regional Championships: results and photos
• 2003 OVR Boys' Regional Championships: results and photos (inaugural event)

Boys' Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships