The WEVA Board of Directors has approved an updated Due Process and Appeals policy. Please click HERE to review the updated policy.

The WEVA Board of Directors has approved an updated Tryout Registration and Recruiting policy. Please click HERE to review the updated policy.

Richard Buchanan, Cindy D'Errico, Tom Schneider, Lindsey Schlegel, and Mark Thomey have been named the 2013-2014 WEVA Meritorious Service Award winners. they have shown exemplary dedication to the region. For more information, please click HERE.

Registration for the Patriot Division of the 2015 Girls’ Junior National Championships will open on January 7th at 12:01am EST through Advanced Event Systems (AES). The Patriot division is a non-qualifying division available first come first served based on date and time stamp of registration in AES. For more information, please visit http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Events/Indoor/Girls/2015-Girls-JNC/Participant-Info/Patriot-Division or send an email to lauren.lequire@usav.org.

Click HERE for the dates for Open National Championships to be held in Detroit, MI in 2015. Click HERE for the deadline dates for Open National Championships to be held in Detroit, MI in 2015.

In an effort to alleviate some confusion over the solid colored jersey rule that went into effect on September 1, and to ease the transition to the new rule, the Rules Commission has agreed to the following modified interpretations for the coming season. Please select HERE for the modified interpretations.

Click HERE for the deadline dates for Boys’ Junior National Championships to be held in Columbus, OH in 2015.

Click HERE for the deadline dates for Girls’ Junior National Championships to be held in New Orleans, LA in 2015.

Click HERE for the age division date breakdown for the Boys’ Junior National Championships to be held in Columbus, OH in 2015.

Click HERE for the age division date breakdown for the Girls’ Junior National Championships to be held in New Orleans, LA in 2015.

USA Volleyball & WEVA requires all registered club directors, referees, and coaches to complete the Safe Sport training. The link to the course is HERE. It is estimated to take about 90 minutes to complete. Please forward a copy of the course completion certificate to John Hughes in the WEVA office.

The course must be completed by April 1, 2015 otherwise you will be unable to continue in your position. Last year all clubs forwarded a Club Safe Sport Coordinator's name to the WEVA office. If that contact has changed please advise.

Please direct any questions to WEVA Junior Coordinator, Cindy D'Errico at 585-261-1803 or email address wevacindy@hotmail.com.

Thanks so much for your cooperation and timely completion of the course.

Thanks,
Scott

The WEVA PVL Player & Coaches Clinic, held on July 14th (Buffalo) & 15th (Rochester) was a success and received numerous testimonials. To review these testimonials, please select HERE.

The minutes from the junior year end meeting will be posted to the WEVA website. Please refer to the minutes for everything that was discussed. The important highlights are below.

1. WEVA Code of Conduct - WEVA Code of Conduct (COC) has been revised and information from COC was used in the new Tryout, Registration, and Recruiting document
2. New Tryout, Registration and Recruiting Document - This has some recruiting information from the WEVA Code of Conduct and modified for the 2014-2015 season. This document should be reviewed at your kick off meetings and information meetings for parents/players once teams are formed so all are educated with this important information. All athletes that are trying out for multiple clubs MUST register as undecided. Once they accept a spot on a clubs team that club will be advising John Hughes and he will be changing from undecided to the club of choice. Additionally, if anyone would like to report any violations in the recruiting process, they are to report it in writing to the WEVA Vice-President (Eligibility Chairperson). The research will be completed by an ethics and eligibility committee comprised of adults chosen by the VP from the region that has no affiliation to any junior clubs within WEVA. This will keep any reports anonymous. Will be posted to the WEVA website and attached.
3. Revised Girls Ranking Document - Tournament strengths have been reviewed and adjusted. This is an on-going process
4. An email will be forthcoming for feedback on a proposal for girls 14 and under teams in the region to compete in the same two mandatory WEVA sanctioned events during the 2014-2015 season.
5. The Girls BID Qualifier event will have a new cut off date for tournaments used as acceptance into the tournament so that the communication can be completed two weeks before the event. Clubs having bubble teams requested additional time to communicate acceptance into event. We are still working on the date for the event - 4/11-12 OR 5/2-3. With those dates the last tournament that will be used will be the weekend of 3/28 for April event and weekend of 4/11 for May event. The seeding will not occur until the week before the event as it is today.
6. Any suggestions for educational opportunities for players and/or coaches for the upcoming season please advise. Education committee will be working on a seminar/clinic schedule for the 2015 season. Testimonials from this summers clinic will be posted very soon. The Clinic was very successful.

Acceptance of on-line submissions for TRADITIONAL 2-day events will start on 8/1 and be approved immediately

• Pace Bootlegger Can-Am Boys - January 17-18
• Niagara Frontier Can-Am Girls - January 10-11 or 17-18
• VolleyFX Hocus Pocus Girls - January 24-25
• Finger Lakes Wildcats Girls - February
• WEVA Festival Girls - February 21-22
• VolleyFX Winter Challenge Girls - February 18-March 1
• WEVA Championships Boys - March 22
• WEVA Qualifier Girls - May 2-3 (could be April)
• Niagara Frontier Girls - May 9-10 and 16-17

Acceptance of on-line submissions for non-traditional 2-day and 1-day events will start on 8/1 and approvals to be completed by 9/19

• WEVA Rally I - February 8
• WEVA Digfest - March 14-15
• WEVA Rally II - April 19
• WEVA Rally III - April 26

Congratulations to the NFVB 15-1 team for making history this year winning the 15 National Division of USA Nationals. This is the first team from WEVA to ever win a division at Nationals. Over the course of the event the team was the only team to go undefeated as well. Great job! WEVA is very proud of your accomplishment. See the entire story by using the following link to the NFVB website.

http://nfvbjuniors.com/2014/06/15-1s-are-national-champions

GIRLS (unless noted all teams participated in the National Division)

Age	Team	Record	Place
12s	VFX Wish	2-7	39 out of 48 - lost in semi finals of Flight 5
13's	Octane 13's	4-6	22 out of 48 - lost in finals of Flight 1
14's	VFX Conjure	3-6	23 out of 48 - lost in semi finals of Flight 1
15's	NFVB 15-1	11-0	WON the GOLD Division
16's	NFVB 16-1	7-3	26 out of 48 - lost in finals of Flight 2
16's	VFX Mantra	8-1	5 out of 69 - lost in quarter finals of Gold for Patriot Division
17's	NFVB 17-1	4-5	13 out of 48 - lost in quarter finals of Silver
18's	VFX Magic	7-3	21 out of 48 - Won Flight 1

BOYS

Age	Team	Record	Place
14 Open	Pace	4-7	25 out of 36 - lost in quarter finals of Flight 1
14 Open	Lockport VBC	1-9	31 out of 36 - lost in semi finals of Flight 2
15 Open	Pace	9-1	3 out of 34 - lost in semi finals of Gold
15 Open	Eden	6-5	17 out of 34 - lost in quarter finals of Bronze
15 Open	Victor	5-7	22 out of 34 - lost in semi finals of Flight 1
16 Open	Victor	6-3	5 out of 36 - lost in quarter finals of Gold
16 Open	Eden	6-6	15 out of 36 - lost in semi finals of Bronze
16 Open	Pace	3-6	25 out of 36 - lost in quarter finals of Flight 1
17 Open	Pace	8-2	4 out of 36 - lost in semi finals of Gold
17 Open	Eden	4-6	31 out of 36 - lost in semi finals of Flight 2
17 Open	Southtowns	1-10	33 out of 36 - lost in quarter finals of Flight 2
17 Open	Victor	1 -8	33 out of 36 - lost in quarter finals of Flight 2
18 Open	Pace	5-5	23 out of 36 - lost in semi finals of Flight 1

Congratulations to all teams that participated at Nationals and represented WEVA with pride and passion. WEVA, clubs and families are all proud of your season culminating with the opportunity to represent the region at the highest level of competition! To seniors good luck in your future endeavors. To all underclassmen, continue to work hard and see you next season as you pursue your dreams and goals!

WEVA Pool Play Results
Arizona Sizzle - Won - 25-21, 26-24, 25-10
Badger Blizzards - Won - 21-25, 25-21, 25-16, 25-10
Dream Team NCVA - Won - 25-22, 25-23, 25-15
Team Evergreen - Won - 22-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-17
NE Midnight Riders - Won - 25-12, 25-14, 25-20
Team Iowa Ice - Won - 25-11, 19-25, 25-18, 14-25, 15-8

Semi-Finals Gold Division
Carolina Flight - Won - 18-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-23, 15-11

Finals Gold Division
Florida Wave - Won - 25-20, 27-25, 25-18

Congratulations to all the champions at the WEVA Boy's Regionals and the Girls Bid Qualifier events. The level of competition throughout the events was exciting. Some great volleyball matches were witnessed by everyone in attendance. WEVA wishes all teams participating in USA Nationals the best of luck! The region knows you will represent WEVA with pride!

Boy's
18's - Pace 18
17's - Pace 17
16's - Eden 16
15's - Victor 15
14's - Pace 14 Black
12's - Pace 12

Girl's
18's - VFX Magic
17's - NFVB 17-1
16's - NFVB 16-1
15's - NFVB 15-1
14's - VFX Conjure
13's - Octane 13
12's - VFX Wish

WEVA is excited to announce the 2014 Coaches Clinics on July 14th at the Buffalo Niagara Court Center and July 15th at the Rochester Main Street Armory. The coaching staff for the clinic includes members of the Western Empire Premier Volleyball League team. Click here to see bios of the staff, detail plans along with the registration requirements.

WEVA is excited to announce the 2014 Players Clinics on July 14th at the Buffalo Niagara Court Center and July 15th at the Rochester Main Street Armory. The coaching staff for the clinic includes members of the Western Empire Premier Volleyball League team. Click here to see bios of the staff, detail plans along with the registration requirements.

WEVA is excited to field a women's team at the 2014 PVL Championships in Phoenix Arizona over Memorial Day weekend. This is the third year that WEVA has fielded a team. Click here to view the team roster along with the players individual bios along with our generous PVL sponsors.

As a service to college coaches as well as the potential collegiate student athletes playing in the Western Empire Region, we have assembled the names of Junior and Senior class players participating on club teams within our region. Click here to view this information.

The USA Volleyball Domestic Competition Regulations for this season are now available and there are several significant rule and interpretation changes you need to know about. Click here to view a summary of these changes.

For our WEVA Referees, there are two ways to get re-certified: 1) At no cost, you can go online through your Webpoint member, select "Event Management", select "My Region Events", and select one of the "WEVA Referee Re-certification Clinic" (Provisional or Regional) depending on your rating. 2) Attend a re-certification clinic. Clinics are listed HERE.

USA Volleyball has launched a micro website for its SafeSport Program, which is devoted to the overall safety of participants. The site can be found here.

As part of the SafeSport Program’s mission, USA Volleyball is a committed leader in providing a safe and fun environment for youth, adults, officials, spectators and event staff. USA Volleyball, which has a zero tolerance for abuse and misconduct, places a paramount importance on the safety of its participants on and off the courts.

“USA Volleyball is excited to take this next step in launching its SafeSport program”, said USA Volleyball Senior Director Margie Mara. “We appreciate the enthusiasm of our regional leadership and Board of Directors who have embraced the importance of this program. Many thanks to the USOC and other National Governing Bodies who helped guide us in the program’s creation.”

As part of the SafeSport Program, USA Volleyball has developed a SafeSport Handbook intended to be a central location for all of the policies and procedures that are designed to protect its youth participants from all types of misconduct and abuse. It also includes information and education for adults on how to be proactive, to recognize areas of concern and signs of abuse. The SafeSport Handbook includes the various policies that apply to all USA Volleyball member programs and address the following areas: sexual abuse; physical abuse; emotional abuse; bullying, threats and harassment; and hazing.

As its guiding principles, USA Volleyball is committed to providing a safe, healthy and positive environment for its participants’ physical, emotional and social development; believes that all non-athlete members share a collective responsibility to protect our membership; will make training available for all members to increase awareness and understanding of athlete protection policies and best practices.

The SafeSport program includes training, educational materials and resources for our regions, clubs, coaches, parents and athletes. The components are: 1) Policies and guidelines; 2) Education and awareness training; 3) Background screening of adult staff; 4) Reporting and responding to abuse; 5) Monitoring and supervision; 6) Grassroots engagement and feedback.

The annual WEVA board meeting was held July 15th at Genesee Community College. Based on that meeting, I would like to share the following news:

1. WEVA Impact Certification Clinics and USA online IMPACT certification costs will be covered by the region. Efforts to attend the WEVA sponsored clinics is encouraged to allow coaches to engage in discussion on topics covered. USA will continue to offer some free online sessions to WEVA. The online option is limited and must be coordinated/approved by the executive director prior to signing up. The executive director will assign the onlines to club coaches based on geographical location of clubs, availability of individuals to attend the WEVA clinics etc. Online option will not be an option for all (only free ones allocated by USA will be distributed).
2. WEVA has assigned Lindsey Schlegel as the junior education committee chair. Additional volunteers to the committee are Michelle Britt from Fairport VBC, Jim Mercer from Impact VBC/Genesee Community College and Candi Werkmeister from VFX. Kyle Salisbury will still be part of the committee as the IMPACT coordinator along with Johnathan Head servicing the Buffalo area for IMPACT. Based on prior feedback from an earlier e-mail to club directors some topics they will be considering/evaluating to offer are the following:
   • First Aid, CPR, AED (solicit dates from local Red Cross etc. organizations that can be attended or offer one within the region) - All high school, college coaches this is a requirement. Should be on all coaches wish list for safety reasons.
   • Concussion Training - we posted this past year an online training offering that most high schools require of their coaches - we can continue this
   • Abuse recognition/reporting
   • Goal Setting
   • Practice Organization
   • Youth Volleyball Development - clinics
   • Beach/Sand Volleyball development - clinics
   • Parent Involvement
   • Drill development
   • Strength/agility training
   They will consider offering an annual/bi-annual conference - our own mini WEVA volleyball convention. A two or one day multi session event with classroom and court sessions or multiple mini sessions scheduled throughout the year. WEVA did a coaching, youth player clinic with great success at Nazareth, in conjunction with the men's final four event, a few years ago and it went over very well. Just have to determine the best time of year to offer them and then do it on a regular basis. They will be developing marketing plan to high school coaches, area college coaches and club coaches. Any additional suggestions or interest in joining the endeavor please let me know and I will share with the committee. The approved budget for education in the region is $6,000 for coaches and $1000 for players for the upcoming season.
3. FAQ's on the ranking system posted to the WEVA website
4. Junior Tournament Guideline posted to the WEVA website for clubs interested in hosting a tournament. It will be a helpful guide on how to proceed.
5. All junior player online WEVA registrations will be required to pay online with a credit card for this upcoming season. If a junior player's family does not have a credit card they can contact Executive Director John Hughes to assist in registering. The players will be required to print their registration card from the website after they complete the registration and take it to tryouts with them. They can still register as undecided or with club of preference as they have done in the past. Once they commit to a team/club John Hughes can change the affiliation if necessary. This will assist with the number of unpaid members each year as well as any confusion across clubs as to who paid the fee to WEVA. So tryout fees should not include the WEVA registration fee in the future. More details to follow once launched on the website.
6. WEVA junior player registration fees will increase to $62.00 from the $60.00 this past season. The increase is directly related to an increase in the insurance costs for USA volleyball. The insurance liability increase was from $1.05 to $1.60 for each player and the insurance sport accident increase was from $1.80 to $2.40. Please plan your communication accordingly for the upcoming season.
7. WEVA will have a facebook and twitter account that will be activated August 1st. All posts will be reviewed by the administrator before posted to monitor the content of the posts by players, coaches, supporters and/or parents.
8. 2013 Election results: Rocco Lucci - President, William Paige - Treasurer, Girl's Rep - CJ Denk, Boy's Rep Tom Schneider. A subcommittee is being formed to evaluate the election process. If you are interested in serving please contact Fred Chase via e-mail at fchase@rochester.rr.com.
9. High performance for boy's will be supported in 2013-2014 season. The new boy's rep Tom Schneider and junior coordinator will continue the hard work of past boy's rep Tom Weislo to see it to fruition. An overall plan is being developed and will be announced in the beginning of the season. Thanks to Tom for all his research and foundation that has been laid to make this a reality.
10. WEVA overall membership increase this year was from 2443 members in 2012 to 2914 in 2013. Thanks to all clubs for the dedication to the sport of volleyball and the support of the WEVA region. This would not of been possible without all of your support!
11. Remember for the upcoming season market the Gary Adler Scholarship to seniors in your club. With a little bit of effort girl's and boy's players have a chance at earning $500.00. The money would be sent directly to their college of choice.
12. As part of the budgeted WEVA promotion and marketing, WEVA will be researching support to teams attending Nationals for the optional gifts that are handed out to opponents prior to playing them. All participants look forward to the gifts handed out from other teams. It will be an opportunity to market our region and support our teams attending USA Nationals.
13. The WEVA board approved the following change for junior boys. The requirement to host or co-sponsor a WEVA sanctioned event by all boy's clubs in existence for more than one year will no longer exist. The board and boy's club directors felt that with the increase in boy's clubs and the number of tournaments available within WEVA each season that there is no longer a need for all clubs to host or co-host an event. The requirement of players/teams to play in two WEVA sanctioned tournaments before the boy's regional (to play in it) will still be enforced. The players must of played in two tournaments with the team that they are playing with at regionals.

Looking forward to the 2013-2014 season. Questions in regards to any items above please let me know via e-mail wevacindy@hotmail.com OR by cell phone (585) 261-1803.

Cindy D'Errico
Junior Coordinator
Junior Program Director

The USA Volleyball master insurance policy provides excess medical coverage for injuries sustained while participating in an approved or sanctioned volleyball event. This document explains the details of this coverage and how it applies.