Western Empire Volleyball Association

USA Volleyball Launches SafeSport Microsite:
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 (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.

Effective with the 2013-2014 Season
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:

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).
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.
FAQ's on the ranking system posted to the WEVA website
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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