faq

About Practices

Each team will practice twice per week on Mondays/Wednesdays or Tuesdays/Thursdays. The schedule is posted on the Practice page. Most coaches will ask their players to arrive 20-30 minutes before each practice to prepare and warm-up. All practices will be held at the Hoop in Salem.

About Tournaments

14s to 18s Club teams are guaranteed seven (7) tournaments. 12s teams will compete in four (4) tournaments. They will typically compete in two tournaments in January, two in February, one in March, and two in April. All the tournaments and their location will be listed on the Master Schedule page. The tournaments begin at 7:30 am with coaches meeting and end around 6:30 pm. Each team will play no less than 4 matches (8 games) per day (1-day tournaments).

Club sport vs. School sport

We support school sports. We have players that compete in multiple sports. If a player has a school basketball game for example, that will take priority over Club practices for the club program teams. Exception is for our High Performance teams that requires higher commitment to volleyball. Even in this case, at times, players are allowed to miss practices to compete for their school. Team coaches will cover this topic during their pre-season team meeting.

Calendar for players and parents

Click here to go to the Calendar page.

Coaching Staff

Our coaches include current and former college coaches, current and former high school coaches, coaches who have been trained and have coached for us for number of years, and current and former college players. Our current season high performance team coaches will be identified in mid October. Click here to view the coaching staff and their biographies.

Forms

CEVA/USAV Registration
Go to www.columbiaempirevb.com, click on the Membership Registration, scroll to the bottom, click on returning players, new player, or login. follow the instructions from there.

We need completed and SIGNED original or copy of the code of conduct and Medical forms. On the second page of the medical form, if the shots are current, write "Current" on the of that line.

ALL PLAYERS MUST BE REGISTERED PRIOR TO TRYING OUT. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Fundraising

The best means to raise funds is the Donation Letter and the Pledge card. You can find them in the Fundraising page.

Parents and players can use almost any means to fundraise. We participate in the Scrips program, sell Christmas trees, and number of other great fundraisers.

If you know of a good fundraiser, you can take the lead, we will promote it for you, and help find other parents/players to promote that program. You will need to e-Mail Norm Daniels and work with him.

Philosophy on Winning

There is no question that winning builds confidence and motivates but winning does not ensure the quality of the performance. Winning is how we win and not whether we win.

Our Club philosophy is Performance over Outcome. We also have a primary goal that each athlete has a positive, learning experience by participating in our club.

Our goal is very simple as it is stated in our Mission Statement that is to provide our players with the opportunity to develop their volleyball skills and to play volleyball, with quality coaching in a positive environment that promotes good sportsmanship, leadership, character development, personal integrity, and self-discipline.

What does the Club fees include

The Club fee includes: All USA Volleyball and Columbia Empire Region's participation fees, tournament fees*, uniforms, coaches salaries, practice facilities, club operating expenses, coaches training and certifications.

The Club fees does not cover any additional tournaments that teams choose to enter. The additional tournaments will be listed under each team's schedule. See Master Schedule page.

Each team will be entered in seven tournaments. Every team will be entered in our region’s Power League and two other tournaments within our region. There are no restrictions on the number of tournaments teams can enter. Teams can choose to enter as many tournaments as they wish. Cost of each tournament within our region will range between $85 to $150 per team. Outside our region, cost of major tournaments range between $175 - $700. This does not include travel, room, and meals.

Power League: Tournaments are once each month beginning in January. The first tournament in the series is the qualifier which consists of a morning and an afternoon pool play. Teams are seeded in various divisions (8 teams per division) based on clubs previous year's record. Purpose of this tournament is seeding within our region. It's not unusual to change sites after the morning pool play. The remaining tournament sites will not change. The 2nd through the 4th tournaments will begin with pool play, followed by bracket play. The top two teams will move-up one division, the bottom two will move-down, and seeds 3 to 6 will remain in the same division. The Power League season ends at the end of April with Regionals. Teams will be competing for their division championship. The Top 16 teams will compete in a two day tournament. All other will compete in a one day tournament. Athletes not participating in the Volleyball Festival, Northwest Volleyball Championships, or any other major tournaments will will end their season at this time.

Regional Tournaments: These are tournaments hosted by clubs within our region sanctioned by the Columbia Empire region of USA Volleyball.

Inter-Regional Tournaments: These tournaments are hosted by clubs located outside our region. Past years, our teams have traveled to Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, and Washington. There are additional cost such as travel, hotel, and meals in order to participate in these tournaments, but the experience is well worth it. Past years, we have taken teams to the President's Day and the Emerald City classic tournaments in Seattle, the Volleyball Festival in Sacramento, California, and Northwest Volleyball Championships in Salem.

National Qualifiers: These tournaments are hosted by various regions, sanctioned and approved by USA Volleyball HDQ, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Upper level teams have the opportunity to enter and compete in these tournaments. Successful team can earn a bid (spot) in the Junior National Tournament (JOs). This event will place teams from the grassroots Division to the Elite division of USA Volleyball. Players from this event are selected to participate in the USAV High Performance Camp, and possibility to advance to the Youth and/or the Junior National Team. The Pacific Northwest Qualifier, in Cheney, Washington is the nearest site to Oregon. We have also sent teams to compete in the Crossroads in Colorado, and Tampa Bay qualifier in Florida.

Tournament days and times: Most tournaments are held on the weekends, mostly on Sundays due to the availability of facilities. Majority of Tournament Directors (TDs) conduct their coaches meeting at 7:30 AM. First match are scheduled at 8:00 AM. Tournament begin with pool play, followed by bracket play. For example, if there are 8 teams, they will be split into two pools of 4 teams. Each team will play the other 3 teams in the pool. Using the win-loss record, and other means in cases of tie, they will be ranked 1 to 4. The top 2 teams will play in the championship bracket, and the bottom 2 will play in the consolation bracket. Final matches will start sometime between 4:30 and 5:30 PM.