The huge change is tied into the 18s. USA volleyball polled the directors of club across the states and this upcoming year places the change in action.
The biggest problem 18 under clubs face is that as young ladies prepare to graduate from high school, they get overloaded by the responsibilities of stepping on to another level of life. This is normal, but has led to some difficulties with 18 under club teams as they face a varying level of commitment from some of those graduating seniors.
In response to this situation, USA volleyball is holding their 18 under championships at an earlier date (April 29-May 1, 2016 in Milwaukee
www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Features/...s-GJNC-Event-in-2016 ) and separate from all the other age brackets. The junior qualifiers have been adapted as well and begin January 16-18 with qualifiers in Chicago, Illinois, Kansas City, Missouri and Atlanta, Georgia.
www.teamusa.org/usa-volleyball/events/in.../girls-18-qualifiers Things have been moved up a bit.
To quote USA volleyball, "The move to break off most of the 18-and-under divisions from the GJNC is in response to a growing trend of seniors in high school looking to end their club season earlier than the traditional timeframe of late June into early July. This event will give teams the option of ending their season earlier or playing in this Championship and continuing their season with other events."
Additionally, many states have voted to have tryouts for their programs way earlier for to allow this and other goals to be accomplished. In some regions, the initial tryouts have already occurred, in order to allow students to choose their club team before the school year begins, thus taking away the risk of try-out issues (injuries, focus and time management issues) as teams enter their play off seasons. ...and in those states they are not allowing any further try-outs until the high school season is over.
As such, some clubs in NY have moved up their tryout dates, as well. This is a different situation than in past years, so please be aware that this will probably be the start of a new normal as some clubs will be following this nationwide trend.
