Middle Tn. Girls Win National Championship (USAV)

[Cowboys Up]

Impact 15 Teal, which is made up of middle Tn. players, won the USAV National Championships in the National Division.

 

3 were chosen for the All-Tournament team: Nicole Smith (Page), Alison Woods (Centennial), and Samantha Serley (Independence) is the tournament MVP!

 

http://www.usavolleyball.org/juniors/06_Girls/06gjo_15.asp

 

Congratulations! Thanks for representing the state of Tennessee in such a spectacular way!

Edited July 3, 2006 by Cowboys Up

[wingman10]

Great news and Congrats!

[TheGreatLineJudge]

Congrats to the girls and to Jay for reaching such success! These girls will be seen in mid-state schools this fall.

[play4keeps]

I was seriously disappointed to see NO mention of the National championship in the middle Tennessee press. This was after a long editor's article in the Sunday Tennessean a few weeks back expressing their strong commitment to HS sports.

 

I wrote to the sports editor at the Tennessean expressing my disappointment and even gave him a story angle. I told him that my daughter DID NOT play for this particular team or any of the schools represented but that I thought the girls (all local HS players) deserved recognition for this accomplishment.

 

Much to my surprise, he wrote me back a very nice email and was apologetic for missing this big story. He was interested in the angle I mentioned and said they would look into doing a story to tie in with the beginning of volleyball season in August.

 

Should we be looking for a story in the near future? I hope so!

[rolltide418]

Congratulations to the coaches and players on reaching this pinnacle!!! This is quite an accomplishment.

[Cowboys Up]

I was seriously disappointed to see NO mention of the National championship in the middle Tennessee press. This was after a long editor's article in the Sunday Tennessean a few weeks back expressing their strong commitment to HS sports.

 

I wrote to the sports editor at the Tennessean expressing my disappointment and even gave him a story angle. I told him that my daughter DID NOT play for this particular team or any of the schools represented but that I thought the girls (all local HS players) deserved recognition for this accomplishment.

 

Much to my surprise, he wrote me back a very nice email and was apologetic for missing this big story. He was interested in the angle I mentioned and said they would look into doing a story to tie in with the beginning of volleyball season in August.

 

Should we be looking for a story in the near future? I hope so!

I love your pro-active manner!!! Hope we see it in the paper soon.

[KYdigsTN]

Big congrats to not only Impacts 15 national championship team, but also the 17's team that qualified and won the bronze bracket in nationals. Dig to Win also had a team qualify. I'm not sure people understand just how difficult it is to qualify for nationals, yet alone win it in any division. VERY BIG accomplishment! VB is clearly on the rise in TN!

[catuballer]

Big congrats to not only Impacts 15 national championship team, but also the 17's team that qualified and won the bronze bracket in nationals. Dig to Win also had a team qualify. I'm not sure people understand just how difficult it is to qualify for nationals, yet alone win it in any division. VERY BIG accomplishment! VB is clearly on the rise in TN!

Could someone please explain the various divisions from top to bottom? Which division is the best and on down from there?

 

Thanks in advance for the clarification.

[VballDaddy78]

Could someone please explain the various divisions from top to bottom? Which division is the best and on down from there?

 

Thanks in advance for the clarification.

If I understand your question, the divisions at "Nationals" go from Open (more elite), to National and then American. Depending on what level you qulaify at during the "qualifiers", that's how you are placed at Nationals. Keep in mind, there can be a lot of different scenarios that can move a team up or even get a team in.

[catuballer]

If I understand your question, the divisions at "Nationals" go from Open (more elite), to National and then American. Depending on what level you qulaify at during the "qualifiers", that's how you are placed at Nationals. Keep in mind, there can be a lot of different scenarios that can move a team up or even get a team in.

I was just curious, why doesn't Impact play at more tournaments in the Open division during the club season in order to qualify for the "Elite" tournaments?

[play4keeps]

I was just curious, why doesn't Impact play at more tournaments in the Open division during the club season in order to qualify for the "Elite" tournaments?

 

This is a very good question. Over the years they have had a couple of teams who could "run with the big dogs" in the Open Division (I think this 15s team is one of them) but with volleyball being fairly "young" in the Southern Region we are not yet at the point that many of our teams (by "our" I mean the Southern Region) can compete toe to toe with teams from Indiana, Michigan, California, etc. where volleyball has been a major sport for many years. NASA (North Alabama Spikers) out of Huntsville, AL has had a couple of teams compete in the Open division. I believe A-5 (out of Atlanta) has also.

 

This isn't to say that the teams don't ever compete in Open, often they do, but generally not in qualifying tournaments, which you must win in order to receive a bid to the JO. Like someone said before there are other routes to Nationals but qualifying at one of the big National Qualifiers is the way most teams get there.

[KYdigsTN]

I was just curious, why doesn't Impact play at more tournaments in the Open division during the club season in order to qualify for the "Elite" tournaments?

 

Impact does play open division in many tournaments I've seen them in and has come a long way, but still would not be able to qualify in the open division for USA nationals yet. They do extremely well in the club division at qualifiers, but would have little chance of qualifying in open. Still some VERY good teams though that qualify for the national division and american division. Clearly the best teams qualify in open and the winner of open is considered the "true" national champion.

 

The only way to qualify for the open division is to finish in the top three at a qualifier in the open divison. No way to get there through the regional qualifying tournament. A few teams are selected as "At Large" open bids by committee. These are teams that demonstrated themselves to be great all year but did not finish top three in a qualifier. National and American bids are granted differently. The winner of a club division in a qualifier goes to national and runnerup to american. Regional bids are granted in national and american through the regional bid tournaments.

 

The louisville area here truly amazes me though with how well they do at nationals. EVERY single KIVA Red team(#1 team) in every age group qualified for open division at nationals. 13's and 15's won the championship. 14's, 16's, 17's finished third. MAVA also had three elite teams finish either runnerup or in the top 4 of the open division. Of the 28 medals given out for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in open, Louisville teams received 8 of them. That's incredible for a city of that size!

Edited July 12, 2006 by KYdigsTN