Club South Volleyball Commitment

Parents and Players must sign an agreement that they have read the rules below and agree to them.

CLUB SOUTH is for the serious volleyball athlete! You or your parents will be paying good money for this training and experience. We take it seriously. Our training & tournament phase is very intense, but it will make you better, increase game knowledge, and improve your skill level. If you’re looking for laid back practices, practices you can come every once in a while, then we suggest you look elsewhere. We don’t apologize for it, but we make it clear up front. CLUB SOUTH players are athletes who want to reach their potential from the beginner athlete, to the elite.

Westside Club has its own rules, a few that we must abide by: (1) Players, children, or visitors cannot be in other locations in the club, other than our gym. (2) Report any stop up toilets to your coach or gym supervisor. (3) Park on side of our gym. Additional parking can be used on left side of gym.

Involvement in the Club South program may enhance your possibilities of attaining a college scholarship. However, the CLUB SOUTH program makes no guarantees toward that. If you hope to play in college, CLUB SOUTH and your coach will assist you as best they can. It is your responsibility to inform your coach of your goals. We will assist in making skill tapes upon request; parents are responsible for game tapes. We have material in our library that may assist you in planning for college recruiting.

It is the philosophy of the CLUB SOUTH program to develop respect, discipline, commitment, and a positive self-image in each of the athletes. It is important that each player understand the concept of being a part of a “team." Selfish acts will be grounds for dismissal from the team and club. Every athlete will be expected to conduct herself appropriately at all times. You will be representing the Club South program. Show respect at all times to coaches, teammates, officials at tournaments & parents. Be competitive, but not disrespectful toward other JO teams or clubs. Disrespect to anyone will not be tolerated!

If it is in the best interest of the program, a player may be moved from one team to another based on one or more of the following; (1) position, (2) skill level (3) attitude (4) needed for tournament play (5) Loss of player from another team. The coaching committee will have the authority to move a player from one team to another based on above needs. Players may request to be moved to a lower team, if she feels that she is not getting sufficient playing time at tournaments.

If a player was on a national team last year doesn’t guarantee they will be on one this year. CS determines teams each year from the pool of current athletes trying out. Remember, talent from year to year changes, you must trust our tryout system.

Understand that practice and training is where you receive the most instruction and experience. Tournament play is only a supplement to participating in Club. Club South will have NO guarantee of playing time for the National teams. Regional teams will offer fair (not equal) playing time to each team player.

If you must miss a practice, you must inform your coach AND team rep a minimum 24 hours in advance so that the coach may plan practice appropriately. There is no exception to this rule! Three weeks advance notice is required if you can’t attend a tournament.

Practice schedules will be available 15-30 days in advance, tournament schedules 30-60 days in advance. We request that CLUB SOUTH be a priority, after schoolwork and school sports. If you decide that your schedule has too many conflicts, then you should seriously consider whether you have the time to dedicate to our Travel Team program. We are looking for the player who is committed to reaching her potential and who is willing to work hard to achieve this. National team players will have the highest level of commitments, see additional commitment related to nationals teams below.

Arrive at practice at least 15 minutes early in order to be warmed up prior to the beginning of practice. Wear Club South practice jerseys and bikers at all team practices. Bring ALL uniform items to ALL tournaments. When your team has referee duties, the ENTIRE team must stay and work until the match is completed, this includes the last officiating duty.

During any overnight travel, curfew will be 11pm on all nights prior to a match! It is our preference that all players stay with their parents or another team parent. It is the parent’s responsibility to arrange housing for their daughter, if they can’t attend. If we find out about any problems at hotels by players, they will be asked to leave immediately and be removed from the team for remainder of the season!

Club South assigns a minimum of one coach per team to hold practices and attend tournaments. Each coach is asked to make as many of these as possible. Understand that circumstances and schedules will require that some teams hold joint practices when a coach is unable to attend. We also have substitute coaches that fill in for practices and tournaments, when the head coach is unable to attend. It may be possible that a coach can’t attend a tournament. We are human, and there may be times that a practice is cancelled at the last minute and information can’t get out.

Check email daily during club season. All information will be provided only by our weekly newsletter sent out on Sunday or Monday. If you don’t receive this, contact our office immediately. Practice and tournament schedule is posted on our website. Detailed tournament info, location, format, gyms will be posted on the region website: www.palmettovb.com. If you don’t have internet access, you will need to contact your team rep or coach.

Make your team representative aware if you are willing to provide transportation to and from tournaments for other players. Parents are responsible for getting your child to and from a tournament. Team reps can assist in planning car pools for ones that need it.

Baby-sitting service is not provided, please be prompt to pick up your daughter after practices.

All fees are based on a lump sum cost, we provide installments as a courtesy for parents. If installments are chosen, your first installment will be due by 10/15 or at time of registration and the 1^st of the month thereafter. If your daughter decides not to join, your deposit will be refunded less a $35 tryout fee. Remember, we are passing along our expenses only; we don’t have the bank balance to pay expenses without income. Understand that our expenses must be paid on time and we expect the courtesy of payment from parents on time. No pay, no play policy.

The November payment for travel teams will be an estimated deposit toward your account since we will not know team assignments until teams are chosen.

There is no credit for players who are unable to attend tournaments or practices. No refunds once our programs start and players participate, regardless of time of participation.

Fees include all cost, except food, travel, and lodging for tournaments, uniform expense is extra. If a player decides to leave the club prior to the end of the season, you must notify us in writing and will be responsible for the installment payment for the month you leave.

We are requiring that players who are chosen to play on one of our Top or National Teams must commit to the additional commitments.

We expect you to clear ALL conflicts for our major tournaments. Informing us after tryouts about conflicts is NOT acceptable. We require attendance for two tournaments. (1) National Qualifier Tournament, (see our tournament schedule) for 2007, we will attend the Big South National Tournament, held Friday-Sunday. (2) The Palmetto Regional Championships, held last weekend in March for 2007. Friday PM, - Sunday. A non-refundable $200 deposit will be due at time of team announcements. The deposit will be applied toward your March installment should you honor your commitment. Other tournaments “may” be excused if it is a school sport conflict. Other club sports will not be an acceptable excuse to miss these tournaments.

For our top team in each age group, should this team win the Regional Championship, the player must commit to attending the Junior Olympic or AAU Nationals-held end of June. This would include training in our Phase II session and a scheduled tournament(s) prior to attending.

Also, players must commit to attending 90% or more of the practice sessions. If a player was on a black team last year doesn’t guarantee they will be on one this year. Playing time is not guaranteed on Black or Top teams.

Note: The following grievance procedure is designed to restore sanity to the sometimes-insane world of youth sports...and allow our coaches to work with athletes while respecting the wishes of their parents. Families who are not comfortable with this procedure should consider joining another J.O. volleyball program. The most painful conflicts in our history have occurred when a temperamental parent approached a coach immediately following the end of a tough volleyball match (typically a loss)...and absolutely nothing positive was accomplished. There are better ways to deal with these issues without alienating the triple partnership among the athlete, parent & coach. One of our required registration forms is a document that governs the interaction among these parties.

Knowing when to communicate and how to communicate with your athlete’s coach and/or club administration is a concern for almost every parent at some time during the season. Most often the concern is how to inquire about issues surrounding playing time or coaching philosophy.
In the Club South Volleyball program, we encourage the athlete to talk to the coach when she has a problem about her playing time, or if she is unclear about what the coach expects from her either in practice or in competition. The appropriate attitude is for the athlete to ask the coach what she needs to do to get more opportunities to play in matches. If the athlete is too emotional to discuss the problem in an adult manner, the conversation should be delayed until the athlete is ready to do so. Parents can best help their athlete by helping her set some goals to achieve more opportunities.

Parent and player needs to understand the playing time commitment we make for regional and national teams and be willing to accept our guidelines.

When parents has a problem that is specific to their own athlete, we require you to place the concern in (1) writing (2) email the coach (3) copy the national coaching committee. This MUST BE DONE AFTER A TOURANMENT, never approach any coach or director on the tournament day. What coaches will not do is discuss "coaching decisions." "Coaching decisions" include, among other things, specific match decisions (who played when, who was subbed out and when, rotation and lineup, etc.) The amount of time any given athlete is on the court is the result of a complex determination, in that coach’s opinion, of the athlete’s ability, the athlete’s potential, the athlete’s attitude, the athlete’s position, the team’s needs at the moment, and the team’s needs in the future. The coach will not be required to defend his /her thought process or conclusions in these determinations, and it is improper for a parent to request it.

In addition, we instruct coaches not to discuss any athlete other than the parent’s own, or the actions of any other Club South coach. If you, as a parent, have legitimate concerns about a coach other than your athlete’s coach, or with an athlete other than your own; you need to address the Club Director and/or national coaching committee.
Specifically, the procedures to follow if you as a parent, or your athlete as a member of a Club South team, have concerns about Club South policies or actions, are, in this order:

     It is inappropriate for an athlete or a parent to approach other Club South members about a problem the athlete or parents having with a Club South coach or team, about objections to coaching decisions, or about disagreement with an administrative decision.
    Asking uninvolved persons to take sides in an issue is unfair to the third party and to the Club. Competitive team athletics, by its very nature, creates situations where everyone may not be happy all the time. For the psychological health of the teams and the Club as a whole, grievances need to be handled between the parties involved and the decision-makers in the situation.
    Any member who is approached and asked to listen to or express an opinion about matters between two other parties in the Club is strongly encouraged to refer the complaining party to take the matter up with either the coach in question, and/or the Club Director. Repetitive complaining by the athlete(s) or other third parties that interferes with the Club’s efforts to pursue its stated pledge and purpose may be cause, in the sole determination of the Club, to ask a member to resign.

Bottom of Form

It is VERY important each parent and player read ALL of this concerning tryouts. As we mention in our parents meeting, every club has two primary concerns voiced by parents and players: (Team Placement and Playing time.)

Club South has over 10 years of experience, and we continue to improve in these two areas. It is important that all parents and players understand and trust our tryout system. It has been proven to be successful and above all, very extensive. We have between 25 to 40 coaches that evaluate each player. It is not perfect, but we have not found a better system.

Our system starts with an individual skill test and evaluations that allow each player to be tested individually. Eight different skill tests and eight different coaches rate each player’s individual skill technique. Based on past team placements, this first week can determine top half and lower half within an age division, with a 98% accuracy. It will provide top 1/3, middle 1/3, and lower 1/3,with 77% accuracy

We have between 8 to 12 coaches evaluate every player within the age group. Coaches provide us two ratings. One rating, score between 1 and 10, (10 highest) is an evaluation of the players overall skill level. This score posted is an average of all skills and is posted for players/parents to view on our web site. The second score is a team placement score based on the coach's evaluation. This team score is NOT posted for viewing, but is used for overall final placement. During this tryout, all players are not grouped and evaluated among all skilled players.

During this session, grouping begins. We do intermix all players for 25% of the time and group them for 75% of the time. Ratings for this week is shown as a team score. It will be 1 through the number of teams we plan to have.

For example, if you have a score of 2.2, you are closer to team 2 than team 3. A score of 1.7 would be closer to team 2 than 1. Note: This is for this tryout only, the average of all tryouts will be considered in the final decisions, along with position played. This score gives player an indication of what team they may be placed on. If you feel it is significantly incorrect, email us. It is possible for a player with a lower overall score to be placed above another due to position played.

There is a misinterpretation from some parents and players that during the grouping the following happens:

(A) "They are already picked for a team based on what court they are on". - FALSE assumption. We tell them that we have to group players from the average scores to date and divide them into groups. It can be difficult if a player is on the top percentage of a lower group. They may perceive they are in a much lower group. We have to draw the line to divide somewhere.

(B) "They can't be seen as the skilled player they are because they are surrounded by lower skilled players"- FALSE assumption. We probably get more questions from this area. Understand, we have to divide groups at some point. We take the average of all scores to date and simply sort them and divide the players into groups. Remember, during this tryout, we do intermix ALL skill level players about 30% of the time.

If we have 30 players, we may make 3 groups. Your child may be number 11, which placing them in group 2 with lower skill players. It is true, she is with a lower group, but if her skill level is better, it will be seen by coaches, no matter if the remaining group can perform skills or not.

Remember, they have already been though 2 ratings prior to this, during the first ratings, no grouping takes place, yet the scores are very close to sessions where we do group players. We also place one or two players of high skill within lower groups without the knowledge of the coaches doing the evaluations in order to see if they can pick out these players. Yes, actually testing our coaches evaluations, but it works. We also look at the positions and rate within positions.

Final tryout: we average all scores, along with other information and group players again. Players will remain within these groups 60-75% of the time, and then intermix with all level players the remaining time. We also look at player positions during this session.

Each coach will provide their recommendation of team placement, again. By this time, if players attended all sessions, they would have been evaluated by over 35 coaches. Can a few coaches be wrong? Absolutely. However, our system works based on an average of all evaluations.

Understand, we don't have 8 to 10 identical skilled players to place on teams. Teams will vary in the skill level of players. What is fact, Club South will NOT have the variance in skill levels as smaller clubs.

MOST IMPORTANT: Our 2nd, 3rd, 4th, even 5th teams have out played and have proven better skilled than other clubs 1st and 2nd teams. Proven by past years results. If you are caught up in having to be on a TOP team... then you probably need to consider a smaller club. We feel confident that our training system will help your child no matter if she is on the #1 team or #5 team. Click here to see past results and review how our lower teams placed higher than others 1st and 2nd teams- trust our training system is equal to ALL players, no matter if they are #1 in an age group or #40 !!

Club South promises to train equally ALL players- we just believe we need to divide them into groups/teams of SIMILAR age and skill levels, not exact.

This is a change from last year. We will post the probably team placement after this tryout. Team scores will be posted by SS/ID numbers, not names. Once posted (posted within 48 hours following the tryout), we will email everyone. You have 24 hours to accept the team decision.

You may request a review of team placement if you disagree. We would ask you first place it in writing with your reason, it will be considered by the national coaching committee.

NOTE: FINAL PLACEMENT CAN CHANGE- Up or Down. If it is lower, you will have option for refund or change to a non travel.

IF you are ranked on team ONE- you MUST agree to the Top Team National Commitment. This will be provided to you via email. A non-refundable $250 deposit will be required prior to team placement and agreement to the commitment requirements before placement is made. The deposit is for the commitment on the Top Team Requirements.

FINAL PLACEMENT:
Following the above email and upon receipt of responses from each player, the national coaching committee will meet to review and discuss each player. Probably the most difficult decision we make all year. We will form teams and make an announcement.

In ending, we want all to know, Club South has an established successful training system designed to help every single player within the program, no matter if they are #1 or the lowest rated skill player in the club. They receive the SAME proven training system no matter which team they are placed.

PARENTS AND PLAYERS ARE TO KEEP THE ABOVE WRITTEN AGREEMENT AND REMIT SIGNATURE FORM AT TRYOUTS.

The above form must be read, agreed upon, and signed by both parents and player before placement on a travel team is allowed.

In agreement to the commitments above, I certify that all parties have read all sections of above commitment agreement and agree to abide by the rules and commitments set forth above while participating in the volleyball season set forth by Club South.

___________________________________ _____________________________ __________
Father’s Printed Name Father’s Signature Date Signed

___________________________________ _____________________________ __________
Mother’s Printed Name Mother’s signature Date Signed

___________________________________ _____________________________ __________
Player’s Printed Name Player’s Signature Date Signed

Office Only

Received Date: ______________ Team: ___________________________