What to Expect at a Tournament:
Tournament days are long, so be prepared!
A good rule of thumb is to plan to have your player at the venue at 7am and expect that she will be there until 6pm. Coaches will send out when exactly players are expected to arrive the week of each tournament.
As a general rule, mornings are comprised of pool play, with 4-6 teams all playing each other; cross-over or bracket play takes place in the afternoon.
During the day, the girls will either be playing, officiating, or on a break. Use your team's break time to fuel up your players so they don't get hungry and fizzle out when they are on the court.
While players need to remain at the facility throughout the day, parents may come and go. Keep in mind, though, that morning and afternoon games are frequently at different venues, and parents will need to transport their players between venues.
Transportation of players is not the coaches responsibility. We highly recommend organizing carpools amongst parents and players.
While the days are long and your daughters will be tired, nothing compares to the amount of playing time (for athletes) and watching time (for parents) that you get from these tournaments. So have fun watching your girls, enjoy this time with your team families, and cheer loudly for all the 206 teams!
Food at Tournaments:
From past experience, we find it works best to have one or two families be responsible for food for the team each tournament day, with families taking turns throughout the season. Your Team Parent can set up a schedule.
Since most tournaments take place in remote gyms, plan on bringing food for parents as well.
Everyone coming to tournaments should read the food rules about what food or drinks are allowed in the gym (it’s usually water only, so finish your coffee in the parking lot).
Teams - including parents/siblings - who violate facility food rules lose 13 points in the next game...we've seen it happen to other teams/clubs, don't let it happen to yours!
What to Bring:
Players should bring their club backpacks with ALL team gear, including both game shirts. They may also want to bring a blanket and neck pillow for resting between games.
Parents will want to bring a folding chair (camp chairs work well) and a towel to put underneath to protect the gym floor.
Gyms are spread out throughout the Puget Sound area. They run the gamut from community centers to dedicated volleyball gyms to unused schools, and they can be anywhere from comfortable with bleachers, to remote and somewhat chilly and cramped, so plan ahead and bring chairs, blankets, snacks, and chargers for your phone.
Pool Play, Cross-Overs, Bracket Play, What?!
If you haven't played club volleyball before, making sense of the schedules and rules can be a steep - but fast - learning curve. If you have any questions, go ahead and ask your team parent, coach, or Shelby anything at all. There are no silly questions, and we all have a first year!
It can be difficult to decipher tournament schedules, so we're sharing this primer on How To Read Tournament Schedules to get you started.
Step 1 - Locate where tournament information is posted. Stand alone tournaments (like MLK, PNQ, Willamette) will post pool play directly on their website* or will post a link to AES. AES is a sports tournament management system that allows for easy tournament scheduling and is a downloadable app. Starting last year, PSRVB (Puget Sound Volleyball) has been using AES for all Power League tournaments. We post links on the front page of 206volleyball.com when schedules become available, which is generally the Wednesday before weekend tournaments.
Step 2 - Once in AES, use the drop down to select club - 206 Volleyball Club (conveniently listed first alphabetically!), and then your team.
Example: 206vb13 = 206 Volleyball 13s team, 206vb14 = 14s team
Step 3 - click on your team and you will see YOUR game schedule with approximate times (do not rely on these exact times except for the very first game of the day). This page shows your next-up game and work assignments.
If you want to dig further, click on the Pool/Bracket to the far left to view all the games scheduled for your pool. Here you can see the order of games and determine when your team will officiate and when you will have a break (to feed your players).
After each round of play, results are entered into AES and the second round/cross-over match ups are determined. By clicking through the links toward the bottom of your pool page, you can see the next round schedule for the team that comes in first in your pool, the team that comes in second in your pool, and so forth.
*A disclaimer on behalf of tournament directors: Arranging many teams across multiple gyms is a HUGE task, and any number of things can come up along the way, such as teams dropping out, gym space being made unavailable, etc. Even if you think you've got your schedule set, make to sure check and re-check their website or AES frequently in case of a last minute change.