Beach Volleyball - A Wisconsinite in Florida Making Waves

Even though the weather in Wisconsin in March has felt a little bit like Florida, Kelsey Smith (Oregon, Wis.) is enjoying the actual Florida weather on the beaches. And not just laying around, either. Kelsey is actually making history as one of the first participants in NCAA Sand Volleyball at the University of North Florida. Kelsey played for Badger Region clubs SE Dane (2004-05), Acers (2005-09) and Wisconsin Select (2009-10) before her college career in Jacksonville. Here is the team's roster.

Smith scored UNF's first sand point (with Casey Giovanazzi) in the program's inaugural match against crosstown rival Jacksonville on March 9. Here's the full story.

2012 North Florida Sand Volleyball Team, with Kelsey on the far left

Kelsey, passing the ball

Congrats Kelsey and keep up the good work!
Click here for the UNF Sand Volleyball homepage for the schedule and more information.

If you're looking for sand/beach opportunities in the Badger Region area, you're in luck! We are actually going to be hosting the 2012 USA Beach Junior Tour Championships on July 28-29 at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee! Click here for more info.

March 24 Boys Clinic Recap

Mix more than 75 middle school boys volleyball players, the Southport Volleyball Club, the Carthage men's volleyball team/alumni and a troupe of workers and volunteers and what do you get? A great day of volleyball at the Tarble Arena in Kenosha.

Thanks to the boys volleyball grant the Badger Region received from USA Volleyball, the above mentioned groups were able to host a  truly successful clinic for boys ages 9 to 14 on Saturday, March 24. Young athletes came from as far away as Fort Atkinson, Kettle Morraine and Heartland to take part in this first-ever event.

There was the usual round of hitting, passing, serving and setting that allowed the young athletes to develop their skills, and, of course, there were plenty of age-specific games that got everyone involved. What made the day work was the large number of current Carthage men's volleyball players (ages 19 to 22) and Southport Volleyball Club athletes (ages 15 to 18) that worked closely with these athletes that are so new to volleyball.

Using the high schoolers and college athletes as part of the coaching staff allowed the youngsters a unique chance to connect with someone other than an adult, and every camper really listened to what the players had to say.

One of the highlights of the day was staying on campus for the 7 p.m. Carthage vs. IPFW match. The Red Men defeated their Division I opponent in four great games, and the kids kept the gym loud and full of energy that whole time.

We look forward to another opportunity to do another clinic next year in conjunction with some of the Carthage matches.

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend.

Brian Sharkey
Southport VBC

For more photos from the event, please visit the Badger Region Facebook album (it's a public page, so you don't need an account to look at it!): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.263482167071817.64864.144504375636264&type=1

Girls High Performance Tryout - March 16

The first tryout for the Badger Region Girls High Performance is complete and all we can say is "WOW!!!" We had more than 170 players try out for 60 spots at the High Performance camp on July 13-15 at UW Green Bay.

"Top to bottom, that is probably one of the best tryouts we've ever had," said girls HP chair Paul Schlomer. "The depth was amazing and there are going to be some very good players who may not make the camp - that's how great our tryout was. Everyone should be very proud of themselves, the level of play and effort was just fantastic."

We were very excited to see clubs represented from all over the state some driving more than three hours for the tryout at the Expo Center at State Fair Park, in West Allis (a suburb of Milwaukee).

Great job to all! The offer list will be posted on the Badger Region website (www.BadgerVolleyball.org) by t-shirt number and birthday on April 1. The second tryout (for those who couldn't make the first tryout) is scheduled for Friday, March 30 at the Frontier Airlines Center in downtown Milwaukee.

The HP tryout participants in the National Select division (born in 1998, '99 and after)

The HP tryout participants in the International and National Youth division (born in 1996 and 1997)

Be sure to check out the Facebook photo album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.258706214216079.63715.144504375636264&type=3

Court Set-up Crew Goes the Extra Mile

I want to say thank-you and give a big "High 5" to Coach Elizabeth and her Muskego Stars 16 Blue group of players and parents that stayed an extra 90 minutes last night to help fix courts that had been laid just a bit short. They all worked extremely hard and all still had smiles on their faces as they made their way to their cars at 10:00 pm from State Fairs Grounds.

Badger Power League 13s and 15s Championship Weekend

It was a great weekend at the Wisconsin Dells Center in the Dells on March 10-11 for the championship of Badger Power League for the 13s and 15s. On display was good, competitive volleyball, interesting hair accessories and socks, positive coaching and just a lot of people having fun! Check out our Facebook album for photos of the weekend (it's a public page, so you don't need a Facebook account to view them!).

I also talked with a bunch of parents about the FREE boy's clinic that we have coming up? What's that, you ask? Badger Region was awarded a boy's 14 and under development grant from USA Volleyball, and one of our projects is a FREE (it always has to be caps, because who doesn't love free stuff?) boy's 14 and under clinic on March 24 at Carthage College. Click here for more information and to register (just so we know how many t-shirts to get).

We want to congratulate all of the teams on competing well, and recognize the 13s and 15s champions below (for all the bracket winners, please see the Facebook album).

WVA 13-Black (1st, in blue) and Wisconsin Performance 13 Red (2nd, in black/red)

FC Elite 15-1 (1st) and 15-2 (2nd) - all mixed together

All in all, a great weekend of volleyball. Shout outs to Wisconsin Juniors' Nicole Kump, Eclipse's Alan Capps and WVA's Tara Stewart, David Catoe and Will Brydon for their positive coaching styles and just looking like they really were enjoying themselves on the sidelines. I know there were more coaches like this, so please let me know why YOUR coach rocks and we'll be sure to recognize them.

See you all at the Badger Region Championships the next few weeks! Come find us at the Championship desk and say hi!

Jen

Badger Region USAV Qualifier-March 11th

Kettle Moraine High School awoke very early yesterday with the presence of 20 teams all vying for the opportunity to represent the Badger Region at the 2012 USAV National Championships.

We are excited to announce this years Girls' Junior National Qualifiers.

18's
1st place-Fond du Lac Fusion 18-1 (National Bid)
2nd place-Lake Effect Select 18 Gold (American Bid)

16's
1st place-West Bend Power 16 Purple (American Bid)
2nd place-Wisconsin Select 16-1 (National Bid)

14's
1st place-West Bend Power 14 Purple (National Bid)
2nd place-G-Force 14 Select (American Bid)

There are also some teams that will be accepting a re-allocation bid if it comes our way.

We are very proud of the quality of the teams that will be representing the Badger Region.

Special kudos go out to our officiating staff and Larry (our officials assigner) as they did a tremendous job all day. Many parents and coaches wanted to make sure that the officials were commended on their professionalism and court management.

Wisconsin Volleyball Conference (WVC)-Women's 3rd Playdate

"The purpose of the Wisconsin Volleyball Conference is to promote quality and competitive Men's and Women's Volleyball in Wisconsin"

Good luck to all women's teams competing in the 3rd Playdate in the WVC today (March 3rd) in LaCrosse. The teams that will be participating today are: UW Green Bay, UW Stout, UW Stevens Point, UW Oshkosh, UW Eau Claire, UW Whitewater, UW LaCrosse, UW Platteville & UW River Falls.



The first two playdates saw two different champions crowned.

1st Playdate in River Falls
Champions - UW Eau Claire
Runner ups - UW LaCrosse

2nd Playdate in Oshkosh
Champions - UW Green Bay
Runner ups - UW Eau Claire


Thank-you to UW Stevens Point for sending this picture of their team.

Check out the WVC website to find out more about the conference and all of the wonderful Men's & Women's teams that compete in it.    http://www.wvcweb.org/