Dear Coaches,

All coaches please read this!

We are successfully through our first weekend of tournaments and as every year, we find out what bugs we need to work out in that first week. Thank you to all of the coaches that were a part of that first weekend and your patience and team work.

This past weekend, we hired several officials to come and assist and we will do the same again this weekend for the 13/14 and 17/18 club tournament at both sites (IVA and Open Court).

That being said, I would like to get some information to all of you that will help you, your team and staff at all venues. By adhering to the guidelines below it will ensure that all will get out of the gym as soon as possible, thus avoiding 12+ hour days in the gym as some of you found out this last weekend.

I would ask that you print this off and keep it in your bag, forward to all of your parents and players and do your very best to do all of the items below. They are in order of how you would start the pool.

Officiating Materials

You will need to have a whistle for you and a whistle for your down official. You will also need a coin to flip with.

Arriving at your court

If you are a team that plays first, begin your general warm up when you arrive
If you are the reffing team for the first match of the pool, follow the guidelines below:

Arrive at the court no later than 20 minutes prior to the start of the pool.
Locate the bag for that court. At IVA, the bag will be on the ref stand. At all other sites, find the site director to receive your bag.
In the bag you will find the game ball, clipboard with scorekeeping instructions, tie breaking procedures and a manila envelope. Inside the envelope you will find the pool sheet along with score sheets and libero tracking sheets. Remove this packet and place on the clipboard.
Completely fill out the score sheet, most importantly to include the court number, pool number, team names, reffing team, tournament name. Make sure that you write the FULL team name on the score sheet as several clubs have multiple teams in an age group.

Starting the Warm up

Captains should be called no later than 10 minutes before the scheduled start time of the pool. So, if the pool starts at 4:00, captains should be called no later than 3:50. Have the players introduce themselves and pick someone to call the coin flip. If you do not have a coin, have the players do paper rock scissors…they always think that is fun. The winner of the toss may choose serve or receive, or they may choose which side they want. The opposing team chooses whichever the winner does not. The serving team will be on the net first for 4 minutes then the receiving team on the net for 4 minutes. The first 4 minutes begins IMMEDIATELY following the captains meeting.

If a team is not there, do not wait for them, start the warm up and follow the “Forfeit Procedure” listed at the end of this document.

During the Warm up

Check to make sure the score sheet is filled out properly
Assure that you have all reffing positions covered (scorekeeper, libero tracker, flip score, down ref and two line judges)
Give teams a 1 minute warning during their warm up
Check to make sure the court is safe and clear to play on

Starting the match

At the conclusion of the warm up, teams have 60 seconds to shag their volleyballs, meet with their coach and line up on the end line.
Up officials blows their whistle for teams to meet at the net and shake hands

Time allotment for time outs and between sets

Time outs are 30 seconds
Time between sets is 3 minutes

Conclusion of the match

Complete the score sheet with scores, team names, etc at the bottom
Fill in the pool sheet with the results of that match

When writing in the scores, write the scores in the appropriate order. For example if the match is 3 vs. 4 and team 4 wins, you would write the scores 22-25, 21-25, keeping the scores in order of which the teams are listed.

Once the score sheet is complete do the following:

If at IVA – put the score sheet in the “completed score sheet” folder that will be either on the ref stand or pole of every court
If not at IVA, give the score sheet to the site director
Then go tend to your duties with your team

If you are the next team to ref – VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!

This section is extremely important and is the one that will keep the play on time and get everyone out of the gym as soon as possible.

If you are the next team to ref please follow these steps carefully.

IMMEDIATELY following the conclusion of the previous match, call captains for the next match and follow the steps above for “Starting the Warm up”. Once you have the warm up going, get your score sheet ready and all logistics to get ready for the match. There should never be more than about 12 minutes AT MOST between the conclusion of one match and the start of the next.
If you are the reffing team and you just played, PLEASE get the warm up going and THEN meet with your team while the next match is warming up.
If a team is not there, do not wait for them, start the warm up and follow the “Forfeit Procedure” listed at the end of this document.

Forfeit Procedure

If a team is not present at the time a match is supposed to start, notify the site director and then follow this procedure:

Begin warm ups as though the team is there.
At the conclusion of the warm up, start your clock. The team that is there will receive 1 point per minute up to 15 minutes. At 15 minutes, set 1 is a forfeit. Then immediately start your clock again. This time it is 1 point per minute up to 8 minutes. At 8 minutes, set 2 is a forfeit and therefore the match.
If the team missing shows up at any point during this time, the match immediately starts with no warm up time for the violating team and the score will start at whatever the time/score is. If they are 7 minutes late in the first set, the score will start 7-0. If the team wants warm up time, they will continue to lose 1 point per minute until they are ready but need to understand that they may go over their time limit and forfeit a set or even the match.
Record the scores, even if a forfeit on the score sheet and begin the next match.